Research Proposal Assignment: Impact of COVID-19 on Teaching-Learning Sector
Question
Task: The research proposal assignment requires you to conduct a thorough research and prepare a research proposal on the topic “Impact of COVID-19 on teaching and learning sector”
Answer
Section 1: Introduction
1.1 Background Study
This research study prepared herein research proposal assignment spins around the subject related to the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the teaching and learning sector. The education sector is one of the most important parts of the economy as it influences the country’s capacity to produce skills, competent professionals, and future infrastructure. The academic system of a nation contributes to future scientists, engineers, doctors, professors, teachers, business experts, and technology specialists that have a great impact on the development and advancement of the economy. As per the view of Pokhrel and Chhetri, (2021, p. 137), the education industry, directly and indirectly, shapes the future of society and the overall economy. Hence, the government needs to ensure the quality of education remains intact despite any adverse situation. However, the global pandemic has significantly affected the educational sector as both teaching and learning have been impacted due to the consequences of the epidemic. In Europe as well as all over the world the academic system has been disrupted with the outbreak of the virus as the government imposed a lockdown that led to the closure of schools and colleges. According to the opinion of Franchi, (2020, p. 312), the pandemic has given rise to inequality of education and learning losses within some of the countries with the highest income. It has been reported that around 45 nations in Central Asia and Europe closed their schools to prevent the spread of the virus and in consideration of students’ safety and health (Robin Donnelly, 2021).
However, as the pandemic continued to precipitate, the global education system looked for alternative methods of learning to continue education. Remote learning as the viable choice of learning has several benefits as well as many drawbacks. This type of method helped students to continue pursuing their academic career without a long break or further disruption while it also has affected their mental health and motivation. The essential elements of the social development of children which is integral to the traditional educational system have been absent in the virtual learning arrangement. There have also been problems related to communication between teachers and students. Furthermore, the effectiveness of learning and teaching have both been impacted due to the pandemic that this study intends to explore.
1.2 Research Aims and Objectives
Aim of the research:
The aim of this report is to identify how the covid-19 pandemic impacts on teaching-learning sector
Research Objectives:
• To measure the area of teaching and learning during the covid-19 pandemic
• To investigate the main impact of a covid-19 pandemic on the teaching and learning sector
• To analyse the strategies used to improve the teaching and learning sector during the pandemic
• To recommend strategies through which teaching and learning experience can be developed in the COVID-19 pandemic
Research questions:
• What are the areas of teaching and learning that can be improved under the COVID 19 pandemic?
• How was the teaching and learning sector affected due to the covid-19 pandemic?
• What are the major strategies that need to be implemented for the improvement in the teaching and learning sector?
• What are the major recommendations to develop the best teaching and learning experience during the pandemic?
1.3 Research Rationale
Education is a vital component of any economy as the nation’s potential of development and growth depends on the academic outcomes of the country. Due to the lockdown restrictions enforced by the government for almost an even more than a year, the education sector has experienced a sizable amount of disruption affecting both learners and teachers. The alternative remote learning method has been able to address some of the essential areas while as a new approach it requires further strategic development to become as competent as the traditional education system. Lack of physical interaction between students and the limitation of communication between teachers and students curb learning as well as teaching efficiency. There are reports of dropouts, and increasing educational inequality in developing countries and even in many developed nations as a result of the pandemic. Hence, understanding the impact of the epidemic within the teaching and learning sector is vital to developing strategies for reducing dropouts, integrating more effective digitized learning, redefining the capacity of tutors, and improving learning outcomes along with the sustainability of the education sector.
1.4 Summary
According to the viewpoint of Boersema, (2020, p. 45), to write a summary of a research proposal is considered to be as similar as writing an abstract of the research study. Here the purpose to cover the summary context of the concerned research is to give the readers the idea behind the understanding of the proposed research with the highlight of important areas of discussion. This proposed research is based on the impact of an extraordinary outbreak of Covid-19 and the Pandemic on the specific sector. The teaching and learning sector has been chosen here for the proposal. This proposal of research helps to investigate the findings to recover from the pandemic by the implementation of strategic approaches to get an effective result in the teaching and learning sector. the entire proposal has been made by aims and objectives of the researcher which state the corresponding areas of a research proposal including background study, aims, and objectives, literature review, methodology of the study, and other corresponding analyses and recommendations
Section 2: Literature Review
2.1 Introduction
As opined by Shenoy et al., (2020, p. 699), teaching and learning are considered as the sector where the process of evaluating several variables related to learning has to be made by a group of teaching professionals. In the process of teaching and learning, some experienced teaching professionals came into action to give sufficient knowledge of inter and intra syllabus and strengthen the knowledge and ability of the group of students. Teaching and learning come under the service sector where the teachers introduce the course of study and knowledge to the students in exchange for fees or other inventory. During the covid-19 pandemic, like other sectors of the World, the teaching and learning sector has also been affected due to the change in the entire procedure and other belongings after government initiatives for covid-19 precautions. In this research proposal, some proposals to revamp the scenario of the teaching and learning sector during the covid-19 pandemic have been idealized with the corresponding strategic approaches and framework.
