Teaching Amidst the Pandemic: Exploring the Perceptions and Experiences of Teachers in Remote Rural Municipalities in the Philippines

Abstract

The world has been shaken by the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has resulted in a dramatic loss of human life and poses an unprecedented challenge to almost all aspects of life, and the Philippines has not been an exception to these challenges. As a result, this deadly situation has flipped the offline teaching process and paved the way towards online-based teaching. This study was conducted to determine the perceptions and experiences of teachers in the remote areas towards online teaching. This study employed a cross-sectional explanatory research design and the analyses reveal that respondents with "high" technological proficiency are more likely to have a "positive" attitude toward online education whereas respondents with "poor" technological skills are more likely to have a "negative" attitude toward online learning. This strongly suggest that educational leaders may venture on training teachers on how to develop their technological knowledge and skills since it has a significant impact to their attitude towards online teaching. Moreover, further analysis also reveals that the relationship between teacher-respondents’ perceptions towards online teaching and their technological knowledge and skills was statistically significant. It is also recommended that training in online teaching needs to be provided to teachers to widen their understanding of online teaching.

Students’ Level of Engagement in Learning Technology and Livelihood Education in Blended Learning Modality

“…Despite such, all the three indicators yielded a high description. These results are consistent with Legarde and Sumandal's (2022) research, which found that behavioral engagement obtained the highest mean rating among the Grade 7 and 8 students at Palawan State University-Laboratory High School.…”

“…During those years, learning practical lessons became a challenge. It was believed that the level of engagement and academic accomplishment of students would be impaired as a result of the abrupt changes they experienced from traditional face-to-face learning to alternative delivery modes (Legarde and Sumandal, 2022). Sousa (2016) defined student engagement as the amount of attention, interest, curiosity, and positive emotional connections that students have when they are learning whether in the classroom or on their own.…”