Teaching writing in emergency distance education: the case of primary school teachers

Teaching writing in emergency distance education

Abstract

This article is a case study examining the writing teaching processes of primary school teachers during the pandemic. Fifty-four primary school teachers who conduct their writing teaching practices by distance education took part in the study. The data were collected by interview method. The data were gathered through a semi-structured interview form produced by the researcher under the guidance of an expert. The interviews were conducted via video chat programs. After having the participant's consent, the interviews were recorded. In the analysis of the transcribed texts, descriptive and content analysis methods were used. The results were divided into five groups after the data analysis, and these are: first writing experiences, situations originating from the teacher, situations originating from the student, situations originating from the student's parents, and recommendations. The study's results revealed that sufficient significance was not given to the writing tasks during the pandemic, and these efforts were postponed to the next semester when it was expected that face-to-face education would begin. In the process, the study revealed that student motivation was poor, there were issues in the management of the classroom environment, and writings of students could not be provided with the necessary feedback and corrections. Besides, what stands out that for teaching writing, parent support is required, and parents do not pay desired attention to the writing. However, primary school teachers have provided some suggestions for more effective writing teaching. Ethics committee approval was obtained for the study (Date: 15.01.2021; decision number: 2021/20).