2.2 Key factors of teaching and learning sector during the covid-19 pandemic
As the consideration made by Arora et al., (2020, p. 45), teaching and learning are interlinked with one another where the teachers play a significant role to teach the students who enlarge their learning ability. Teaching and learning quality depends on the process and quality of education. During Pandemic as the government announced to adopt the remote learning process for which the quality and content has been impacted. Both the teaching staff and students are willing to have a healthy, proactive, and secure learning environment. There are some key factors that can be discussed in this process of teaching and learning.
Adapted teaching and learning methods: as stated by Reimers et al., (2020, p. 5), teachers and the students are key pillars of the teaching and learning sector where the quality of education depends on the way of teaching as well as learning. The more a teacher embraces the experience in teaching the more a student improves the learning capabilities. After the covid-19 pandemic, the opportunity of direct fact to fact teaching-learning has been disrupted where the entire procedure shifts towards the digitalization of remote collaboration. The accessibility of teachers towards the improvised teaching methods has been observed during the pandemic for which the change in teaching and learning methods. Content of education: it is important to identify the curricular and the other teaching materials are qualitative and relevant to the student learning or not. The literacy and numeracy skills are considered to be sufficient enough which needs to be emphasized.
Changing learning environment: learning and teaching environment is another key factor that is affected during the covid -19. A healthy, secure, and proactive environment is necessary for both the teachers and students. The inclusive environment needs to be equal for all the students where the teaching staffs are able to give the same pace of prioritization to all the students. Preconditions for the pupils: it is significant to have the idea of the experiences of teachers who bring their quality and experiences into the educational institutions along with them. The preconditions include selective uncertain circumstances within which the professional goes and that help them to understand the advanced and changing teaching platform as per the current scenario. Dissimilarities in language and learning with the consideration of diversity that needs to take place in the teaching-learning process.
Management and organization: management and organization is another key factor of the teaching and learning process where the teacher needs to consider some important parameters to treat all the students in the correct and equal way. The organization is another requisite which is important to focus on during the process of teaching and learning.
2.3Impact of covid-19 in teaching and learning
As per the report Hodges et al., (2020), the covid-19 pandemic has its impacts on the entire service sector and business sector of the world within which the teaching and learning sector has been included. Pandemic has created a wide range of disruption in an educational system which has not been experienced in previous history. after the covid-19 pandemic, there are almost 1.6 billion students across the 200 countries in the world have been affected due to the temporarily shutting down of schools colleges and other educational institutions. The learning spaces during the Pandemic have been impacted more than 94% of the students' population rate. This changing condition of the teaching and learning sector due to pandemics has brought far-reaching changes in all aspects of learning and living. Due to the strict guidelines by the country's government to maintain the social distancing and other restrictive considerations, the traditional teaching and learning practices have been changed.
Figure 1: Staggering impact of the covid-19 pandemic on world’s teaching and learning process
Source :(World Economic Forum. 2021)
From the above figure, the analysis of the staggering impact of Covid-19 has been cleared where it has been observed that over a million learners could not understand their syllabus and other learning standards due to their inability to go to school and colleges. The pandemic guidelines close nearly all schools and colleges and adopt the virtual standstill to continue the teaching and learning procedure to some extent. However, in most cases, the quality of teaching provided by the teachers and the learning progress by the students has been slowed down. UNESCO made the above analysis clear the idea of Covid-19 impact on Teaching and learning where it has been identified that nearly 1.38 billion students or 80% of the world's students are considered to be kept out from the educational institutions during Pandemic (En.unesco.org. 2021). There are another 284 million students who are also being affected to some extent due to the closure of the physical institution. 138 governments of various countries are now participating in the same guidelines of education institutions closure.
2.4 Strategies to improve teaching-learning method during covid-19
During the phase of Pandemic, it has been observed that the teachers need to improvise their teaching technique and the students need to consider some methods to improve their learning ability. During Covid, most of the teaching-learning practices are based on virtual platforms where the teachers and the students are connected through video conferencing. There are some strategies that need to be considered during this process of teaching and learning.
More of practice: the teachers are not accustomed to taking virtual teaching sessions from the very beginning of their teaching career. all they learned and knew about a physical institution where the students and teachers are coming and completing the session of teaching and learning. The same thing is also applicable for the learners as well. When the process shifts towards the virtual collaboration during Pandemic, then the teachers found it is necessary to practice more by taking more virtual classes.
