Action Research Plan

Tasiana Blas

CIL 690

Professor Kim Metcalf

December 10, 2022

University of Nevada Las Vegas

 Action Research Plan: The Impact that the Pandemic has had on Teaching Practices

Abstract

This paper will examine the impact that the pandemic has had on teaching practices,

specifically changes in the way teachers are teaching now after going through the pandemic, the

challenges they have had to overcome and still continue to face in their classrooms, and teachers’

pandemic perceptions that make academic success for students more difficult. Previous studies

on the effects of the pandemic on education are discussed, evaluated, and used to answer the

research questions that have been created to drive this paper. Although there has yet to be a

known cure to the challenges and issues being discussed in this study, hopefully, we can use this

study as a way to move forward and pave a new way for educating our students.

Keywords: pandemic, distance learning

 Introduction and Context

In order for any audience to fully understand the study I decided on conducting, I must

explain the who, where, when, and the why of the problems that I plan to address. When I first

started teaching, almost 4 years ago, I never would have thought I’d experience teaching through

a pandemic. That I’d have a hybrid classroom with the majority of my students learning from

their bedrooms. When I graduated from college, I was excited to finally have my very own

classroom. I thought I prepared for everything that I could possibly face becoming a teacher.

Unfortunately, the pandemic proved that even with the best mentors, fully set up classrooms, and

reading through every page of curriculum books, nothing done could have prepared any teacher

for what we all experienced. Our teaching practices have had to change and adapt because at one

point during the pandemic, we were teaching to survive. The purpose of this study is to address

the challenges, changes, and experiences that teachers have faced during the pandemic. With this

plan, I hope that we can better prepare our students, ourselves, and the preservice teachers in the

event that the world comes to a stand still once again in the future.

Statement of the Problem

In Nevada, on March 15, 2020, Governor Sisilak directed all public, private, and charter

schools in Nevada to close to mitigate the impacts of Covid-19. Although many teachers, myself

included, are grateful for the opportunity that was provided to us to still continue education

during such a difficult time for the world, the pandemic has had a huge impact on education.

Being an educator has always been a challenging job but during the pandemic, the education

world was one of the hardest fields to be in. Now, as we try to move forward in education after

school closures and virtual teaching, we need to analyze the state of education right now in order

to be successful moving forward. Teachers and students have survived the hardest times of the
pandemic, but the aftermath that was left behind, is still obvious in the way our students learn

today.

Research Questions

RQ1: What, if any, teaching practices were changed due to the pandemic?

RQ2: How has virtual teaching and learning changed the nature of teaching now?

RQ3: Do teachers’ pandemic perceptions make academic success for students more difficult?

Significance of the Study

This study will shed light on the challenges myself, other teachers, and our students

continue to face as we try to move forward after going through challenges caused by the

pandemic. This study will also determine the changes in teaching practices, if any, as well as the

changes in student learning styles due to the way students have had to adjust during the

pandemic. This study is significant to teachers because many of us still are not sure how to create

a learning environment that is conducive to being back in the classroom after such unimaginable

times. This study will determine some of the changes in education that my colleagues and I

experienced and with that, we can better prepare ourselves for what the future holds for us in

education.
 Literature Review

Teachers all over the world have been faced with challenges in and out of the classroom.

The most significant problem that the participant teachers experienced during the emergency

distance education was reported to be the learning losses of students (Uzun et al., 2021).

Research also done by Uzun et al. (2021) shows that there are many problems that students

experienced during the transition to remote learning that are under the categories of focusing,

learning losses, homework, textbooks, curriculum, equipment problems, absenteeism,

communication problems, home conditions, expectations from the state, inadequate family

support and security problems. From my own experiences and the experiences of other teachers,

we have all worked with students who have faced these exact challenges. The results from this

study show that the pandemic has prolonged effects on our students and will continue to be

evident until we find ways to better support our students in the classroom.

Changes in Teaching Practices

There have been constant changes to teaching practices as a direct result of the pandemic.

Many teachers have worked even harder to keep up with the students back in the classroom after

all that has happened since the pandemic. Adoptaclassroom.org surveyed 4,665 Pre K-12

teachers at public, private, and charter schools nationwide. Eighty five percent of teachers who

responded described their school as high-needs, where 50% or more of students receive free or

reduced lunch (Karbowski, 2022). These statistics show that 81% of teachers have said that their

overall workload has increased. Teachers are already limited with time in and outside of the

classroom and with the workload increasing, teachers are forced to change the way they teach.

