COVID-19 AS AN AGENT OF CHANGE IN TEACHING AND LEARNING STEM SUBJECTS

TitleCOVID-19 AS AN AGENT OF CHANGE IN TEACHING AND LEARNING STEM SUBJECTS
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2020
AuthorsMakamure, C, Tsakeni, M
JournalJournal of Baltic Science Education
Volume19
Issue6A
Start Page1078-1091
PaginationContinuous
Date PublishedDecember/2020
Type of ArticleOriginal article
ISSN1648-3898
Other NumbersE-ISSN 2538-7138
KeywordsCOVID-19, mathematics and science, online learning, STEM education, virtual platforms
Abstract

The closing of schools due to Covid-19 has brought a dimension of uncertainty into STEM education. Despite the closing of schools due to the need to observe physical distancing, some schools have found ways to continue teaching and learning on virtual platforms enabled by increasingly pervasive fourth industrial revolution environments. In this study, the teaching of Ordinary level mathematics and science in pursuit of STEM education goals as enabled by the Internet of Things (IoT) in online classrooms was therefore, explored. Using an interpretive case study, relevant data were collected from two mathematics and three science teachers during semi-structured interviews. These participants communicated their experiences in transitioning from face-to-face to online classrooms as they worked to promote STEM education during the Covid-19 pandemic. The findings reveal teachers’ experiences of this transition and their selection of particular Web 2.0 tools to establish online classrooms. Notably, mobile instant messaging tools proved to be a popular option for being cheap, user-friendly, temporal, and multimodal. The findings also revealed that teachers struggled to adapt the hands-on activities to suit online teaching resulting in the use of teacher-centred approaches.

URLhttp://oaji.net/articles/2021/987-1613414533.pdf
DOI10.33225/jbse/20.19.1078
Refereed DesignationRefereed
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