Abstract

The disconnection due to pandemic left a significant impact on education, specifically on learners. It has affected their social, emotional, and academic well-being. The DepEd secretary’s declaration of resumption of classes demands teachers to come up with strategies to provide psychosocial support for coping skills in transitioning from distance learning to face-to-face learning modalities. Thus, this study aimed to describe the lived experiences and insights of learners in transitioning from blended learning back to face-to-face class. Employing ethnological research, a lesson study was conducted to describe the communication skills, basic numeracy, and science literacy of G10 students. Using teacher observation and reflection forms, students’ performances and reflections, actual class videos and pictures, qualitative data were coded, clustered into categories, and derived into emerging themes. Results showed how students reposition themselves during the post-pandemic resumption of classes. Challenges about responding to emerging personal challenges and dealing with pressure from external forces were the themes derived from qualitative analyses. Finding common grounds in firming up coping strategies and breaking limitations into possibilities emerged as themes which teachers could use in adjusting post pandemic instruction.

1. Introduction

Upon the DepEd secretary’s declaration of resumption of in-person class in 2022, teachers started adjusting strategies for the1,751 post-pandemic enrollees. The challenge of igniting students’ engagement to classroom activities was largely influenced by their anticipated lack of preparedness for face-to-face classes.

In the locale of the current study, initial findings revealed that during virtual meets, students’ communication skills were not fully enhanced since there were only two hours allotted weekly for every subject teacher to meet their students. Out of 261, only 61 Grade 10 students were enrolled in blended modular and virtual classes. The rest of the students used modules throughout the school year for three consecutive years. Teachers have confirmed these anticipations from pre-diagnostic transitioning activities. Their limited communication skills were observed.

Similar studies have shown relevant results. Lower levels of social, emotional and academic well-being among middle school learners who attended distant learning had been reported ¹. In a 2021 transitional analysis, Borgschulte and Chen ² revealed that some individuals were driven to disconnection due to pandemic. Students’ concentration on lessons had become a struggle during the pandemic due to various factors concurrently affecting their daily routine and mental health ³.

Having students greatly affected by the drastic shift to distant learning, teachers face the challenges of facilitating a smoother transition to in-person learning so as not to aggravate the existing psychological effects of pandemic. On the other hand, students’ adaptability to blended online learning has to be sustained. Their renewed focus and goals as key takeaways of the pandemic are concrete baselines in firming up their reentry to the classrooms ⁴.

Extensive planning for transition lessons that would gradually condition these disconnected learners to establish attachment to teachers and peers in a physical classroom needs to be carefully crafted. Assisting learners to adapt to the reopening of classes must be intensive. The social and emotional well-being of students need to be prioritized more than academics ⁵. Reference ⁶ compared students’ adaptability in regulating themselves during task management, highlighting that students with lower adaptability may anticipate poorer performance than those with higher adaptability. Their first two weeks would be a crucial transition for them. Great intent on creating opportunities for them to adapt will mean a lot to their renewed interest to their succeeding tasks.

This study aimed to describe the Grade 10 students’ transition experiences using the Transition, Uncover, Narrate, Extract themes, Incline, Negotiate (TUNE IN) as an intervention. Transition, Uncover, Narrate, Extract themes, Incline, Negotiate intervention is a transition activity for the Grade 10 students of Saguday National High School designed by a group of teachers across subjects. It was intended to bring out the communication skills, basic numeracy, and science literacy in one performance task. It also aimed to describe the challenges faced by the Grade 10 learners of Saguday National High School in performing a group transition task as well as their coping strategies to overcome the challenges encountered.

2. Methodology

This qualitative study is ethnographic in nature. Employing Lesson Study (LS), two English teachers and one Science Grade 10 teachers worked as a team in implementing a transition lesson. Purposive sampling technique was employed taking only Grade 10 Integrity (Set A), which consists of 20, and Grade 10 Honesty (Set B), which consists of 22 students as participants.

Data were gathered through observation notes and reflection notes. Also, the researchers also conducted Focus Group Discussions (FGDs). Hence, the researchers’ role was to have access to the thoughts and feelings of the teachers without the influence of subjectivity, biases, and personal assumptions. During the transition lesson activity, there were teacher observers who have taken note of the learners’ experiences during the group activity. Furthermore, after the implementation of the transition lesson devised by the teacher researchers, learners were given post-lesson reflections where they expressed the challenges they have encountered during the activity as well as their coping mechanisms. Researchers narrated and interpreted the LS observations and other artifacts. The study made use of thematic analysis to look for patterns and interpret data that were collected from the participants.

Approval of this research was sought first from the school and division research committees. The researchers promoted the purpose of the study, observed and considered the rules and research ethics policies.

3. Results and Discussion

When the experiences and reflections of the learners were open-coded and thematically clustered, two major themes emerged: (1) finding common grounds in firming up coping strategies, which describes the challenges encountered by the learners on transitioning from online learning to face to face learning modality and (2) breaking limitations into possibilities of across discipline learning which elaborates the learners’ coping mechanisms.