This means that, in addition to addressing the monumental task of helping students catch up to

where they would be at the beginning of a typical school year, teachers may have to differentiate
instruction more than they typically would, as students in their classroom would have a wider

range of abilities (Goodrich et al., 2022).

A study done by the University of Buffalo explains the new methods of teaching that

were discovered. In this study, Grady wrote, “As we know, March 2020 brought the quick switch

to online or remote education. While teaching remotely, you likely recorded your lectures or

portions of your classes and shared them with your students. As uncomfortable and challenging

as that may have been in the beginning likely became easier and easier with each video

recording. You may have discovered providing your students with video recordings allotted for

extra time to take a deeper dive into content, allowing for deeper learning. As we are emerging

from the pandemic and classes switched back to in-person learning, this could be your

opportunity to continue the teaching method by flipping your classroom. Flipping the classroom

is a pedagogy-first teaching approach in which course materials are introduced outside of class,

usually in the form of a video and in-class time is for inquiry, application, and assessment in

order to better meet the needs of individual learners (Grady, 2022). This study proves that there

are newly discovered methods of teaching that can be beneficial for students.

Before the pandemic, preservice teachers would typically spend hours in the classroom

observing veteran teachers and their craft. With school closures due to the pandemic, many

preservice teachers who were required to spend their required observation hours in the

classroom, spent their hours observing a virtual classroom where most teachers, even those who

have been teaching for years, have never taught in a virtual classroom before. National

Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine reported that, “When schools closed in

March 2020, said Dan Goldhaber (University of Washington), teacher preparation was

significantly affected. Teacher candidates either missed or had altered kinds of student-teaching
experiences (e.g., online). As a consequence, there will be new teachers in the labor market who

will be starting without the formative experiences that “predict how effective they are going to

be and how long they are going to stay in teaching (2021).” When we think about teaching

methods, it is important to note that many of the methods that are used have been methods seen

and borrowed from other teachers who have taught in person. With preservice teachers observing

in online classrooms, in classrooms where those teachers who are brand new to the online

platforms of teaching, this can be extremely difficult to prepare them for what is in store for them

moving forward. Darling- Hammond from The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering,

and Medicine also said that, “underprepared teachers are two to three times more likely to leave

the workforce quickly, and unmentored teachers are about twice as likely, she said, yet funding

for both preparation and mentoring has declined. Over the past year, teachers have been

additionally stressed by online and hybrid teaching, fears of teaching in person, and the growth

of poverty and trauma among students (2021).” Now as schools reopen and try to create a new

normal, these teachers who spent their pre-service hours in virtual and hybrid classrooms must

adapt to teaching in person.

Teaching and Learning Now

Changes in learning were evident once schools made the decision to transition to virtual

learning. One change that was made during the pandemic that will continue to impact students as

they further their education is the way the education world prioritized different subjects of

learning in virtual classrooms. The results from a study done by Macias et al., (2022) concluded

that when schools closed in spring 2020 because of the pandemic and instruction shifted from in

person to remote, science instruction took a back seat to mathematics and reading and writing

(English Language Arts, or ELA) instruction. When the opportunity to explore the world through
science is taken from students, in any learning environment, they lack the knowledge of their

world, health, and are kept from building and using their imagination. Macias et al., (2022) also

argued that because science was such a hands-on subject in the classroom, many students did not

find watching videos and demonstrations as fun. This changes the way students learned about

their world, if they did at all during the pandemic. Moving forward, having to fill in the gaps due

to the lack of science being taught during online learning has left teachers working tirelessly to

help foster students’ love for science. With science and mathematics taking a back seat, students

may be playing catchup in their classrooms during science and mathematics, ultimately forced to

change the way they learn.

Academic Success for Students

After such a challenging time, educators all over the world have every excuse to give up

on the field of teaching. The pandemic was one of the biggest disruptions in the history of

education. In order for students to become successful, teachers need to believe that they can be.

As discussed by Paradowki and Jelinska, “A sudden forced transition to remote teaching

constitutes an important factor that may influence students' handling of this unprecedented

educational challenge, as well as teachers' perception of students' coping with remote learning.

Perceptions of students' abilities guide teachers' choices of instructional methods (Biddle and

Anderson, 1986; Snow, 1994; Martin, 2006; Hardré and Sullivan, 2009; Cho and Shim, 2013)

(2022).” If teachers are expecting students to struggle, not meet mastery or show growth after the

pandemic, the chances of that happening in the classrooms are high.

