A study of involuntary distance teachers’ experiences

Paper in proceeding, 2021

In the spring of 2020, a study was made on university teachers in mathematics who, at very short notice, were forced to change their teaching to distance education due to the Covid-19 restrictions.

Five teachers who had not planned to teach at a distance have been interviewed and their views on, and experience of, distance learning have been analysed.

The social interaction between teacher and student was important not only for the students’ well-being but also for the teacher’s and that it influenced the teacher’s decision-making during the lesson. The lack of visual and audial input from the students affected the teachers’ decision-making process.

The teachers perceived the technology as something problematic or limiting. Since not just the tool itself affects the user, but also the user’s knowledge and skill affect how the tools is used, it is hard to say whether their ability to teach would either benefit or be disadvantaged in the long run by the change of tools.

In some cases, the teachers were, by the circumstances, forced to retain a teacher-focused teaching instead of a student-focused one, which could affect their relationship with the students in the long run.

The attitude towards distance education slowly became more positive, given that the form of teaching they were used to was still at the centre and that the goal was not to completely replace the way a teacher communicates with a student.