Abstract:

The global Covid-19 pandemic has hit all human industries negatively. It was no different in Czech education. Following the declaration of a state of emergency, the Government of the Czech Republic also decided on 10th March 2020 to close all schools from 11th March 2020. Teachers and pupils thus found themselves in a new situation, which no one had ever experienced before. In connection with the announced quarantine, it was necessary to teach pupils at a distance through modern information and communication technologies. Despite the technical possibilities of the modern era, however, some teachers have managed the situation very difficult. In its report of 15th April 2020, the Czech School Inspectorate stated that the most common communication platform at elementary schools is WhatsApp and that a large proportion of schools communicate with pupils only via e-mail or social networks. In general, it was found that at the 2nd level of elementary school, 72% of pupils are involved in online communication with the teacher. The main cause of non-communication of pupils is usually insufficient conditions at home, such as the absence of a computer or a poor internet connection. The paper is devoted to a survey at the 2nd level of a selected elementary school in the district of Pilsen-South and focuses on distance learning of mathematics in the Time of the Covid-19 pandemic. A total of 59 respondents (pupils from the 6th, 7th and 8th grade of elementary school) took part in the survey. The survey took place at the turn of March and April 2020. The questionnaire created using the Google Forms application contained a total of 6 questions, which were devoted to the amount of the assigned tasks, approach to the assigned tasks or the preferred ways of assigning tasks and teaching during emergency distance learning. The evaluation was performed in a quantitative way. A positive finding was that a total of 74.5% of pupils considered the amount of mathematics curriculum to be adequate (two pupils from 6th and 7th grade even stated that there were few tasks). More than half of the pupils (52.5%) proceeded in fulfilling the tasks in mathematics according to the schedule set by the teacher. A total of eight pupils (13.5%) said they plan to advance its program in such a way that their curriculum appropriately followed up. Furthermore, 13 pupils (22%) stated that they work out tasks according to the deadline, regardless of the schedule set by the teacher. Most pupils (49%) stated that when working on tasks they first try to work independently, but then they have to ask their parents, older sibling or contact the teacher via e-mail. About videos and online live lessons (e.g. via Google Meet or Zoom), pupils in mathematics prefer YouTube videos made by their own teacher and his approach (71.2%). However, one of the 8th grade pupils also stated that he had not watched any of the videos and that there was no point in preparing them for the pupils. The live online lesson was then welcomed by 18.6% of pupils. The last question of the questionnaire was open, and the pupils had the opportunity to comment briefly on the course of distance learning in mathematics and communication with the teacher. The questionnaire survey and related paper provide information on the teaching of mathematics at the 2nd level of elementary schools in the Czech Republic and provide information to the teacher on how to adjust distance learning to suit all pupils as much as possible.

Keywords:

Distance learning, Covid-19, teaching mathematics, state of emergency, closure of schools.