Efficient communication: according to the viewpoint of Tang et al., (2020), communication and its efficiency is the most important factor of the teaching and learning process as it helps to build effective relationships and understanding between the learners and teaching professionals. Good communication also embraces the comfort zone within the procedure where there is no space for hesitation.
Creation of a sense of community: the idea of do's and don'ts by the community during the pandemic is important to be established. The students and the teachers both are part of this community where the two sides of the teaching-learning method need to understand each other's work along with their own pace of work. There are certain limitations during the covid-19 pandemic which the teachers and the students need to maintain during the virtual standstill. Teachers always need to respond to their students and try to boost up their energy and efficiency when they feel downcast due to long social isolation.
Understanding the time management skills:
Time management plays an important role in improving the areas of teaching and learning techniques in both the teachers and students for enhancing the performance. The assigning of stimulating the teaching areas according to the allocation of time helps to improve the learning pace of the students.
Collaboration and cooperation in the entire process: collaboration among the students and teachers by engaging in more cooperative tasks is considered to smoothen the virtual learning process. During the covid-19 pandemic, though the students need to understand the areas of learning only over virtual platforms still with positive cooperation by the teachers help to clear out all the doubts, they might have during the session.
2.5 Conceptual framework
Figure 2: Conceptual framework
Source: (Created by the author)
2.6 Literature gap
At the time of conduction of literature review within the research proposal, there are some dimensions that are left. These dimensions are needed to be covered within the research proposal as ur enrich the areas and objectives of the considerable research article. The variables of some teaching-learning processes have been avoided due to the short time of research and limited pace of work count. Limitation of time and word count in this research proposal created a thin line between the ultimate achievements of research objectives with the present areas of understanding.
2.7 Summary
The above-explained literature review of this considered research proposal made the analysis of several aspects of the covid-19 and its impact on the teaching and learning process. The strategies which the students and teachers need to be implemented to improve sided the process have also been explained by pointing out some affected areas of the teaching-learning process by the Coronavirus pandemic.
Section 3: Justified Methodology
As depicted by Pandey and Pandey, (2021), research methodology represents the research techniques and procedures used to gather information, interpret them, and incorporate them into the study. In order to conduct this research the method of research onion would be used as it effectively describes each layer of the research process that shapes the final research outline.
3.1 Research Approach
The research approach is the overall plan the researcher makes to conduct the study containing all the steps starting from broad assumptions, methods of collecting data, to interpretation and synthesis of the gathered data. The research approach is chosen on the basis of the problem that the study intends to address (Nayak and Singh, 2021). There are mainly three kinds of research approaches and they are abductive approach, inductive approach, and deductive approach. An inductive approach or reasoning is an observational study that aims to recognize certain patterns in the data and at the final stage develops a theory. Inductive research produces results that are appropriate for abstract generalization and subjective. The deductive research approach allows the researcher to conduct the study based on a predefined hypothesis or theory. While the inductive research approach enables the researcher to produce qualitative data, the deductive research approach generates quantitative data. The Abductive research approach as the alternative intends to explore new facts and form predictions (Rinehart, 2021, p. 307). In this research study, the deductive research approach would be used as it would help produce quantitative data through a process oriented method.
3.2 Research Philosophy
Research philosophy is the researcher’s moral views regarding the appropriate way of accumulating information for the study (Kennedy, 2017, p. 351). There are three types of research philosophy that are pragmatism, positivism, and interpretivism research philosophy. The research philosophy for a study is selected based on the evaluation of practical implications. The positivism research philosophy aims to gain factual knowledge by observing the research variables and thus it produces primarily quantitative data. The Interpretivism research approach provides multiple explanations of data however it involves biases and offers qualitative data based on small samples. The pragmatism research philosophy helps the researcher evaluate the data from different perspectives. The positivism research philosophy would be chosen for this research to extract and interpret quantitative data in an objective manner.
3.3 Research Design
Research design outlines the overall procedures and methods that are selected by the researcher. It further enables the researcher to choose methods of research that complement the subject matter. Among the various research designs explanatory research design, exploratory research design, and descriptive research are used commonly for mainstream research studies (Ridder, 2017, p. 287). Descriptive research design can be depicted as the statement of affairs as the researcher does not control the variables. It solely describes a situation or an event or trends to provide an explanation. Moreover, the descriptive research design is used to assess a recent event. Moreover, a descriptive study generates information through observation and does not involve any personal bias and it delivers qualitative results instead of statistical information. Explanatory research design on the other hand allows the researcher to understand the causes of a particular effect that help in the research of finding causes that lead to a particular circumstance. Exploratory research design imparting its true sense through the name intends to investigate new facts about a situation to address the research question (Nattrass, 2020, p. 17). However, an exploratory study only provides statistical information that fails to draw a final conclusion. As the study intends to inspect the impact of the pandemic on teaching and learning and further offer solutions to improve the aspects hence the descriptive research design is appropriate for this research as it would help the research make objective interpretation of the data and develop solutions to the problems.
