The rigid management styles of some schools are making it difficult for teachers to implement online instruction amid school closures, the National Federation of Teachers’ Unions said yesterday.
Since May 19, schools at all levels have been ordered to suspend in-person instruction and switch to online learning as part of a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert.
Citing a survey it conducted of 960 high-school teachers earlier this month, the federation said in a statement that 1 percent of respondents were still required to go to school, without the option of working or teaching from home.
Photo: CNA
Some teachers have children younger than 12 at home who require care, it said.
The survey also found that schools have been asking teachers to report various kinds of information to management after each class session, it said.
The survey showed that 44.6 percent of teachers were required to submit a “teacher’s journal,” 40.6 percent must submit student attendance lists, 47.8 percent were required to submit screenshots taken of classes, 18.7 were required to submit an online video and 5.8 percent were required to submit communication records with students or parents.
Students’ health records, online teaching plans and journal entries about working from home were among the other materials that respondents in the survey said they were being asked to file, the federation said.
Twenty-two percent of high-school teachers said that they needed to upload at least three different types of documents to school officials after each class, it added.
Many teachers are working longer hours than before, as the amount of preparation required for online instruction has increased compared with teaching in-person, the federation said.
The demands by some schools create more pressure for teachers, as they balance various roles, it said.
There are many possibilities for online teaching, including synchronous and asynchronous instruction, the federation said, adding that online teaching has the potential to help develop students’ ability to engage in independent learning.
However, rigid management only allows for synchronous online teaching, it said.
This prevents the use of different approaches and could result in all classes being taught the same way, it added.
According to the survey, 64.2 percent of teachers are exclusively using synchronous online teaching methods, it said.
Teachers are already spending a lot of time and energy preparing for distance-learning lessons, so schools should not further burden them with a vast amount of paperwork, the federation said, calling for mutual trust between school administrations and faculty.
Rigid management might not just spell trouble for teachers, but might also homogenize teaching practices and diminish students’ independent learning skills, it added.
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