The learners’ responses and reflections revealed two major challenges: (1) responding to emerging personal challenges and (2) dealing with external pressure.

Communicating ideas

During the transition lesson activity, learners struggled in communicating their ideas.

“Hindi ko mapalabas yung answer pero andito sa isip ko” (I cannot express my answer but it is in my mind”

“Ang hirap para sa akin na iexpress yung sarili ko” (It is really hard for me to completely express myself)

“Nahihirapan sila mag express ng kanilang answers. Hindi sapat yung isang question lang, kailangan may follow up questions para mas maexpress nila sarili nila” (They could hardly express themselves; one question is not enough. There must be follow up questions for them to express their answers)- Teacher implementer

From the written reflections, Teacher B figured out that learners have bright ideas but sometimes they cannot verbalize them. Reference ⁷ found related findings. Learners’ isolation and lack of face-to-face exposure among other people have long term repercussions on their social abilities.

Lack of confidence

Based on the classroom observations and on the students’ reflection, lack of confidence emerged as one of their personal challenges. Students preferred using meta cards over reciting and when they called out to recite, they held back.

In their post lesson reflections, students admitted their challenges were caused by their lack of confidence. This observation confirms the study of reference ⁸ that fewer interactions among students during online learning have an impact to learners’ self-confidence.

Furthermore, students cannot communicate verbally in English because of shyness, fear or making mistakes in front of others, inadequate vocabulary, or simply lacking the required knowledge ⁹. This is evident in the learners’ reflection during the transition activity.

“Alam ko ang sagot pero nahihiya ako. Madik ammo English na” (I know the answer but I am shy, I do not know the English term).

“Kinakabahan ako magshare” (I am so nervous to share)

Numeracy Skills

During the transition lesson activity, there was a part when learners need to measure using ruler as they were not sure of their measurements.

“Hindi ako sure sa measurements” (I am not sure of my measurements).

Another student took time figuring out how to use the meter stick and ended up placing the highest number on the base of the tower that they are measuring.

The disconnection due to pandemic impacted the numeracy skills of learners in various grade levels ¹⁰. Since public schools in the Philippines completely relied on their modules, students find difficulty in subjects that involve computations ¹¹. Based on the learners’ experiences in the transition activity, it is evident that their two years of learning online left a significant impact on them.

Limited knowledge and experience

In the first part of the lesson where the students were asked to identify kinds of towers, there was a misconception between an electric tower and a cell site tower but was checked by one learner who pointed at the cell site tower near the classroom.

Students’ limitations were evident in designing the tower.

“Hindi ko naisip pagpantayin ang tower” (I forgot to balance the tower).

“Wala akong maisip na design” (I cannot think of any design).

Processing instructions

During the transition activity where learners did their own towers, they mentioned that they find it difficult to process instructions.

“Hindi ko maintindihan nang maayos yung sinasabi ni maam” (I cannot understand what our teacher is saying)

Teacher-observers also observed the same thing. In the teachers’ reflections, they realized that students needed much time to process instructions due to the new set-up of being with other people.

“No matter how clear your instruction is, kailangan ulit ulitin yun sa kanila para mas maintindihan pa nila” (No matter how clear your instructions are, you still need to repeat it so they can better understand your instructions)

The lack of teacher’s guidance during their distance learning pushed the students to manage their tasks on their own for two years. Transitioning from one learning modality to another learning modality bring difficulties especially in classroom communication since they are still adjusting from what they used to do ¹².

Communicating with peers

In terms of dealing with external pressure, communicating with peers is their top struggle during the activity.

During the tower building activity, students were given ten minutes to complete the task. It took six minutes before group 5 started making their tower, with no definite plan in mind. There were no roles assigned to each member.

"Sige mayat atan, ipigket lattan” (I think that is good already, let us just tape it).

Teachers observed that they were confused and at the same time cramming.

"Nalito, nataranta sa paggawa” (confused and cramming while working)

In other reflections, students expressed the discomfort they felt in dealing with their peers.

“Talking to people. Trusting people will cause so much pressure. Working with people will create more problems”

“I am frustrated with my groupmates.”

This decrease in growth of collaborative skills among learners was also found by reference ¹³, in which their isolation due to pandemic affected their social well-being. The unprecedented shift to distance learning modalities made the learners completely rely on technology instead of interacting and communicating with others.

Managing resources

One evident problem of the learners in doing the transition lesson activity is managing their resources.

“Bumagsak ang tower. Kulang sa oras.” (The tower toppled, we ran out of time)

“Failed to finish the tower”

“Nagdikit-dikit yung tape. Kinulang sa oras. Hindi nakapagpatayo ng tower” (The tape was stocked. We ran out of time. We were not able to build a tower)

In her reflections, Teacher C described the inability of the students to communicate with their groupmates which affected their group output During the group activity, there were miscommunications making them manage their resources improperly.

