Caring for Adolescent Learners in the Virtual Classroom: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: In the recent past, fully online instruction has been most prominent at the higher education level, though online K-12 schools have lately gained some traction. However, the COVID-19 pandemic precipitated new potential for rapid expansion of online K-12 education. As these settings continue to develop, the unique social emotional needs of adolescent learners must be considered, and the need for a robustly developed online pedagogy of care is pressing. An unexpected and untapped resource for developing a framework for an online pedagogy of care can be found in examining the practices of traditionally face-to-face teachers who were unexpectedly thrust into a virtual setting during the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years. This case study examined the experiences of three traditionally face-to-face middle school teachers as they began a new school year in an entirely virtual format. Their experiences demonstrate a high potential for teacher modeling of care and individualized feedback for students and suggest that creating authentic moments for student dialogue and practice of collaborative caring interactions may prove challenging in the virtual setting.
Source: The Qualitative Report
Authors: Stephanie Welch, Jeasik Cho
Institution: Texas Tech University
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $500
OpenAlex ID: W4402392277