The total number of respondents: teacher (N=741, covering primary and secondary education); parents (N=145, with different educational backgrounds). The research participants came from 16 different provinces. The subjects of teacher participants teaching cover Chinese language arts, math, biology, chemistry, physics, geography, history etc. Since the purpose of the current study is picturing emergency remote teaching-learning in China responding to COVID-19 pandemic, the researcher highlighted the perspectives of teachers’ and parents’ reflections and feedback on ERT. Therefore, the differences among 16 provinces, parents’ demographic information, the different subject learning contents, and the differences among teachers between primary schools and secondary schools wouldn’t be the concern in the current study.
The respondents provided qualitative comments to the four questions in the questionnaires. Their comments and viewpoints enriched our understanding the emergency remote teaching-learning. Their responses expressed the following themes: a) educational technology; b) quality of remote teaching-learning; c) remote teaching different from face-to-face teaching; d) student self-discipline; e) necessary professional development for teachers.
Widely various educational technologies applied in emergency remote teaching-learning
The commonly used educational technology platforms and tools for teachers’ remoting teaching included DingTalk (Alibaba), Tencent (live streaming classes, WeChat apps for assignment collection and grading or feedback; QQ instant message; QQ classroom), Classin and SeeWo (EasiCare 班级优化大师). The teacher participants also used various software for developing their own multimedia lessons. They also used the accessible online mini-lessons or mini-lecture videos (微课平台) and online educational resources in their own teaching, such as zxxk.com (学科网),zhiue.com(智学网), provincial TV broadcasting classes, koolearn.com (新东方在线教育), etc. Teachers from the same province didn’t use the same remote teaching platforms and resources. This brings the challenge for teaching evaluation in emergency remote mode.
Factors impacting the quality of emergency remote teaching-learning
Parents’ viewpoints
Parents participants pinpointed the challenges for the quality of emergency remote teaching. First, remote teaching is incomparable to face-to-face teaching. In the remote teaching-learning, teachers used limited interactive online instructional strategies to motive and engage students into learning. Some parents expected teachers using skillful questioning strategies and frequent checking-in with students for ensuring their attention in learning. Some parents suggested to use synchronous video conference for monitoring students’ learning. Some parents suggested teachers giving positive reinforcement for encouraging and engaging students into learning. In addition, the humor language and creative teaching strategies would be helpful for enhancing students’ interest in learning. Compared to face-to-face teaching, the learning contents in remote mode couldn’t be taught in great detailed way. Parents complaint that students were easily lost. If students can’t understand teacher’s teaching and their problems can’t be solved immediately, the quality of remote teaching-learning would be degraded.
Secondly, glitchy technology for online classroom and unstable internet connection greatly impacted the quality of remote teaching-learning. For example, parents complained about live classes and microphone offline. That greatly impacted the teaching and learning efficiency. Parents also pointed out that it was overwhelming for students taking the class and finishing other learning activities such as assignments and quiz on different platforms. Students and their parents were really confused. Some parents suggested using a well-developed learning management system in which students can finish all learning activities along with teachers’ monitor.
Thirdly, teachers couldn’t monitor and assess students learning outcome in a formative and effective way due to the limited instruction time in remote mode. Teachers had no extra time to meet students’ individual needs in learning. Some parents said that teachers had no way to do whole class assessment and individual assessment for ensuring students learning outcomes like what they did in face-to-face classes. If students didn’t ask questions after each remote class, teachers had no way to effectively evaluate whether their students understood the learning content or not.
Teachers’ viewpoints
For teacher participants, the primary factors impacted the quality of remote teaching consist of: 1) remote classroom management; 2) inadequate competence of teaching online 3) not finding effective way of doing the whole class assessment or formative assessment; 4) heavy and multilayered workload; 5) hard to meet all students learning needs.
Firstly, teachers encountered the big challenge of classroom management. Teachers said that it was hard to monitor students in remote learning. Some students pushed back against learning in remote mode such as late or no submission of required assignment, silence or “disappearance” in class interactions with teachers and other students. Teachers pointed out students lack of self-discipline in remote learning would greatly impact their learning outcomes. They called parents and students or kept communication with them via social media “WeChat” with regards to engaging students into learning.
Secondly, teachers identified their inadequate competence of teaching online. For example, some teachers expected to have developed the capability of using ed-tech software to develop multimedia lectures for remote teaching. Normally, teachers learned from their colleagues about the new software or apps for creating multimedia lectures. They also noticed that they were not well-prepared for teaching online. For example, some teachers encountered teaching time management issue in remote teaching mode. Some teachers encountered the online interaction issues while some teachers encountered the issues of online interactive strategies, and the strategies for monitoring students’ learning and engaging students into learning.
