ABSTRACT
The study explored the integration of real-life situations in the development of IDEA lesson exemplar in Mathematics. The respondents were Mathematics teachers of a public school. The researcher utilized a qualitative design. The results revealed that real-life situations are not evident in the first part of the introduction stage. The teacher-participants do not start their discussion of the lesson by citing real-life situations that are related to the lesson. It’s in the second part of the introduction stage that these mathematics teachers have used real-life situations. Realistic situations are most apparent in the Development stage. The teacher-participants utilized this section to guide the learners in understanding the lesson. Students learn best when they can relate the word problem with their own experiences. In the Engagement stage, these mathematics teachers present more sample problems that depict actual happenings. This teaching technique helps learners to a better understanding of the lesson by solving these word problems. Lastly, the teacher participants include word problems that represent factual stories in the Assimilation stage. In this last part of the lesson, students learn the connection of the lesson to their real-life events.
Keywords: real-life situations, well-managed, virtual, Mathematics class
INTRODUCTION
One and a half billon students around the world were engaged in remote learning at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Some students were able to access the Internet to do so, but not all. The majority of students around the world, who have access to smartphones, are able to use these as learning devices. Others are more fortunate and have tablets, laptops or desktops. Their instructors, some with no previous experience of teaching online or at a distance, discovered new approaches to teaching and learning and imaginative work was undertaken to overcome the very real challenges this current reality gives rise to (UNESCO, 2021).
While some students returned to campus and in-person learning, “back to something resembling normal” may not occur until some point in 2021 or later, but not before. Faculty are exploring what online teaching reality means for them. What is the new pedagogy of online teaching at scale really like? What does engaged learning look like in this new environment? How can online learning produce outstanding learning experiences?
The unprecedented COVID-19 outbreak has caused the face to face engagement of students and teachers within the school to be put off. However, the school closures did not hinder the continuity of education and for every school to still attain its mission and vision which is to provide quality education to every Filipino learner. The Department of Education rather has adopted the different types of distance learning where learning takes place between the teacher and the learners who are geographically remote from each other during instruction. It was settled that learning through printed modules is the most preferred distance learning method in consideration of the learners in rural areas where internet is not accessible for online learning while other modalities were being implemented by other schools.
Recently, the education system has faced an unprecedented health crisis (i.e., COVID-19 pandemic) that has shaken up its foundation. Thus, various governments across the globe have launched a crisis response to mitigate the adverse impact of the pandemic on education. This response includes, but is not limited to, curriculum revisions, provision for technological resources and infrastructure, shifts in the academic calendar, and policies on instructional delivery and assessment. Inevitably, these developments compelled educational institutions to migrate to full online learning until face-to-face instruction is allowed. The current circumstance is unique as it could aggravate the challenges experienced during online learning due to restrictions in movement and health protocols (Gonzales et al., 2020; Kapasia et al., 2020). Given today’s uncertainties, it is vital to gain a nuanced understanding of students’ online learning experience in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, many studies have investigated this area with a focus on students’ mental health (Copeland et al., 2021; Fawaz et al., 2021), home learning (Suryaman et al., 2020), self-regulation (Carter et al., 2020), virtual learning environment (Almaiah et al., 2020; Hew et al., 2020; Tang et al., 2020), and students’ overall learning experience (e.g., Adarkwah, 2021; Day et al., 2021; Khalil et al., 2020; Singh et al., 2020).
There are two key differences that set the current study apart from the previous studies. First, it sheds light on the direct impact of the pandemic on the challenges that students experience in an online learning space. Second, the current study explores students’ coping strategies in this new learning setup. Addressing these areas would shed light on the extent of challenges that students experience in a full online learning space, particularly within the context of the pandemic. Meanwhile, our nuanced understanding of the strategies that students use to overcome their challenges would provide relevant information to school administrators and teachers to better support the online learning needs of students. This information would also be critical in revisiting the typology of strategies in an online learning environment as cited by Barrot et al (2021).
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