According to new research, only a third of teachers reported being satisfied with the

decisions that their schools or districts had made regarding instruction. (Diliberti & Kaufman,
2020). This goes to show that morale after the pandemic is down and students' success may take

a backseat on a school's priority lists.

Summary of Reviews

To conclude, the literature that I have reviewed proves that the unprecedented changes

brought upon the field of education by the pandemic will outlast the pandemic. This continues to

be proven in classrooms across the world. Though the experiences of the pandemic were not

perfect, it has allowed educators to reevaluate their craft in unimaginable ways. Students are

playing catchup in math and science which makes it difficult for teachers to teach grade level

content. With time already limited in the classrooms, this only causes major setbacks in

classrooms. In addition, the literature that I’ve reviewed proved that there are major limitations

that teacher’s present in the classrooms because they are expecting students to have a difficult

time coming back from virtual or hybrid learning.

Methodology
The research design I plan to use will be more of a mixed method, both a qualitative and

quantitative approach. With observations, interviews and survey questionnaires given to other

teachers, particularly at the school I teach at, my approach will be mixed. I am also using my

experiences before, during, and after the pandemic to drive my action study because I know that

the pandemic has positively and negatively shaped my craft as well, even after a whole year's

worth of in person teaching. According to Mertler, the purpose of qualitative research is not to

analyze data in order to form hypotheses or theories. Rather, in these cases, is to provide a “thick

description” of what is going on in the particular setting being studied (Mertler, 2020). I hope

that my action plan will shed light on the impacts that the pandemic has had not just my teaching

but others as well.

Participants and School Information

Participants include six teachers who teach in primary grades at Doral Academy, Cactus.

This school is located in Nevada, Las Vegas. It is important to note that these teachers

experienced different hardships before, during and after the pandemic. Doral Academy, Cactus is

a school for grade levels, kindergarten through twelfth grade. Each teacher has either been a

teacher since before the pandemic, started their first year of teaching the same year as our school

has announced its closure due to the pandemic, or started right after the pandemic with students

coming into the classrooms for the very first time. These teachers have had to transition to virtual

teaching, hybrid teaching, and then back to in person teaching.

Data Collection

My study will consist of interviews and observations with and from the participants

previously mentioned. Each teacher will be interviewed and observed during the work day.

During each interview, there will be specific questions that will be asked to understand the

experience they had during the pandemic. I will include open-ended questions about how the

pandemic impacted their teaching craft, experience, and perspectives on education. With these

open-ended questions about each teacher’s personal experiences, we can dive deeper into the

outlasting changes that were caused by the pandemic.

The questions that will be asked during each interview are listed below:

Interview Questions

1. Has your teaching practices changed since the pandemic? If so, how?

2. Have you noticed any differences in the way students learn since the pandemic?

3. What do you think you can do to create a better learning environment for students who

are experiencing challenges as a direct result of the pandemic?

 4. Do you feel like students are able to succeed in the classroom after going through the

hardships of the pandemic?

With these observations, the students in these classrooms have either started school in virtual or

hybrid classrooms. The teachers who have agreed to be part of this study have allowed me to

spend time in their classrooms and see how their students have adapted to being back in the

classrooms.

The specific timeline is outlined below.

Week 1 Interview Kindergarten - 1st Grade Teachers/

Observations

Week 2 Interview 2nd - 3rd Grade Teachers/

Observations

Week 3 Interview 4th - 5th Grade Teachers/

Observations

Dissemination and Use

The results from this study will benefit my teaching, my colleagues and their craft, and

our current students and students who will be in our classrooms for years to come. First, it will

allow me to have a deeper understanding of who I was as a teacher before the pandemic and how

my experiences during the pandemic has changed my teaching practice today. Ultimately,

reflecting on how much change has occurred in the last four years and how resilient teachers

have become.

With the answers from the interviews and observations, I will be able to make better

decisions when it comes to instruction and how to approach intervention when trying to fill in

learning gaps caused by the pandemic. Secondly, my colleagues all have had different

experiences during the pandemic. With this study, they will be able to use it just as I do.
 Lastly, understanding the changes that have occurred in teaching practices across

different classrooms will allow teachers to move forward. Educators are no longer in survival

mode, educators must sit and plan to provide students with opportunities to achieve success.

With this study, educators can plan to do just that.

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