Thirdly, teachers didn’t find the effective way of doing the whole class assessment or formative assessment. Due to short of time in remote teaching, teachers either didn’t find the effective way of giving immediate feedbacks to students’ learning and create the immediate interactions and communication with students and their parents. Ensuring students’ quality of remote learning, teachers pointed out the importance of cooperation with parents who could monitor their children’s learning at home in synchronous online class. Teachers expected to know more about students learning through the communications with parents.
Fourthly, workload was heavy. Time was consuming for creating multimedia lectures, looking for the available online resources for lecture preparation, and grading assignments. Some teachers said that some of the learning content were hardly clarified in online mode. They had to offer additional offline tutoring. In most cases, teachers tutored students individually and with small groups.
Fifth, it was hard to meet all students learning needs. Some teachers highlighted the importance of student’s self-discipline in remote teaching and learning. For the students with great self-discipline, they could follow the instructions. For the students with poor self-discipling ability, teachers needed to teach them self-discipline. In the remote large-size class with most of students at the two ends of the learning ability spectrum, meeting all students learning needs would be impossible.
Remote teaching different from face-to-face teaching in three ways
According to parent participants’ and teacher participants’ viewpoints, remote teaching is different from face-to-face teaching in the following perspectives: instructional language different; instructional strategies different; interaction and communication different; role of teachers and parents changing.
Some parents and teachers specifically stated the arts of language in remote teaching, including teacher’s ability of well-organizing their language in the instruction and oral presentation skills. The teacher’s lectures are expected to be interesting, innovative and attractive aiming at engaging students into learning in online context. What type language in remote teaching can be defined as “interesting, innovative and attractive” should be studied in future. Parents also mentioned that teachers’ oral presentation/ lecture should go smoothly without nonsense words or the words/topics distracting student attention. In addition, what the “arts of language” in remote teaching refers to is not clear yet.
The research participants had a common viewpoint about instructional strategy for remote teaching different from that in face-to-face teaching in brick-and-mortar classrooms. In the remote teaching, teaching is student-centered. The interactive instruction and immediate feedback are expected. The various and flexible instructional strategies and the teaching-learning contents presented with multiple formats are necessary for motivating and engaging students into learning. In this process, teachers are required being patient and patient. Teachers are required to follow students learning pace. Some teachers defined these as the role of teachers changing.
The research participants thought interaction and communication different in remote teaching. In remote teaching-learning, they emphasized the necessary for teachers to integrate interactive learning activities and give special attention to creating more opportunities for interactions and dialogue between teachers and students. Different from face-to-face teaching, teachers need the intentional and thoughtful plan for instructional design aiming at developing a learning community via effective communication and interactions between teachers and students.
The research participants also mentioned the roles of teachers and parents in remote teaching-learning different from their roles in face-to-face classrooms in two ways. First, besides teaching online, teachers were expected to tutoring students’ learning offline via social media. Besides teaching academics, teachers were expected to be social emotional educators and psychologists who can take care students’ mental health and take intervention actions when their students suffer from the depress induced by the COVID-19 pandemic and the social isolation induced by “stay-at-home” policy. Meanwhile, parents’ role changed as well. Parents became the supervisors and facilitators of student learning. Sometimes, these parents became tutors when their children couldn’t understand teacher’s teaching. Or they sought for online resources for helping their children. Sometimes, the parents became coordinators of the remote teaching-learning. They bridged the gap between their children and teachers, especially their younger age children. Parents helped their children submitting assignments to the designated platforms. They also helped their children scheduling virtual meeting time for asking teachers questions. However, parents and teachers both felt powerless when children had worse self-discipline in remote learning.
Student’s self-discipline in emergency remote learning
The parent participants were concerned about their children’s self-discipline ability in remote learning. The parents argued that remote learning is fine for well self-disciplined students while it is challenging for students without or with worse self-discipline ability. They even believed that students with worse self-disciplinary ability would learn nothing in remote teaching-learning. They viewed that “self-discipline ability” can widen the learning gap between students with good self-discipline ability and those with worse self-discipline ability. For the quality of remote teaching and learning, parents’ supervising and teachers’ monitoring are always expected.
Necessary professional development for teachers
Teacher participants didn’t receive the professional training for remote teaching. Inexperience of teachers in emergency remote teaching felt powerless in classroom management. They also felt poor-prepared for remote teaching in terms of designing interactive teaching and learning. The teacher participants indicated the necessary professional development for online teaching in the following perspectives: the techniques for (synchronous and asynchronous) online classroom management; the skills and strategies for interactive learning and online interactions with students; the techniques and strategies for engaging students into learning such as effective online teaching; the techniques and the strategies for whole class assessment and individual student assessment in online classes; the techniques for giving meaningful feedback; the instructional technology application in teaching and learning, especially the software for mini-lecture development; mental health education.