Abstract:

During the pandemic conditions, chemistry classes together with classes from all other subjects were mostly conducted remotely. These changes in the way of teaching also affected the way of communication. In this paper, we will focus on the e-communication of chemistry teachers with students, parents and colleagues. The communication shifted into a completely new environment including social networks, e-mail and IM. You need to know how to convey a verbal and non-verbal message and learn how to avoid noise in the communication channel. Semantic and psychological noises in the communication channel are the sources of problems and misunderstandings among teachers, students and parents during both in-person and remote teaching.

The aim of the research was to examine the perception of the effectiveness of chemistry teachers' e-communication with students, parents and colleagues. The results of this research provide great resource when professional development of chemistry teachers is planned in order to improve chemistry teachers' e-communication. The research was conducted in July 2021 using an online questionnaire during the state level conference organized for chemistry teachers in primary and secondary schools. Out of the total number of participants (N=283), 32.86% of respondents (N=93) completed the questionnaire.

The results of the research show that chemistry teachers in primary and secondary schools perceive their e-communication in such a way that they often try to be available to students, parents and colleagues in the online environment. They want to make sure that the recipients of the message will understand the message in the right way. They pay particular attention to the clarity of the message and the targeting of the message to a specific group. The message should be direct and unambiguous. The answers of chemistry teachers indicate that occasionally, even in the conditions of e-communication, they can recognize the needs and feelings of the people they communicate with. Furthermore, it is evident from the respondents' answers that they often lack the non-verbal part of the message in e-communication with students, parents and colleagues.

The results also show that there is a statistically significant difference when examining the differences in the perception of the chemistry teacher's effectiveness or success in sending messages compared to that of receiving feedback from students, parents and colleagues during e-communication. Chemistry teachers in primary and secondary schools estimate that elements of the quality communication occur more often when sending messages from teachers to participants involved in e-communication compared to receiving messages from students, parents and colleagues.

When examining the self-criticism of teachers in assessing their own e-communication in comparison with the e-communication of students, parents and colleagues, it is statistically significant that chemistry teachers more often rated themselves as betters in e-communication with students, parents and colleagues.

Based on the results of the research, it can be concluded that the chemistry teacher's perception of his or her e-communication is an important segment in the process of distance learning. Therefore, it is important to continue the professional development of chemistry teachers in order to acquire the skills of successful two-way communication during both in-person and distance (online) chemistry classes.

Keywords:

Perception, e-communication, distance learning, two-way communication.