Designing During the Pandemic: Understanding Teachers’ Challenges in eTwinning Projects

Abstract

eTwinning projects support teachers and students from different countries to engage with each other through online learning. In 2020, the world started to battle with the pandemic and this shifted educational practices from face to face to online learning. In this study, we tried to understand how the pandemic influenced the activity planning, design process, teacher connections, and in-class interactions from the teachers' viewpoint. To achieve this goal, we worked with a core group of eight elementary teachers who conducted eTwinning projects before and during the pandemic. These elementary teachers started developing eTwinning projects in 2019 by using a book designed to support interdisciplinary thinking with an emphasis on design with second grade students. When we examined the activities developed by these teachers, their emphasis on design and interdisciplinary connections continued during the pandemic with the same group of students when they were in third grade. While the mindset did not change for activity planning, the complete shift to online learning created several challenges for teachers. Teachers stated that their support for the design decreased during the pandemic and they were more comfortable with assisting their students in face-to-face classes. The pandemic also reduced the connections among teachers and supporting group work became a challenge. When these aspects were combined, students had to complete an individual design experience during the pandemic and this resulted in several students missing the interdisciplinary connections in their design products.