ABSTRACT
During the current Covid-19 pandemic, the social relationship between humans has changed. As noticed, lockdowns and social distancing have become new norms. Unavoidably, counselling services were also affected with social distancing rules, especially in the school setting. Thus, online counselling or e-counselling has begun to gain in popularity, allowing counsellors to offer their services in an alternative way. In order to evaluate the suitability of e-counselling during the current pandemic, a client's satisfaction towards e-counselling and face-to-face counselling needs to be investigated. This study aims to explore the effectiveness of these two counselling approaches using the level of the client's satisfaction and its implication towards counselling practises during the outbreak. Quantitative data were obtained using the Client's Satisfaction Inventory Short-Form (CSI-SF) questionnaire. The experimental design consisted of a total of 60 study subjects in two groups, namely the control group using the face-to-face Counselling method and the experimental group using the e-Counselling method. Based on the results, the difference in mean score showed that the mean difference in the experimental group was slightly higher than the control group. This finding indicates that e-counselling clients have a higher satisfaction compared to the face-to-face approach. The implications of this data are discussed on the role of school, school counsellor, and the government in enhancing the service of e-counselling during the current pandemic.
ABSTRACT
The unprecedented disruption in education due to the COVID-19 pandemic has forced teachers worldwide to adapt to online teaching and the immediate implementation of home-based learning (HBL). However, little is known regarding teacher readiness for HBL. Thus, there is a pressing need to develop an instrument to measure teachers’ readiness for online teaching, which can provide feedback to guide policymakers and school leaders in planning strategic interventions and support for implementing HBL. This study aimed to refine and validate the HBL Teacher Readiness Scale and to ascertain the view of secondary school teachers on aspects of their readiness to implement HBL. A total of 931 from a population of 3826 secondary school teachers were selected using random sampling, from the state of Selangor, Malaysia. The validity and reliability of the HBL Teacher Readiness instrument were tested using exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis. As a result of the analysis, the scale remained at 26 items across four factors, namely efficacy in technology, attitude, perceived behaviour control, and subjective norms. The Cronbach Alpha coefficient for the entire scale was 0.94. Demographic analysis revealed that, overall, the in-service teachers’ level of readiness was at a high level across all dimensions, although the highest was in attitude and the lowest was in subjective norms. Based on this initial sample, the HBL Teacher Readiness Scale was shown to be a suitable instrument to measure teacher readiness for change in the context of the implementation of HBL, although further testing should be conducted on more diverse groups. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.