The struggle in adjusting with peers was found to be a crucial point that needs to be recognized in adjusting strategies for in-person group performance. This was emphasized in the study of reference ¹⁴ that experienced disconnection, one of the unpleasant experiences during the pandemic. This, when remained unrecognized, will inhibit repositioning.

Learner participants have manifested remarkable coping skills. Teacher D appreciated one student for having shared the international name of the recent typhoon “Hinnamor” which she said is proof that learners have kept themselves updated even though they studied in blended platforms at home. Teacher A (the lesson implementer) noted the same observation and said that the learners tapped their previous knowledge and had kept themselves updated with recent news in the country.

This conforms with the findings that learners’ exposure to technology during the distance learning years allowed them to access information from the internet, enabling them to cope from diverse circumstances ¹³ [15-18] ¹⁵.

One student was quite confused of his subject: “English ba ito o Science?” (Is this English or Science?)

This implies that students have sensed the integration of different subjects in their lesson. During the lesson implementation, teacher E observed that simple science process skills like observing and gathering data were manifested by the students as they built their towers. This integration of science skills was highlighted by institutions who invested in the development of learners’ science process skills through hands-on and integrative approaches to learning ¹⁹.

Students’ reflections also show that they prefer in-person activities.

“I experienced being able to touch the activity physically.”

“Mas masaya ang face-to-face class kaysa sa virtual at mas may natututunan ako.” (Face-to-face class is more enjoyable than virtual because I learned a lot)

Researches pointed out the learners struggled the most because they were used to seeing their teachers in front discussing their topics compared to just seeing them on the screen ^{20, 21}.

Another highlighted her challenge on “Magrecite na walang script” (Being able to recite without script) which sounded like students had been dependent on prepared answers during their blended learning.

“Walang gadget na ginamit. Hindi nag lalag ang pag-uusap” (There was no gadget used. Conversation does not lag).

The gradual withdrawal from use of gadgets was introduced. It was found out that students were proud of themselves establishing independence from gadgets.

Peer support started to manifest. A classmate cautiously checked this misconception without offending his classmate by simply pointing at the real cell site tower near the school.

While there were reservations during the oral discussions, students found ways of expressing their answers using meta cards.

The limited discussions still contributed to a successful tower. Group 4 had the tallest and best structured tower. They worked by observing each other and gently pushing each member with short prompts.

Insecurities and doubts were shared with peers as their source of support and confirmation.

“Kasatnu idtoy baba?” (How do we start with the base?)

“Sige mayat atan.” (That is just fine)

In the processing of the group performance, a student recalled, “No permanent idea.” Teacher C interpreted this as “Parang ang ibig nilang sabihin ay iba’t iba ang ideas nila kung paano gawin yung tower.” (It seems what they want to say is that they have different ideas on how they make their towers).

Peer support as well as teacher support are linked to engagement. Encouraging peer support in classrooms helps in achieving positive academic outcomes, preventing academic-related problems such as alienation, establishing supportive relationship among students and motivating learners to participate in their own learning ^{22, 23}.

Learners’ ability to reflect from their learning gaps was also another major finding of this study. Reflective learning influences students’ in-depth, personalized and contextualized knowledge acquisition; comparative learning and structural connections as well as social connections among learners ²².

Even if the students were not aware whether they would be graded during the lesson discussion and performance task, teachers observed their active participation.

“Tuwang tuwa ang mga bata” (The students were enjoying)

Students’ reflections also show how proud they were of their performances.

“It is also fun even if it is hard to think while having pressure”

“Proud kahit hindi maayos ang tayo ng aming tower ay mas marami kaming nalaman” (I am still proud even if our tower did not stand because we had lots of learnings.)

Students were able to pick out strategies in improving their future performance tasks.

“Huwag mapressure kung ang ginawa ay hindi maayos” (Do not be pressured even if the output is not that good)

“Kahit hindi maganda ang pagkagawa, sa susunod ay alam na ang gagawin.” (Eventhough we did not make a nice tower, we learned from it on how to make a better tower next time around)

“Teamwork is important since it is our first time being observed in person.”

4. Conclusions and Recommendations

The learner-respondents have experienced two major challenges in performing a group transition task: responding to emerging personal challenges and dealing with external pressure. Specifically, in terms of responding to emerging personal challenges, they struggled in (1) communicating their ideas, (2) lack of confidence, (3) numeracy skills, (4) limited knowledge and experience, and (5) processing instructions. Furthermore, in dealing with external pressure, they encountered challenges on (1) communicating with peers and (2) managing their resources.

Learner participants have manifested remarkable coping skills. There are three major coping skills that learners did to overcome their challenges: (1) embracing new experiences, (2) turning learning gaps into learning gains, and (3) taking pride from small successes.

Furthermore, based on the conclusions of the study, the following recommendations are presented: (1) profile the students based on their responses, reflections and performances during the LS as basis in adjusting instructions (2) Conduct transition lessons to other grade levels to capture a school wide transition experiences, and (3) disseminate results to parents and other stakeholders to strengthen partnership in supporting learners’ repositioning to schools from blended learning platforms.

References