Teaching and Learning Sciences within the Covid-19 Pandemic Era in a Greek University Department

Abstract

Around the globe Covid-19 pandemic has influenced not only the education, but also our everyday life, among other aspects. In Greece, distance learning started to get in use widely in tertiary education, since the first national lockdown was announced and reshaped education in many ways. In the University of Thessaly, in the Department of Mathemat­ics, undergraduate students opt for a lot of different courses to attend and due to the Covid-19 crisis all of them are taught via web platforms. Some of the most significant theoreti­cal subjects are «Calculus» (with applications in Science and Mechanics), «Physics» (Classi­cal Mechanics) and «Philosophy of Science». In addition, some other applied subjects are «Programming Languages» and «Digital Technologies in Mathematics Education» and the impact the above have, generally in edu­cation and society itself. In this paper, we describe the different ways students have re­acted regarding learning Sciences in a distance learning environment. We split our case study in two parts. The first one is about the way students experience e-learning and the second one is about their suggestions for the next day. Integrating e-questionnaires and interviews and taking into account parameters like economic factors and the permanent residence issue, we asked the students about their preferences among face-to-face learning, distance learning and a blended model. Remarks about the academic life and the possible ways of taking the extra step, after the Covid-19 crisis ceases to exist, are made.

Investigating the effectiveness of flipped classroom model in a mathematics education course in Greece

“…and are familiar with ICT. This is also confirmed by a recent survey conducted at the same university department (see Rizos & Gkrekas, 2022), according to which the vast majority of students during e-learning were systematically experiencing technical problems with low internet speed and other network errors. Moreover, for teachers, the selection and development of appropriate digital material is a generally demanding process that requires knowledge and long preparation (for example, we spent more than a week on the design and construction of the teaching material), while for learners, depending on how they manage personalized learning, there is a small but real risk of replacing knowledge with skills and visualized information.…”

“…However, we cannot exclude the fact that many students find it difficult to respond to the study of the pre-class material, which requires spending time in front of a computer screen, because they are exhausted of the extensive use of electronic devices during the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown. This phenomenon has been observed in a recent research in the same university department (see Rizos & Gkrekas, 2022) and relates to the skepticism with which some students view technology. More specifically, if the use of technology in recent years had not been so extensive due to distance learning (and working), students would appreciate its abilities, but after using it for more than eight hours a day for about two years it seems like torture to them.…”

“…Moreover, they had gained significant experience in e-learning, and they had already been examined remotely five times (June and September 2020, January, June, and September 2021) using MS Forms, eClass, etc. at their institution (see Rizos & Gkrekas, 2022).…”

“…Within the COVID-19 pandemic, many university institutions have encountered obstacles in providing quality education or even suspended their operation due to a lack of technological infrastructure, while others saw the crisis as an opportunity to adapt their pedagogical methods appropriately and to create or extend innovative and flexible learning approaches (Crawford et al, 2020;Divjak et al, 2022;Lassoued et al, 2020;Rizos & Gkrekas, 2022). One such innovative teaching approach, which has recently caught much attention, is the so called "flipped classroom".…”

Incorporating history of mathematics in open-ended problem solving: An empirical study

“…Another one important factor was that the participants were our students, so we were able to know, at least to some extent, that they were of different educational and sociocultural levels, with various scientific interests and extracurricular activities. All of them were familiar with technology, had social media profiles and were able to use their mobile phones and tablets easily (Rizos & Gkrekas, 2022a).…”