The Benefits of Distance Education, During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Greek Teachers’ Opinions

Abstract

In Greece, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the schools' closure during the 2019-2020 school year. The Ministry of Education tried to develop online platforms so that the students could have access to education. The use of distance learning came to the fore. The teachers used the online teaching tools available as a response to this challenging situation. Nevertheless, most of them had not received any relevant training and had at their disposal minimal resources, mainly of their own and not public ones. A nationwide survey was designed investigating teachers' views on distance learning benefits. 515 teachers working in Greek primary education sector - both at kindergartens and primary schools- participated in the research. Their answers show three main benefits from the distance learning implementation at school education: (a), it enabled some students to access school education. Those students could not otherwise attend school education (b) it contributed to the communication among students as well as between students and teachers, and (c) it increased the ICT use by teachers. Despite these benefits mentioned, teachers stated that distance learning is not a substitute for ordinary classes and face-to-face learning.

The Disadvantages of Distance Education Implementation, During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Greek Teachers’ Opinions

“…Educators concluded that the distance education offered a medium of communicating with their students (Anastasiades, 2020• Manesis et al, 2022. However, it cannot replace the team's dynamics within a school classroom, since it is a lonely method of learning (Ozaydın, Ozkara & Cakir, 2018).…”

“…These students also require a greater effort by the teacher in order to attract and maintain their attention and interest. Since an engagement to pedagogical issues is missing, students end up to simply keep in touch with the school reality (Manesis et al, 2022). In some cases, the students even abandon the course giving different excuses (Niemi & Kousa, 2020).…”

“…Despite its shortcomings and limitations, the distance education implementation during the covid-19 pandemic functioned as a facilitating factor in the learning process. Otherwise, students would have no access in education at all (Burdina, et al, 2019• Manesis, et al 2022• Van Der Spoel et al, 2020 Moreover, the teaching style used was mostly teacher-centered instead of implementing the experiential learning, even though the pedagogy and the structural didactics suggest otherwise. Another difficulty mentioned by the teachers was the students' assessment during the distance education implementation.…”

“…Obviously, instructors did not only mention difficulties or problems in implementing distance education. On the contrary, many studies reported that the instructors found that the distance education significantly contributed to students' access to education (Burdina, Krapotkina & Nasyrova, 2019• Manesis, et al, 2022• Van Der Spoel et al, 2020 to an improvement in communication (Rasmitadila et al, 2020) and to students' digital literacy (Trust & Whalen, 2020). There is no consensus among students and teachers concerning the distance education, as it was implemented during the covid-19 pandemic.…”

Διαφοροποιήσεις Κατά Την Εφαρμογή Των Εκπαιδευτικών Αλλαγών: Απόψεις Εκπαιδευτικών

“…Το Υπουργείο Παιδείας ζήτησε να αξιοποιηθούν οι πλατφόρμες (e-me, eclass) για την παροχή εκπαίδευσης, χωρίς όμως να έχει προετοιμάσει κατάλληλα και εγκαίρως τα σχολεία και τους/τις εκπαιδευτικούς. Οι εκπαιδευτικοί για διάφορους λόγους (προβλήματα υποδομών, πεποιθήσεις, άγνοια, έλλειψη επιμόρφωσης), αν και αμφισβήτησαν έντονα την παροχή εξ αποστάσεως εκπαίδευσης, επειδή αντιλήφθηκαν ως εξέχουσα την ανάγκη να προσφέρουν στήριξη στους/στις μαθητές/μαθήτριες, προσαρμόστηκαν, και χωρίς να λάβουν υπόψη τον χρόνο, τον κόπο, τα προσωπικά έξοδα, αφού η διαδικασία πραγματοποιήθηκε κυρίως με ίδια μέσα, χρησιμοποίησαν κάθε πρόσφορο μέσο που είχαν στη διάθεσή τους (αποστολή ασκήσεων με τα μέσα κοινωνικής δικτύωσης, φύλλα εργασίας που έπαιρναν οι γονείς από το σχολείο, απλή τηλεφωνική επικοινωνία με τις οικογένειες), για να επικοινωνήσουν με τους/τις μαθήτριες/μαθητές και όχι μόνο τις προτεινόμενες πλατφόρμες (Manesis et al, 2022).…”