Chapter 4 Data Analysis and Results
4.6 Qualitative Analysis of Teachers’ Interview Questions
Interview Question 1: What strategies did you use in science online education plans?
This question aimed to understand the various online teaching strategies that science educators used during online education. One of the participants responded that she used “extensive internet research to investigate strategies, online platforms, virtual labs, and tools to assist create useful and valuable content.” Another teacher noted that she used virtual labs and science websites and videos. She also mentioned that she “asked students to perform at-home easy science experiments”. One teacher also stated that she used virtual lab sessions to clarify the science concepts. One more teacher noted that she used “direct instruction, interactive strategies such as simulations, poll, virtual lab, Padlet.”
All the feedback from science teachers showed that they adapted their teaching strategies to meet the needs of their students by switching between science labs to virtual labs and between hands-on activities to science simulations and different online platforms. It is important to highlight that several teachers sought to self-learn different strategies which suggest that those teachers were not prepared or trained for online educational strategies and platforms which would have made the transition to online education smoother. It is also evident how much effort the interviewed science teachers have put into ensuring the transition to online education would be smooth and that students would continue to receive the same science concepts and learn key scientific skills using different teaching strategies.
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Interview Question 2: What strategies did you use to assess students’ skills during science online education?
The aim of this question was to build an idea of how the teachers assessed students’ scientific skills. The first teacher mentioned that one of the strategies was “uploading assignments and virtual labs to Google Classroom and manually grading them; and utilizing live worksheets that are instantly graded.” While another teacher stated that she used online quizzes, open-ended questions, drag-and-drop activities, simulations, online polls, peer evaluation, and game-type activities. A third teacher stated that one strategy was to use “open-ended questions and personalized questions for the students' assessment.” The same teacher explained: “I wrote the questions and made sure not to find the answers on Google.” The last teacher stated that he/she used different tools: “Google doc, live worksheets, quizzes, puzzling, & Jam board.” It is evident that all the interviewed science teachers used different tools to assess students’ understanding.
However, most of the mentioned tools would assess students’ knowledge more than targeted scientific skills. It is intrinsic to highlight the effort that the science teachers had taken to seek and create various assessment tools that allow them to get timely feedback about their students' learning.
Interview Question 3: What future rectifications you would do if you were to teach science online again?
The purpose of this question was for science teachers to reflect on their teaching performance and identify the changes that they might do in the future in case they had to teach science online again. One of the teachers highlighted that he/she would “make it more interactive, but evaluation should be face to face” and added that he/she would use “more open book questions, updated programs to check plagiarisms.” While another teacher stressed that he/she would
“collaborate more with parents, consider new learning methods and provide collaboration and socialization opportunities.” Another teacher suggested he/she would “use browsers that lock
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other websites during an assessment.” The forth teacher stated: “I will do research on improved strategies for engaging and motivating my students to work responsibly”. It is vitally important that the interviewed teachers highlighted future rectifications in online science education revealing their self-assessment of their own performance and experience during online science education. The feedback from the interviewed science teachers shows how they plan on changing their teaching strategies to suit science online education by implementing more engaging and interactive activities. Moreover, it is evident that teachers had faced challenges in assessing students’ work during the shift to online science education especially since several teachers stressed on rectifications to the assessment strategies and how they monitor students’
learning progress.
Interview Question 4: In your opinion, how do you think teaching science online can be improved?
The target of this question was to understand what future improvements can be applied in science online education. The first teacher highlighted the importance of resources by saying he/she would improve online science education “by adding more resources that make the interactive much more effective and training the teachers on these new resources.” The second teacher stressed on training educators by stating that “the school needs to provide training sessions on the most recent practices, and those sessions should cover those strategies.” The third teacher mentioned the importance of technology by saying he/she would “utilize a variety of technology options.” The last teacher mentioned he/she would improve online science education “by linking the activities to real-life applications.” It is evident that science teachers consider two key improvements in improving online science education. Science teachers believe schools should provide resources to make teachers’ roles easier, especially in online education.
Science teachers are in need of scientific platforms to engage students in effective science activities and virtual labs. Moreover, science teachers perceive that professional development is vital for them to be trained on new online strategies and resources that would improve online science education.
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Interview Question 5: How do leaders contribute to the success of online science education?
This question aimed to understand how leaders can support and contribute to the success of online science education from the perspective of teachers. One teacher highlighted the importance of providing resources and the needed training. While the other stated “offering professional development opportunities for teachers” and “give the teachers the necessary resources and reduce the amount of work that teachers have to do outside the classroom so that they have enough time to prepare organized lessons that include resources that can be accessed online.” The third teacher mentioned leaders contribute “when they share the successful strategies and encourage the teachers that need support.” The last teacher considered leaders should “provide detailed instructions and anticipate questions” as well as “ensure all instructions are easy to follow.” All the above answers showed that teachers need support from leaders by providing them with the needed resources and training. Moreover, it is evident that science teachers consider their leaders are overloading the teachers with extra tasks that are outside the classrooms which take up their planning time. Science teachers seem to unite on their perception of how the leadership team should contribute to the success of online science education and that is through reducing the work overload and through professional development targeted at online science education.