The impact of virtuality in the learning processes in the English Teaching Training Track at the IFDC-SL

Abstract

The current situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic demanded an immediate response from the educational system at all levels by implementing a virtual teaching system for which both students and teachers were not well-prepared. In this context, this work intends to obtain a view of the situation, the difficulties and the perceptions of the students of the English Teaching Education program at the IFDC-SL in relation to their virtual learning processes in the first semester of 2020. To achieve this aim, we carried out an exploratory study, following a mixed quantitative-qualitative logic, in which a survey was applied, inquiring about contextual, technological and pedagogical aspects of these processes. The results obtained allow us to approach the state of the situation of our students in terms of the resources they have, their personal, professional and academic realities, the technological and pedagogical difficulties experienced during the confinement and their personal evaluations around their own learning processes. In addition to making visible various tensions and shortcomings between the teaching and learning processes, the results also allow us to glimpse into the progress that has been made in the field of virtual teaching and the challenges that remain. Considering the possibility of continuing the teaching of classes in the virtual mode, knowing the status of our students will allow us to make pertinent modifications and adjustments in the teaching programs of the next semester.