CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.0 Introduction
4.2 DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION OF PARTICIPANTS
4.3.3 Research Question 2: How teacher trainees overcome the obstacles faced when conducting their online classes during the pandemic?
The data collected have several emerged themes that will be stated in a table below. There are a total of 8 Challenges and 28 solutions.
Table 4.3.3 Solutions on how teacher trainees overcome the challenges they faced when conducting their online classes during the pandemic.
Challenges Solutions
Internet Issue • Provide materials beforehand
• Use personal data
• Teammates assist member with internet issue
• Manually group students into breakout rooms
• Move to places with stronger internet connection
Responses, Engagement, and participation issue
• Make lessons interesting - Use audio-visual
• Provide topic of interest
• Ensure lessons are engaging
• Provide attendance with the requirement of completed task
• Ensure task difficulty up to students’ standard
• Constant questioning and calling students’
name
Communication Issue • Utilize close ended questions
• Utilize chat box
• Utilize virtual gestures
• Gamification method
• Conduct ice breaking session with students IT illiterate & Technology Accessibility
issue
• upload google form instead of Word document
• Create whatsapp group to upload materials Attendance issue • Remind students on telegram to attend class
• Be strict on 1st day
• Peer pressure, ask students to call their friends into the classroom
English Language proficiency issue • Provide English grammar exercise
• Provide simple reading text
• Prioritize understanding instead of problem solving tasks
Classroom Management • Ensure students’ environment is quiet
• Ask students to communicate with teacher Lack of online teaching experiences • Search online for ideas
• Ask colleagues for opinions
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Table 4.3.3 presents the overall findings of the challenges faced by the English language teacher trainees when conducting their online classes during the covid-19 pandemic and the solutions they utilized to resolve the issues.
4.3.3.1 Solving Internet Issues
The issue with internet connectivity has been quite a hassle for most practical teachers during their teaching practicum because this problem affected their teaching practice on a different level. Due to internet issue, some students either could not access the learning materials or get kicked out from breakout rooms during group discussions. Therefore, some respondents stated several solutions that they could execute based on their own capability. The first solution for internet issue is to provide materials beforehand. One of the respondents stated that due to internet issue, she could not conduct collaborative learning. Therefore, she used flip learning by providing learning materials earlier for the students to familiarized themselves with the topic before the class started. This is evident base on the statement shown below.
Uh, during that time, during my teaching practice I did not conduct any collaborative learning when I had my online teaching because most of my students, they actually were having internet connectivity issue. That’s why I couldn’t incorporate this thing in my learning. During that time what I can do is I, I think I did a little bit of flip learning which means like I provided them the materials earlier, like I show like maybe I gave them the topic, the worksheet and then let them familiarize the topic first and during the class, I can discuss with them.
(Respondent 1, page 2, paragraph 3) Besides that, another solution was to use personal cellular data. The respondent stated that she used her own data to conduct the online lessons. This can be seen in the excerpt presented below.
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Ohh for the Internet connectivity. Uh. First, because the online learning is when I have the online teaching is around one week, if I'm not mistaken, it's only one week, so that one week I have to I had to attend to my school so which meant that. I have to use my own data.
(Respondent 9, page 4, paragraph 4) Next, when students had internet issue during activities, one of the practical teacher came up with the solution of asking the teammates to assist the member with internet issue and present the answers. This is apparent in the response below.
So this issue actually it kind of out of my hand because I can't go into their home and then adjust their Internet speed. So I just basically uh asked them. So maybe, like uh, for example, one team, one of the Member has problem with connection, so I'll just ask his members to discuss with him through WhatsApp. Instead of the online lesson. So that he still can get. Involved in the lesson. Although he can’t present, his friend will present on his behalf.
(Respondent 11, page 4, paragraph 5) During online group activities, practical teachers would assign students into breakout rooms for them to discuss the tasks. However, there are certain students who have issues with the connection and get kicked out from the rooms. Therefore, one of the respondents solve this issue by manually separate the students to their breakout rooms. This can be seen in the responses presented below.
Umm, the challenge that I face during this online lesson for this collaborative learning is that when I try to separate them into the breakout rooms, that some of the students with bad Internet connection will tend to lose connection during the process of changing breakout rooms. So they would like disconnect from the rooms
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and there won't be able to connect to the room again. So I Manually separate them again.
(Respondent 12, page 2,paragraph 10) The last solution for internet issue is to move to places with stronger internet connection. In terms of teacher’s internet connectivity, some area in the schools have slow connection, hence the practical teacher had to shift places with better connection to ensure that their online classes proceed smoothly. However, this is only applicable to the teacher whereas the students’ have to deal with their own internet issue. This is evident in the following statement.
Ohh, I'd first the Internet connection problem is really serious, but after that I tried to move to other places that the connection will be stronger then. I mean, for my part, I still can handle like this, but for students they can't. Since, uh, some of them might just leave the meeting due to Internet connection. So I can't do much here even after I try. Yeah
(Respondent 7, page 5, paragraph 4) As a conclusion, the effect caused by internet connectivity could be resolve several solutions such as with the practical teachers providing materials to the students beforehand and use their own personal data for better internet connectivity.
