Date of Award
10-2022
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Education
First Advisor
Jackie Ramey
Second Advisor
Lynda Leavitt
Third Advisor
Roger “Mitch” Nasser
Abstract
During the COVID-19 pandemic, schools closed to in-person instruction and forced teachers and students into virtual learning environments. Schools and districts had to create new ways to deliver curriculum to their students, and most chose to switch to an online/virtual learning environment. In this learning environment, the teachers taught from a distance, and students received their instruction through synchronous and asynchronous methods. This change in content delivery was a new experience for most educators. Teachers worldwide expressed their frustrations with virtual instruction and dissatisfaction with student engagement through social media and mainstream media outlets. The study aimed to determine teachers’ perceptions of the virtual learning environment to assess Teacher Efficacy and ideas for possible improvement for that type of learning environment. Participants answered survey questions about teacher self-efficacy, collective Teacher Efficacy, school effectiveness, technology proficiency, and professional development needs through a qualitative study. These survey questions ranged from Likert-type scale and open-ended questions to allow participants multiple ways to express their feelings about teaching in a virtual environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. After analyzing the data, the results indicated that teachers were primarily confident that they could impact student achievement while stressed over the virtual learning environment. They suggested a need for time to plan for virtual learning with their colleagues and focused professional development on the most important digital tools required for virtual instruction.
Recommended Citation
Lauer, Tina, "A Qualitative Study on Teachers' Perceptions of Virtual Instruction During the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Midwest Public School District" (2022). Dissertations. 731.
https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/dissertations/731
Rights
Copyright 2022, Tina Lauer.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License