Science Teachers’ Perceptions about Online Teaching at Secondary Level in District Chakwal

Abstract

Pandemics have always posed a threat to the human race. Globally, the educational system was interrupted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to a serious health crisis and forced people to stay indoors. In order to maintain the educational system, online learning was made available to students majoring in the arts and sciences. Teachers of science subjects due to their practicability, they encountered some issues during online teaching.

This study highlights the elements of adaptation of online teaching during the outbreak of COVID-19. Along with the severe health crisis posed by COVID-19 impacted the education sector in a disastrous way. To provide uninterrupted learning opportunities many institutions have started online mode of learning as an alternative to the face-to-face mode of learning. The purpose of the study was to explore Science Teachers’ Perception about online Teaching at Secondary Level in District Chakwal. The study tool used to collect the data was questionnaire, which was developed by the researcher itself for this study. The data was collected from 140 schools, 68 of them were female teachers and 72 were male teachers. The outcomes of data show that some teachers found significant benefits of online teaching method. However some teachers feel more confident and contented in traditional way of teaching. As far as the perception of teachers regarding online science teaching is concerned, majority of the teachers has negative perception. Mostly, teachers agreed that teaching science online is more difficult. Based on the review of existing literature and the findings of the study, it is also concluded that the existing curriculum of science is not suitable for online teaching mode as current curriculum requires a lot of practical work and this is not possible in online mode of teaching. Moreover, use of technology and understanding of technology is also a big challenge for both students as well as teachers. However, this study illustrated online teaching also has some positive impacts on learning like, effective communication, quick solution to the issues and problems of students, availability of the teachers during off class timing. Better behavior and discipline of students is observed in online teaching.