Training on autonomy promotion and pedagogical support during COVID-19 lockdowns

This paper analyzes the implementation of a professional development program on autonomy promotion and instructional support in the classroom, and the relationship between this program and students' engagement. The program was designed during the delivery of online classes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study used a convergent parallel design. Participants were five elementary teachers and their students (N=110) at a public school in Cali, Colombia. The program consisted of two workshops and three online individual feedback sessions. Classes were recorded before and during the program and classroom interactions were coded. The results show high variability in teachers' autonomy promotion and instructional support during the classes. Students' engagement was higher when teachers promote greater autonomy and instructional support. Variables that could affect teachers' use of learning from the program are discussed. © 2023 Revista Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales. All rights reserved.

Preparing for the unexpected in a COVID-19 world: The teaching dilemmas of a mid-semester faculty change

Despite the perceived rarity of mid-semester faculty changes, there is a shortage of literature to guide administrators and faculty on best practices for handing the dilemmas associated with mid-semester faculty changes. This is particularly concerning given the uncertainty of situations like the COVID-19 global pandemic and recent research that finds that future extreme epidemics are likely to happen. This paper seeks to answer two questions (1) What can faculty and administrators do to prepare students who are experiencing a mid-semester faculty change, and (2) What procedures and processes are in place to assist the incoming faculty? Data were collected through a survey of students who had underwent a mid-semester faculty change and interviews with administrators who deal with personnel issues like this one. The data suggest faculty should first meet with students to assess their progress before jumping into an established lesson plan (the opposite of how faculty normally prepare to teach a class). Clear communication about expectations, organization of the course materials, and instructor flexibility was identified as keys to student success during a teaching disruption. These findings align with decades of research on teaching and learning. Administrators should create contingency plans that go beyond the personnel transaction and that help faculty quickly prepare for a transition that is student focused. More research is needed to identify the best administrative processes and procedures to assist faculty in a smooth transition when taking over a course mid-semester. © University of Deusto.

What Should Teachers Do? Visibility of Faculty and TA Support across Remote and Traditional Learning

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered best practices for instructors and teaching assistants (TAs) to support student learning in engineering. This does not necessarily mean that instructional support has diminished as a consequence of the transition to remote learning. In this study, instructional support was explored using quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis. Surveys from over 600 students in sophomore and junior level courses in engineering at a large public institution were collected in the Spring of 2020 and compared to results from similar courses offered prior to the start of the COVID-19 crisis. Likert-scale items, as well as short answer items, that independently measured faculty support and TA support were analyzed in this study. Initial t-tests indicated that perceptions of faculty support were not significantly different between remote and traditional learning. To consider the possibility that failure to reject the null hypothesis was due to course-by-course variations, additional t-tests were used to compare student perceptions of faculty support across pairs of courses taught in both settings. Post-hoc tests showed that faculty support was significantly higher in the remote learning setting in three of seven pairs of courses and significantly lower in the remote learning setting in the four remaining courses (p < 0.05). Similarly, in considering TA support, an initial t-test indicated that perceptions of TA support were not significantly different in remote learning compared to traditional learning, but in course-by-course comparisons, students believed they were offered significantly higher TA support in remote learning in three pairs of classes and significantly lower TA support in one pair of classes (p < 0.05) with three classes indicating no significant difference. Students in both settings were also asked to identify one thing that faculty could do and one thing that TAs could do to better support their learning. Inductive coding of these short answer responses revealed that while in traditional learning, students emphasized faculty support in in-class and out of class delivery of materials, in remote learning, the emphasis shifted to needs for support in out of class delivery and out of class interactions. For TAs, student expectations were balanced between in-class delivery and out-of-class interactions in traditional learning but their needs for more out of class interactions dominated their concerns in remote learning. Overall, for faculty, about 20% of students requested greater availability in both remote and in-person settings. For TAs, 44% of students requested greater availability of and access to their TAs in remote learning, compared to 18% in in-person settings. The analysis of both Likert-scale and short answer data regarding TA and faculty support in this study reinforces the importance of availability of instructional support regardless of setting. As students, TAs, and faculty continue to navigate the uncharted waters of the traditional college education system gone online, the nature of connection differs yet its importance remains the same. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021

Differences in Perceptions of Instructional Support between U.S. and International Students Before and During COVID-19

The COVID-19 public health crisis has influenced the way American higher education institutions operate and support student success. As a result of the crisis, institutions that traditionally provided in-person instruction abruptly moved to a virtual space with little preparation time in the spring of 2020. Considering the critical roles that both faculty and teaching assistants (TAs) play in student learning and engagement, this study explored the contribution that this abrupt transition to remote learning made in international students' perceptions of faculty and TA support, and positive emotional engagement, compared to U.S. students. Data collected from surveys in in-person settings prior to COVID-19 and in spring of 2020 immediately after COVID-19 impacted the delivery of higher education (N = 1,212) were used to study if and how the remote setting influenced international student perceptions of faculty and TA support and positive emotional engagement. The pre-COVID surveys were collected from students enrolled in sophomore and junior-level engineering courses prior to 2020, and the remaining surveys were collected from students enrolled in remote learning courses in the spring of 2020. Seven of the courses were the same in both the remote and in-person survey populations, and the remaining five courses were similar (in mechanical or electrical engineering and involving significant TA support). The data were analyzed cross-sectionally using hierarchical linear models. All models considered demographics (gender and citizenship status), behavioral engagement, and emotional engagement variables. The study found that international students' perceived level of faculty support was more sensitive to their level of self-efficacy than that of their U.S. peers. International students' perceptions of TA support were also found to be generally higher than that of U.S. students. Finally, international students' positive emotional engagement was higher than that of U.S. peers, more sensitive to participation, and less sensitive to perceptions of TA support. Faculty and TA support are both important to student learning and this is particularly true for international students. Contrary to the perception that remote learning is substandard compared to traditional learning, this study suggests that students overall felt that the instructional team provided adequate support during the COVID-19 crisis. This study was not able to explain whether this effect will “wear off” as remote learning continues, and students become less charitable in their assessments. Although this data was collected from only a single institution, it suggests that what engineering faculty and TAs did in the first term of remote learning worked;and carrying forward those practices into future remote instruction and instruction beyond the COVID-19 pandemic may be recommended. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021