4.3.3.2 Solving Responses, Engagement, and Participation Issues.
Online classes vary from physical classes in a sense that students have more freedom in terms of paying attention and completing tasks and assignments. Therefore, there would always exists students who does not respond, engage, or participate in online activities. This has been quite a challenge for most practical teachers and thus, the first solution they came up with was to
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make the lessons interesting by using audio-visual materials. This is evident from the responses stated below.
Texting them and reminding them on the telegram to tell them to attend class later and try to provide some video clips to tell them that, to make it more interesting, I would say..
(Respondent 2, page 3, paragraph 7) Audio-visual materials, uh, I tried to incorporate more sound cause. Uh, instead of just hearing my voice, I felt like letting them hear like songs and all this like other sounds would make the lesson more interesting. And because the students. They themselves have said that they are Umm, interested in learning in new English songs, so searching for those like audio visual materials like songs. Uh, yeah.
Basically songs that relates to the lesson theme was really helpful.
(Respondent 14, page 3, paragraph 5) Besides that, other respondent also stated that they tried to provide topic of interest instead of just force feeding the students. The practical teacher allowed the students to choose the topic in the syllabus to ensure flexibility. This is evident in the response presented below.
Uh, I would usually give a because I divide the groups right for collaborative learning, so I will usually give topics of interest of the students based on what I teach I observe. So I give them topics of interest or at times I might even prompt them like I asked them. OK, these are the list of things. Which one you think you are able to do and which is interested in of course. Everything that I give them is. Based on whether it's measurable, you know I should be able. There is a standard lab, but based on what I set, I ask them to choose instead of me, you know, just force feeding
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them. I asked them to choose so they have a flexibility. So that works like to a certain extent.
(Respondent 5, page 6, paragraph 8) In order to attract students attention during online lessons, one of the respondents stated that she had to ensure the lessons are engaging. The lesson are more towards students-centered which gives students the opportunity to try and complete the tasks. This was reported as shown below.
Uh, basically, I would try to make the lesson more engaging and make it more students-centered so that it gives the opportunity for our students to try, and sometimes calling out the student and prompting them with examples would also give them the confidence to, you know, at least try in class rather than just remaining passive. And even though sometimes they do know the answer, but they tend to remain silent because they don't have the confidence.
(Respondent 8, page 5, paragraph 7) Besides that, another solution is to use attendance whereby practical teachers provide attendance with the requirement of completing tasks. By ‘threatening’ the students with attendance, they would have no option but to complete the homework in order to not be marked as absent. This is apparent from the responses below.
And what I usually uh. Do is I would tell them like if you. Finish your task. Then I will give you attendance. If you don't finish your task then I won't give attendance.
(Respondent 5, page 6, paragraph 4)
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for improving the attendance is to only give attendance to the students who are active and participate in class. So this way students will actually start participating in the class actively so that they will get their attendance.
(Respondent 8, page 3, paragraph 7) Other than that, practical teachers also had to ensure that the difficulty of tasks given is up to the students standard so that the assignments are not too hard for the students to complete them.
Uh, make sure to make sure that the task itself is within the students ability to be done online is some of the ways that I use to solve this challenge.
(Respondent 8, page 4, paragraph 9) Lastly, constant questioning and calling the students’ name is another way to ensure that the students participate and get engaged with the lessons. This is evident in the responses presented below.
Alright, ensure that the students are there and very actively whereby when I ask questions and they are willing to answer, this is where I feel that they are there and we are able to communicate more.
(Respondent 2, page 6, paragraph 8) Like what I say, I just call them by their name and then I will try to encourage them to use their mic to give me some response.
(Respondent 7, page 6, paragraph 6) In conclusion, these practical teachers have to make their lessons more engaging and interesting in order to attract the students’ attention to participate in the activity during online classes while making sure that task given are not too hard for the students to complete.
59 4.3.3.3 Solving Communication Issues
Communication between teachers and students is very important to ensure a good learning environment, be it physical or online lessons. However, during online lessons, practical teachers seem to be having major issue of communicating with their students. This led to the teacher being unable to assess students’ comprehension of the lesson. Therefore, the solution these practical teachers came up with was to utilize close-ended questions, questions that is answered with only yes or no answers. This would make it easier for the students to at least respond. This is apparent in the response shown below.
I think I tried to use close-ended questions like they only need to answer me yes or no. and from there when they felt that it was something easier to answer, then they show their willingness to give responses and from that responses only I initiate discussion.
(Respondent 1, page 4, paragraph 2) Besides that, to ensure two-communication is established during online lessons, these practical teachers also made students to utilize the chat box as a means of reply. Since most students do not turn on their microphone and camera to respond, utilizing chat box is an alternative way to ensure there exists interaction between teacher and students. This is evident in the excerpt shown below.
How I solved uh this matter is. Sometimes I call your names randomly and asked them to share, so when I call them randomly they tried to speak because they don't want to volunteer themselves. So I randomly call them and asked them to share their opinions in. If they are shy, I asked them to provide their opinions in chat box or else they have to unmute their mic and speak to me.
