Distance Education During Covid-19: The Perspective of Slovak Teachers

Abstract

As the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (causing COVID-19) has begun to spread around the world, education has taken the form of distance education from one day to the next. To this day, little is known about distance education during the pandemic period from teachers’ point of view, so the study focused on perception and management of distance education in primary school (primary and lower secondary education) and upper-secondary school (upper secondary education) teachers; and the main aim was to explore the connection between teaching experience, personality traits, and emotions of teachers and their perception and management of distance education during the coronavirus pandemic. The research sample consisted of 379 teachers (89.7% women) aged 23 – 70 years (M = 44.91; SD = 10.38). They completed the questionnaire which consisted of: demographic questions, questions related to perception and management of distance education, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule and the Big Five Inventory 2. During the pandemic period, the negative emotions of teachers increased while positive emotions decreased; distance education was closely related to emotions (and changes in emotions) and personality; moreover, teachers reported willingness to implement partial changes into their teaching after the pandemic period.

Evaluating Distance Education in Serbia During the Covid-19 Pandemic

“…Some of them were forced to, over a very short period of time, learn how to use the most modern educational technology for distance education, to use tools to design educational material (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), and to under inadequate circumstances (problems regarding the availability of technology) prepare educational material which was electronically sent to their students. In addition, in some cases there was a lack of support from the educational environment, and the teachers were often, due to an increased workload and problems pertaining to the preparation of educational material, exposed to stress (Ballova Mikuškova & Verešova, 2020;Lautenbach & Randell, 2020;Wilson & Christopher, 2008). This was also confirmed by the research results of the Institute for the Improvement of Education of the Republic of Serbia.…”

When we are worried, what are we thinking? Anxiety, lack of control, and conspiracy beliefs amidst the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…In Slovakia, where the present study was conducted, almost 40% of a representative sample reported feeling very threatened by the COVID-19, with higher levels of perceived threat reported especially by women and older people (MNFORCE et al, 2020). A survey with Slovak teachers reported an overall increase in negative feelings (e.g., feeling upset, scared, afraid) during the COVID-19 pandemic period (Ballová Mikušková & Verešová, 2020). A recent meta-analysis shows the prevalence of anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic to be almost 32% (Salari et al, 2020) based on samples from all over the world.…”

The Psychological and Behavioral Patterns of Online Psychological Help-Seekers before and during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Text Mining-Based Longitudinal Ecological Study

“…Explicit danger such COVID-19 paired with uncertainty is known to be associated with increased negative emotions and anxiety [ 31 , 32 ]. A survey of Slovak teachers reported an overall increase in negative feelings (e.g., feeling upset, scared, afraid) during the COVID-19 pandemic period [ 33 ]. Symptoms such as anxiety, depression, fear, stress, and sleep problems were also seen more frequently during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 34 ], and a recent meta-analysis showed the prevalence of anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic to be almost 32% [ 2 ] based on samples from all over the world.…”