Paulus, M. T. (2021). Technology use during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic: Distance learning at a K-8 charter school (Publication No. 28769149) [Doctoral dissertation, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.

Abstract:

“When K-12 schools closed in spring 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, teachers at a low socioeconomic K-8 charter school with a high volume of English language learners (ELL) had 5 workdays to develop distance learning programs without guidance from grade-level technology standards or a distance learning model. In this mixed-methods bounded instrumental case study, the researcher examined eight distance learning programs, focusing on teachers’ methodological and educational technology design choices and their impact on students’ active engagement and measured English language arts (ELA) achievement. Teachers relied on their understanding of how students learn, their technological pedagogical content knowledge efficacy, and their familiarity with enhancing transformative educational technologies to design, implement, and adjust their distance learning programs. The themes that emerged from teachers’ self-reflective journals, lesson plans, and semistructured interviews were triangulated with the quantitative data from two sets of Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) measures of academic progress (MAP) Growth ELA achievement tests that bracketed the March–June 2020 period of distance learning. In the three programs whose students showed statistically significant ELA achievement gain and the two programs whose students showed losses in ELA achievement, there were four distinguishing factors: the use of a student-centric teaching methodology featuring project-based learning, the maintenance of a student learning community that emphasized social and emotional learning, student accountability, and students’ use of transformative creative productivity technologies when demonstrating learning. The findings suggest a foundation for effective distance learning that merits further study. Future research in this area may indicate transferability to other curriculum areas and learning environments, including the K12 classroom.”