(Respondent 3, page 5, paragraph 6)
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I solve this matter by asking the students to type their answers. Or all like reply in the chat box instead.
(Respondent 6, page,5, paragraph 4) Other than that, there is also a way to ensure that the students do communicate with the teacher by utilizing virtual gestures. With the function of virtual gestures, practical teachers are able to witness some responses from the students. This is obvious through the interview transcript presented below.
How I solved it was I tried to use more like virtual gestures for example using the raise hand tool. And then I make sure that, uh, at least more than half, or almost all the students raised their hands, stand on the can, move on to the next part.
(Respondent 14, page 6, paragraph 1) As the lessons conducted is through online platform, these practical teachers are able to attract the students’ responses through virtual games in the online activities. By using gamification method, students would have an interest to reply and participate in the class. This can be seen from the responses presented below.
OK, the two communication, so mainly the two-way communication is that because when I'm asking mostly I want to make sure of their understanding, do they really understand what I'm teaching? So how did I solve this is like, I would create a quiz mostly with Kahoot or Quizziz that that, that are interesting. So the students, most of my students will participate that Quiz yeah. Because they found that It's like a game, so they like it. Instead of turning on their mic. yeah.
(Respondent 9, page 9, paragraph 5)
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When students are familiar with the teacher, they naturally open up and communicate with their teachers. Therefore, one of the practical teachers conducted an ice breaking session with the students during the first day of teaching. This is to ensure that the students are familiar with their teacher and do not shy away from asking questions. This is can be seen in the evidence below.
The teacher and student should have a good communication in order to have the established over there because it without the communication we cannot establish anything over the end our outcome or objective will not achieve that. So before that maybe 1 slot have to be an ice breaking session with the student so that they get to know well with their teacher and maybe 2 slot also is enough until we mingle with the students and the students are comfortable with the teachers.
(Respondent 10, page 5, paragraph 4) In conclusion, the issue with communication can be resolve with practical teachers utilizing close-ended questions in order to make it easier for the students to answer the teachers. Besides that, utilizing the chat box and virtual gestures are also other solutions which the practical teachers executed when conducting online classes.
4.3.3.4 Solving IT illiterate and Technology Accessibility Issue
Online lessons mean utilizing technology such as online platform which varies like Microsoft Teams or Google Meet. To utilize these application, one needs a suitable device, and this is an issue which most students face whereby they do not have the proper device to access these online platforms. Therefore, through analysis the interview responses, there were two solutions to solve this issue. The first solution is to upload google form instead of Word document.
Without creating lesson materials that requires good devices like laptop, the students are still able to access them through smartphones. This is apparent in the statement below.
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Well because a lot of my students they did not have computer or laptop so they were using phone to connect to classes. So like for example, I need to put my questions in google form, instead of sending them the entire Microsoft word file.
(Respondent 1, page 3, paragraph 4) Online tools such as Padlet, when I teach using Padlet, like some of them like will come to me and say they couldn't access because they are phone couldn't support the Padlet app. Like because like to solve this issue like I put the uh questions or activities into a word file instead and like send it to the WhatsApp group so that they can know what is the activity that I conduct.
(Respondent 6, page 7, paragraph 5) The second solution is to create Whatsapp group to upload materials through the phone. This way all the students would be able to have access of the lesson materials. This is apparent through the responses presented below.
so like to solve this issue and then I create a WhatsApp group for the class so that the students like they did not like miss out any lesson info or homework like every time after I end the lesson I would like upload the PowerPoint slides and the worksheet in the WhatsApp group and like ohh furthermore and like some of the students they like cannot access the.
(Respondent 6, page 7, paragraph 4) As a conclusion, IT illiterate and technology issue can be solved by having the practical teachers to upload homework as a google form instead of word document as well as to create Whatsapp group to upload the learning materials.
63 4.3.3.5 Solving Attendance Issue
Students not attending online classes has also been quite a hassle for most practical teacher because the are not enough number of students to conduct the planned activities. Therefore, 3 solutions emerged to handle the issue. The two simultaneous solution is to keep reminding the students to attend the class through telegram as well as to be strict on the first day of teaching.
With reminders, students would at least remember to attend the online classes. This is evident in statement below.
I think attendance. I would say that be strict on the 1st day be strict. Yeah. And then always try to remind on telegram as much as possible and maybe try to conduct meetings but have to be understanding that some students do not have a proper Wi- Fi. So it's a very conflicting thing.
(Respondent 2, page 9, paragraph 1) Another solution is to utilize peer pressure to ask students to call their friends and join the class. Because the students are familiar with one another, they would know the whereabouts of their friends and notify them to join the online lesson. one of the respondents stated as below.
Ohh yeah, some of the students they don't come to class. So they say, either they don't have enough devices at home or they don't have Internet connection. And then you see them, I asked their friends to call them. Their friends, call them, and then ask them what they're doing. They say they're playing games.So basically I straight away call them. You better get to class now. So it's easy, I think peer pressure is a very good tool. So basically you just ask their friends to go and force them to come.
So it's very useful that you utilize our students fully. It's really very effective.
(Respondent 11, page 13, paragraph 5)