Abstract:

The lockdown that took place in Spain due to covid-19 from March to June altered significantly teachers’ way of instruction. As in-person classes and exams were not allowed for safety reasons, all teachers had to change suddenly to distance teaching. In this study, ten mathematics teachers’ experiences and perceptions were analyzed by means of qualitative methods. Individual semi-structured interviews as well as a global discussion group was held with them. Results show how their initial commitment and hard work led eventually to a more relaxed way of instruction and assessment. Most of them believed that many students whose academic achievement had not been excellent during the course benefited from the experience as they marks raised suspiciously. Teachers’ indicated that the lack of tools to control students’ behavior during the online exams was probably the main problem they had to face. Moreover, the malpractices among students increased considerably and it was evident that many of the assigned tasks had been copied from other peers. All teachers indicated that in-person exams could have been a good measure to ensure that students did their tasks and studied properly during the lockdown.

Keywords:

Distance learning, covid-19, mathematics teachers, lockdown.