Investigating the use of OER and OEPs by Brazilian public basic education teachers during the Covid-19 pandemic

Viviane Vladimirschi – Independent Researcher

vvladimirschi@gmail.com

@vvladi

GO-GN Fellow

OER 2022

Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Overview of the Project

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About this Presentation

Goals & Outcomes of the Study

• GO-GN Fellowship (Funded by the Global OER Graduate Network) and supported by the Hewlett Foundation
• Criteria for inclusion: be a K-12 public school teacher & possess knowledge of OER
• To better understand the challenges faced by K-12 Brazilian public school teachers during Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT).
• To assess if teachers used OER and/or OEPs during ERT.
• To incorporate perspectives & experiences of teachers during this period of crisis.
• To develop a framework and/or guidelines to catalyse a better path for the future.

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Process and Methodology

• Interviews: 60 minute interviews with 6 Brazilian basic education public school teachers.
• Categorisation (coding) and analysis of data undertaken using NVivo.
• Dissemination of results through presentations, blog posts and publications.

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Online Interview Questions

• Demographic data (grade, subject, years teaching, location, skills & knowledge with ERT, who participants resorted to help with ERT)
• Technology, instructional material & pedagogical practices used to deliver ERT
• Main obstacles faced
• How student engagement & learning was assessed
• Use of OER
• Use of OEPs
• Plan to use OER & OEPs in F2F classes
• Lessons learned

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Population Demographics

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Preliminary Findings�Technologies used for ERT

• WhatsApp to exchange info between teachers and to provide accessibility to digitally excluded students for learning purposes;
• Google Classroom;
• Google Meet for synchronous classes;
• YouTube Channels;
• TV programs created by State Governments (Northern region of Brazil);
• Printed textbooks/activities delivered to students at schools;
• Email.

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Preliminary Findings�Instructional material used and pedagogical practices

• WhatsApp to practice pronunciation;
• Textbooks and sheets of activities (student kits);
• Jamboard;
• YouTube videos (songs, stories, fables, chemistry, physics, history & geography);
• Games;
• Cartoons;
• Comic strips;
• News articles;
• PDFs;
• Feedback provided via email or Google’s text editor;
• Synchronous meetings (interaction with students was limited to students responding using chat tool);
• Students used email for doubts;
• One teacher produced his own instructional materials for History & Geography lessons (i.e., primary sources, fragment of existing texts, maps, texts from experts in the area);
• Teachers reported replicating f2f pedagogical practices in the online environment.

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Preliminary Findings�Challenges faced by teachers

• No directives from the Ministry of Education at the beginning of the pandemic;
• In 2020, teachers were required to go to the school, pick up assignments and correct them at home (asynchronous classes started to be offered only in 2021);
• In 2021, some State Governments required used of Google Classroom but not all teachers had previous experience with it (some teacher education was provided);
• Work overload; need to upgrade WI-FI; deal with family at home and noise; need to deal with students’ cognitive loss and evasion; loss of bond; student interaction and participation was a challenge; exposing themselves in camera was new and challenging;
• Little time to produce instructional material;
• Challenges for students: they needed to learn how to use ICTs for learning purposes despite being digital natives;
• How to deal with digital exclusion;
• Learning by doing due to lack of knowledge and skills with ICTs and remote learning.

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Preliminary Findings�Challenges faced by teachers

• Lack of knowledge and skills of school director and pedagogical coordinator for ERT (political aspects often dominate);
• Problems with distribution of printed material;
• The Brazilian National Curriculum (BNCC) has many gaps and went into effect in 2020 and teachers did not receive any professional development to implement it.

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Preliminary Findings�Use of OER

• Development of an eBook;
• Use of repositories with material on History (with no clear indication of CC licenses);
• Use of books available on the Internet and texts and images in the public domain;
• Use of OER to produce Literature, Portuguese and Spanish instructional materials;
• Development of a video and fruit cards from scratch for literacy;
• It’s still a challenge for teachers to use CC licenses and attribute them correctly (i.e., one participant reported copying and pasting the CC logo);
• Use of repository from Universities and other educational institutions (some with open licenses);
• Complaints that there was no feedback from the the MEC RED * (Ministry of Education Repository of Digital Resources) repository.

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*Plataforma MEC de Recursos Digitais (Ministery of Education Repository of Digital Resources) https://plataformaintegrada.mec.gov.br

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Image “OER” by Karen and Brad Emerson licensed under CC BY 2.0

Preliminary Findings�Collaboration with other teachers and use of OEPs

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• Use of OEPs to share material and for help;
• Sharing of instructional material, images and audio via WhatsApp or Facebook;
• Joining of subject-specific groups to share materials;
• Sharing of tools with colleagues;
• One teacher reported difficulty in sharing ideas and instructional material because there are no regular meetings held between teachers who teach the same subjects;
• One participant stated there is a lack of a culture of collaboration and many teachers develop things and don’t like to share them.

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Preliminary Findings�How students were assessed for engagement and learning

• Difficulty in assessing students during synchronous classes;
• Students who did not use Google Classroom had a lower engagement rate;
• Project-based learning (development of comic strips based on news);
• Collaborative and cooperative learning (development of avatars and cartoons);
• By obtaining regular student feedback on activities;
• 20% of students appeared to have not engaged in remote learning;
• Participants reported ERT exacerbated the existing digital exclusion, so it was difficult to assess engagement and learning of some of the students.

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Preliminary Findings�Plans to use OER and OEPs in F2F classes

• One teacher stated she has already begun developing all her classes using OER;
• Another teacher stated it’s necessary to create OER because there is a lack of instructional material in the Amazon region and OER could cater better to student’s needs;
• All participants plan to use OER in their F2F classes and acknowledge there is need to disseminate OER use and open license use. Most plan to do this in their own schools.

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Preliminary Findings�Suggestions and lessons learned

• Professional development should be offered more consistently and with higher quality;
• Better salaries (teachers have not received salary raises since 2013);
• Public policies need to be revisited and changed;
• Lack of infrastructure in public schools (teachers still need to use their own computers and WI-FI);
• Currently teachers can use their mobile phones in school;
• Easier to work with students remotely than in schools due to more reliable access to the Internet;
• Older teachers who were more resistant to technology are now better adapted;
• Students now know how to use email;
• Teachers are now more prepared to use digital resources and escape traditional classes by use of OER;
• Students need teacher’s mediation to use digital resources;
• There is need to disseminate OER and OEPs and provide incentives (not monetary but rather in prizes or awards) for those teachers who create or use them;
• Politics hamper collaboration and co-creation efforts.

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Phase 2 & Final Phase

• Recruit more participants;
• Validate preliminary findings with participants (member checking);
• Add concepts of open pedagogies and potential factors to catalyse a better path for the future and how collaborative work can support a different scope in the future;
• Develop a framework/guidelines aimed at improving future educational practices focused on better coping with times of crisis.

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Photo “Remote Teaching” by François Phillip licensed under CC BY 2.0

Questions?���Thanks!!���@GOGN_OER�@vvladi

Image “Question” by Cesar Bojorquez licenced under CC BY 2.0