Pupils’ attitudes toward distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The educational context has been disrupted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the study was to explore attitudes of pupils in Serbia toward distance education during the pandemic. Specifically, we aimed to explore the cognitive component of pupils’ attitudes through their perception of positive and negative aspects of distance education, the motivational component based on the expressions of how distance education affects pupils’ motivation to learn, and emotional component through verbal expressions of emotions toward distance education. The sample for the study included 110 pupils attending primary (5th to 8th grade) and secondary schools in Serbia. A semi-structured interview was employed. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. The findings suggest that majority of pupils have negative attitudes toward distance education and that they find insufficient interaction between teachers and pupils to be the major shortcoming of distance education. Positive aspects of distance education which could be preserved after the pandemic according to the participants’ views are: communication between teachers and pupils using information technologies (IT), technical possibilities for a better presentation of learning topics and permanent availability of learning materials on online platforms. The study revealed the lack of intrinsic learning motivation and deficiencies in pupils’ self-regulation of learning which are important to be overcome as they impede pupils’ academic development both in distance and in classroom education.

Keywords

• online learning
• distance learning
• students’ perspectives
• pandemic
• qualitative study