Drawing from and Expanding their Toolboxes: Preschool Teachers' Traditional Strategies, Unconventional Opportunities, and Novel Challenges in Scaffolding Young Children's Social and Emotional Learning During Remote Instruction Amidst COVID-19.

Building on aspects of Vygotsky's sociocultural theory centering around social interaction and adult scaffolding as essential to children's learning, this study investigated the most prominently used strategies by eight teachers to scaffold social and emotional learning (SEL) in preschool children (ages 3-4) in the context of remote instruction during the 2021-2022 school year amidst COVID-19. These teachers (seven females and one male) came from two urban preschools funded by their local Board of Education in the state of New Jersey in the United States. These teachers (ages 28-44 years, M = 32 years) varied in teaching experience from five to 29 years (M = 13 years). Each teacher was interviewed for an average of 40 min virtually via Zoom. The interviews were digitally recorded and then transcribed for analysis. A thematic analysis of the data revealed that the three most salient strategies the teachers implemented to virtually scaffold the children's SEL were: (1) involving book reading and discussion, (2) utilizing visuals, and (3) engaging in targeted conversations. In addition to adapting these three traditional strategies applied during in-person instruction to remote instruction, the teachers creatively and appropriately leveraged online resources to further scaffold and enhance children's SEL in the unconventional virtual environment, thereby expanding their toolboxes. Despite their intentional efforts, these teachers found that there were unconventional opportunities and novel challenges in scaffolding children's SEL during remote instruction not traditionally found during in-person instruction. Collectively, the findings of this study suggest that in-person instruction, due to its social nature, is still the most optimal condition for promoting children's SEL.

Supporting elementary gifted learners during the COVID-19 pandemic: A survey of teaching practices

The present mixed methods study aimed to understand the challenges faced by teachers of the gifted and how elementary gifted learners were supported and taught during the COVID-19 pandemic. A survey was administered to 310 elementary school teachers of the gifted across the United States between March and June 2021, one year after initial school closings. Focus groups were utilized to further explore how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the work of teachers of the gifted in their schools. Educators shared lessons learned from this experience related to (a) a better understanding of how to utilize remote instruction, (b) reimagining the gifted education classroom, and (c) use of a variety of strategies to provide more student choice, differentiation, and individualized pace. Results from this study provide insights that can guide educators, curriculum specialists, and school administrators to improve online instruction for gifted learners in the future. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Reflections on pre-service English Language teacher’s experiences and practices during the COVID 19 pandemic teaching practice: Highlights and challenges from the lessons taught

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the challenges and highlights of teaching practice during the COVID 19 pandemic. Teaching practice is an indispensable part of the training of pre-service teachers. In light of this, teaching practice assumes particular immediacy and primacy given the opportunity it can afford for theory to blend in with practice. In a normal situation, student teachers are usually confronted by inexperience but to make matter worse, COVID 19 came with more challenges. In most circumstances, teachers were expected to use technology in their teaching to lessen direct contact and to reach a wider number of students. The data for this qualitative study was collected through an engagement with some English language student teachers who were asked to voluntarily write reflections on the highlights and challenges during their lessons within the teaching practice exercise. The findings portrayed that student came up with innovative ways of handling classes by themselves since it was not feasible for their lecturers to supervise them and give them the much-needed feedback that could improve their teaching. Secondly, the article upholds a view of language teaching as a social practice which we believe is well placed to reduce anxiety and build self-esteem. The study concludes that since learning during the COVID 19 appears to be more individualistic, it is important to promote student teachers’ voice and agency in learner’s learning to be able to build self-learning skills and learner’s identity. © 2022, Editorial Board English Scholarship Beyond Borders. All rights reserved.

Instructor's perceptions of college learners engagement online during the COVID-19 pandemic

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore how Higher Education Institutions' (HEIs) instructors perceived the engagement of college learners with instructional practices online during the COVID-19 Pandemic at a college in New York. Underpinning the study was the engagement theory framework, which focuses on the use of collaborative (relate), problem (create), and service (donate) based instructional practices that promote learning in an online setting. Three research questions were identified: (1) What are Higher Education Institution (HEI) instructors' perceptions of college learners' engagement with instructional practices in the online learning environment considering the engagement theory component "relate?" (2) What are Higher Education Institution (HEI) instructors' perceptions of college learners' engagement with instructional practices in the online learning environment considering the engagement theory component "create?" (3) What are Higher Education Institution (HEI) instructors' perceptions of college learners' engagement with instructional practices in the online learning environment considering the engagement theory component "donate?" Fifteen faculty members from a college in New York participated in this study. A COVID-19 Faculty Survey, semi-structured interviews, and a focus group were used to assess instructors' perceptions of student engagement. The findings in the present study indicated that exposing students to activities where they can work collaboratively, in teams solving problems, and where they can transfer learning through service to their communities can increase student engagement in online learning. Recommendations for future practice suggested that as the COVID-19 Pandemic continues, the educational community must identify and implement instructional practices and faculty development that can effectuate student engagement and effective teaching. Future research may use a phenomenological approach and might provide instructors with insight that could be used to identify aspects of instructional practices that engage students. Further research might provide instructors with insight and recommendations for effective lesson delivery or differentiation to address student engagement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Teachers’ Roles in Online Environments: How AI Based Techniques Can Ease the Shift Challenges from Face-to-Face to Distance Learning

The Covid-19 emergency has brought a mandatory shift to online systems in the education sector worldwide. This document gives an overview about the online teaching challenges encountered from the teachers’ point view, restitutes how the teacher’s role in online settings can be determining in the successfulness of the learning experience and more importantly provides insights into Artificial Intelligence techniques that can solve the equation of transferring the role of teachers in face-to-face settings to distance learning environments © 2021. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning.All Rights Reserved