Chapter 5- Results and discussion
5.3 Section 2- Secondary teachers’ perceptions on reopened schools
5.3.3 Problems faced while conducting offline classes
Due to COVID-19 transmission, all the educational institutions around the world were compelled to shut down and shifted to online education. However, after conducting classes for more than two years in online mode, it is quite obvious that after going back to face-to-face classes, teachers will face some problems getting used to traditional classes. Teachers in their interviews mentioned some of the problems they faced during the initial classes of face-to-face faces. Those problems include maintaining disciple in offline classes, losing track of speech while taking classes, and preparing new lesson plans for reopened classes. These problems will be elaborately discussed in this portion of the chapter.
5.3.3.1 Maintaining discipline in offline classes
Among various problems which teachers faced while conducting classes just after reopening schools one of the big challenges was maintaining discipline in the face-to-face classes.
Students were not attending offline classes for more than two years and in the meantime, they had to accustomed to online classes which were completely new for both teachers and students of Bangladesh. During online classes they had liberties in various aspects for example- they could attend the classes from their home at their ease, they were not observed all the time by
the teacher, also they had the opportunities to rewatch the lectures with recordings. These opportunities were not there in the offline classes. Hence when they came back to the offline classes, they were looking for those opportunities and having relaxed classes which they used to do during online classes. As a result, they were not able to concentrate in their class. In this regard, Rahim one of the teacher participants said that he was very happy to resume his classes.
However, after passing sometime in the class he realized that most of the students have forgotten the classroom ethics. They are busy talking with their friends whom they are meeting after so many days. He understands those emotions of students. Besides, students completely forgot that they are in their class and their teacher is in front of them. Even with warnings they are not listening to him, it was getting difficult to manage the classroom discipline. Eventually to maintain the discipline he had to be strict and give punishment for extreme behaviour.
Another interviewee Fariha mentioned,
One thing was quite surprising that after the pandemic I considered the students for two to three days, I thought since they met after so long, I could be flexible for a few days. To my utter surprise they are not stopping gossiping even after four/five days.
More astonishing thing was students who were quite obedient earlier they were also behaving in the same manner. As a result, I had to shout to make them stop and give punishments where necessary though I did not want to do that (DU FAR 25).
From the above-mentioned discussion, it is quite clear that after the reopening of the schools managing the classroom became the new headache for the teachers as most students became disobedient due to the long gap from academic discipline.
5.3.3.2 Anxiety while delivering lectures in face-to-face classes
Along with maintaining discipline teachers faced another problem in the reopened classes that is losing track of speech in the middle of giving lectures. In the online mode some teachers provided recorded lectures, some gave live lectures. In case of online classes since students were not in front of them and they could conduct the classes at their ease, in that way taking classes was easier for them specially if they are novice teachers. Also, after taking online classes for so long, when they will have sudden change in their mode of classes, it is quite obvious to have some problems. Whereas students are facing problems in the reopened classes only to understand and attending the classes, there teachers are the ones who will prepare the lesson plans, lectures, delivering those, clearing students' doubts- to do all of these in a different environment would be bit challenging for them it is quite normal. In this regard, Fariha a teacher participant commented,
I was facing difficulty while delivering lectures. I kept forgetting what I wanted to say in the middle of the lectures for the first few days. I was quite nervous in the initial days of reopened classes (DU FAR 50).
Then the researcher asked what could be the reasons she thinks for these problems. In the response she said that maybe after a long time she was giving face to face lectures that is why she was struggling to give lectures. Wakui, Abe, Shirozu, Yamamoto, Yamamura, Abe and Kikuchi (2021) in their paper stated that anxiety as one of the reasons for which teachers might face difficulty in the post covid situation while delivering lectures. Another interviewee Rahim said that he feels anxiety while giving lectures in the first few weeks. In addition, he mentioned that while giving lectures on the online platforms he never felt like this. Therefore, anxiety could be the reason behind his difficulty in delivering lectures.
From the above-mentioned discussion, it could be noticed that after the reopening of the schools some of the teachers faced difficulty to deliver lectures in front of the students and possible reasons for the problem could be anxiety and taking offline classes after a long gap.
5.3.3.3 Preparing new lesson plans for reopened classes
Another major challenge faced by the teachers is preparing new lesson plans for reopened face to face classes. According to Akçayır and Akçayı (2018) preparing lessons plans for classes is one of the difficult tasks for novice teachers. Due to COVID-19 outburst when the whole education system went to online format, since in Bangladesh online education was not practised much, teachers as well as students had to struggle a lot to cope up with the big change. For online teaching, teachers had to prepare themselves in a different way to conduct classes in online platforms. Also, they had to prepare lesson plans and activities which would be suitable for online classes. With lots of challenges when they finally got accustomed with the online teaching, sudden declaration of government to reopen the schools changed all of their plans.
For reopened offline classes they had to prepare themselves and their teaching materials once again according to face to face setting. As a result, when the researcher asked the teacher participants about the problems they faced while conducting traditional offline classes. In the response, all the teachers mentioned that they faced problems to create new lesson plans, activities, lectures according to offline context. They also had to struggle to implement the new lesson plans and activities in the reopened classes. The teachers in their interviews stated that they were not being able to maintain the class time according to their lesson plans. For example, one of the teacher interviewee Fariha said,
I had prepared new lesson plans for reopened offline classes, but I was struggling to complete the tasks and assigned lesson within the time which I had decided for the lesson plan (DU FAR 59).
She also told that one of the main reasons for her not being able to follow her lesson plan was for maintaining discipline of the class. The students in the reopened classes totally forgot their manners of class. Even with warning they continue to gossiping with their friends. As a result, to make them stop the teachers had to struggles for completing the assigned lessons for the day.
From the above-mentioned discussion, it can be said that the main problems teachers faced in offline classes were maintaining discipline in classes, anxiety while delivering lectures and preparing new lesson plans, implementing those in the reopened classes. Also, it is clear that these problems were faced by them because of having offline classes after long time, difference of online and offline classes and having different activities, practices of online classes for long time as well as for disobedient students.