Designing a Development Model for Maintaining and Expanding Virtual Education Opportunities: A Step towards Hybrid Education in Elementary School

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Abstract

Introduction: Given the global experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, educational systems worldwide have transformed in recent years with the emergence and expansion of hybrid learning alongside traditional and virtual learning. Accordingly, this study aimed to qualitatively elucidate the aspects of expanding virtual education in primary education and to design a hybrid learning model, seeking answers to the following questions: According to teachers, parents, and primary school principals and vice-principals, what factors affect the quality retention of virtual education opportunities and the transition to hybrid education? What factors play contextual and intervening roles? What are the strategies and consequences of implementing these strategies to achieve the central phenomenon of developing hybrid education?
Research Method: This qualitative study used a grounded theory approach based on the causal paradigm model. Data were collected using structured interviews and focus group discussions and were analyzed using Corbin and Strauss's systematic approach. Participants included two groups: teachers, school staff, and parents, who had at least one year of virtual teaching and activity in the second stage of primary school during the COVID-19 era. From the volunteer parents, contact was made with 22 parents, of whom 12 were unable to participate in the study due to their or their family's illness with COVID-19 or due to life and work commitments. Ultimately, eight parents participated in focus group sessions, and two parents were interviewed semi-structurally by phone. Parent focus group sessions were held in two 90-minute sessions, one in person and one virtual. The researchers then formed a focus group of teachers, in March 2021 to gather new experiences from teachers and parents in the second year of virtual education, six months into the academic year. Both sessions were held in person and virtually. The in-person session lasted 180 minutes, while the virtual session lasted 75 minutes, with education experts and teachers in attendance. The organization of focus groups and interviews continued until theoretical data saturation was achieved after four focus group sessions with teachers and mothers and eight qualitative interviews, which took nine months to reach theoretical saturation.
Results: The data collected from the interview texts were analyzed using the MaxQDA software for greater accuracy and speed of data analysis. Initially, open coding was performed, then primary concepts and core codes were extracted by aligning the initial codes, and finally, the main categories were formed in selective coding from the relationship between the core codes of the previous stage. From the systematic analysis of the interview data, 833 open codes and 192 primary concepts (core codes) were extracted. Of these, six main categories were identified as causal factors that participants considered to affect the retention of virtual education opportunities and the transition toward hybrid education. According to the study's participant groups, professional, skill, organizational, human-communication, and family factors were identified as intervening conditions in maintaining and expanding virtual education opportunities toward hybrid education. Infrastructure and socio-economic factors formed the contextual conditions. The central phenomenon in this study is the retention and expansion of virtual education opportunities towards hybrid education in primary school. Strategies, actions, or counteractions taken to control, manage, confront, and respond to the central phenomenon were also identifed.
Discussion and Conclusion: This research aimed to design and present a developmental model for maintaining and expanding virtual education opportunities toward hybrid education in primary school. In this study, five key strategies were mentioned by participants for expanding and utilizing hybrid education while preserving the advantages of traditional and virtual education: 1- Infrastructural and technological development; 2- Training of hybrid teachers; 3- Proficiency enhancement in class management and hybrid education design; 4- Improving technological and media literacy of parents and students; and 5- Enriching hybrid education with human communication.
Practical suggestions from this study include designing and implementing special educational programs and packages for teachers and school staff that help improve their communication, educational, and technological competencies. The primary goal of these programs is to encourage teachers not to limit themselves to reproducing the traditional face-to-face instructional model in virtual and hybrid education and to apply educational innovations in line with the new educational scenario based on their acquired competencies. Additionally, designing and implementing programs, educational packages, courses, and group sessions specifically for parents can help improve their communication, educational, and technological competencies. These actions aim to create opportunities for active and effective parental involvement in their children's academic progress and constructive interaction with schools and teachers in the new hybrid education scenario.
 

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References

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  • Receive Date: 07 March 2023
  • Revise Date: 08 January 2024
  • Accept Date: 05 December 2023

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