3.4 Research Strategy
Research strategy relates to the detailed planning and actions carried out by the researchers during the study. According to the suggestion of Clark and Causer, (2020, p. 167), research strategy should be chosen on the basis of research questions, research objectives, the time available for the study, resources at disposal, and the researcher’s philosophical underpinnings. There are three core research strategies used by common researchers that include qualitative research strategy, quantitative research strategy, and mixed research strategy. A qualitative research strategy is used by a researcher in case the study intends to explore the underlying reasons of a problem or know people’s opinions regarding a certain fact. A qualitative research strategy is not used to produce statistical data as it offers unique insights into the problem that the research wants to address and help in attaining the objectives of the study. In contrast to qualitative research strategy, the quantitative strategy helps the researcher collect primary and secondary data to gain numerical knowledge related to the problem. Quantitative data follows trends or other statistical information and analyses them to improve understanding of the event. As described by McCall, (2018), quantitative research strategy deals with logic, objectivity, and numbers. Moreover, quantitative research is concerned with convergent reasoning rather than divergent reasoning. The mixed research strategy uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to collect numerical data and develop an in-depth understanding of the subject matter by evaluating people’s emotions or opinions regarding the facts. In the current research study, the primary quantitative and qualitative research strategies would be followed by the researcher. This mixed research strategy would allow the researcher to gather qualitative and quantitative data together in order to explain the impact of the pandemic on the education sector as well as form strategies to combat the problems.
3.5 Data Collection Methods
Methods of data collection refer to the ways information regarding a research study can be collected. There are three methods of gathering data for research studies namely, primary methods, secondary methods, and mixed methods. In primary data collection methods information is accumulated through a number of techniques including interviews, questionnaires, surveys, focus groups, and observations. These methods are used wisely based on the type of data the researcher aims to collect (Groenland and Dana, 2020). Secondary methods involve collecting data from available resources that are wide-ranging and include public records, documents, historical and statistical papers, trade journals, articles on technology, and academic writings of scholars. The mixed-methods combine tools and techniques used in primary as well as secondary data collection methods. The primary quantitative and qualitative data collection methods would be used for this research study. The quantitative method would involve a survey and an interview would be carried out as the qualitative method of collecting research data. The consideration of both qualitative and quantitative data would help to ensure the quality of the research study.
3.6 Sampling Strategy
There are two types of sampling strategy including probability and nonprobability sampling strategies (Bhardwaj, 2019, p. 157). The probability sampling provides a generalized outcome that would be used for surveying the students whereas the non-probability sampling is subjective and offers a more specific result that would be used for interviewing the students.
3.7 Sample Size
Sample size is an important matter in order to ensure the quality of primary research in a study. Sample refers to the group of the population on which research is conducted to develop a conclusion that can address the whole population. In this research study, 20 students would be surveyed and 5 teachers would be interviewed. The survey and interview would be done under the pandemic situation through online and it would help to get quick results.
3.8 Summary
The above study has specified the procedures and techniques that would be followed to conduct this research. The approach, philosophy, design, and strategy of the research have been explained with justifications along with data collection methods and sampling techniques.
Section 4: Architectural Design
Figure 3: Architectural design of the research
Source: (Developed by author)
Section 5: Ethical Consideration
As per the analysis made by modern research analysts that the ethical consideration of a research proposal involves the actual consent of the researcher and the readers who have participated in the research study to make the identification of all kinds of analysis and other needs to make an effective and harmonious research proposal. here the participants including the teachers and students who had been facing the interview process need to get appropriate pieces of information about the aspect of teaching and learning methods and its changes during the covid-19 pandemic. Here the main focus of the researcher is to stay focused on the understanding and harmony of the changing teaching and learning system due to Pandemic. The ethical considerations need to make by the maintenance of active collaboration and positive relationships among the teachers and the learners to ensure a healthy and proactive learning environment. These ethical considerations also aligned with the dignity and importance of creating an effective teaching-learning experience which make the virtual standstill more powerful abs effective for gaining the best and authentic results.
Section 6: Time Plan
Figure 3: Gantt chart
Source: (Created by the author)
Based on the above time plan, it can be stated that data interpretation would be done in week 6 and proposal finalization would be done in week 9 and week 10. ?
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