Identifying and modeling the successful educational experiences of elementary school teachers in the e-learning environment during the Corona era

Following the outbreak of covid19, e-learning has provided a unique opportunity to face the limitations of face-to-face education and achieve the ideal of education for all. Since teachers are considered as the most important influential factor in the teaching-learning process, the analysis of their successful and unsuccessful educational experiences can give us a deeper understanding of the current situation and provide solutions to achieve the desired situation and strengthen it. Given the vast amount of research conducted on the challenges and problems of teachers in the electronic context, the present study aims to focus specifically on the strengths of teachers' teaching experiences in the new learning environment. Therefore, the purpose of this study is  identifying and modeling the importance of successful educational experiences of elementary school teachers in the e-learning environment.

This is a qualitative and phenomenological study. Participants in this study include all elementary school teachers who had the experience of teaching in electronic context (Shad Program) in the academic year 2020-2021. Eighteen teachers among them were selected through purposive sampling and semi-structured interviews were used to collect information until the researcher could achieve theoretical saturation. The findings were analyzed, using Colaizzi's seven-step strategy. In-depth analysis of the interviews resulted in the identification of 7 main categories and 25 related sub-categories. In the next step, the identified key categories entered into the Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) software. In this section, first the structure of the communications between the categories was drawn in the form of an interactive network and then the importance of each of them was determined.

The research findings showed that successful educational experiences of elementary school teachers in the e-learning environment in the order of their importance  include the development of technological competencies (61 points), progress and modernization of curriculum elements (60 points), paying attention to emotional-psychological needs (53 points), promotion of social skills (51 points), development of scientific education (28 points), paying attention to aspects of biological and physical education (21 points) and strengthening  aesthetic capacities (17 points).

The results of the present study can be considered as a continuum in which, on the one hand, the development of technological competencies is of the highest importance and, on the other hand, the strengthening of aesthetic capacities is of the least importance. Based on the results obtained, a major overhaul of pre-service and in-service teacher training methods is needed to keep pace with the developments in technology-rich environments. In order to improve the quality of the teaching and learning process in the electronic context, teachers should also pay attention to the specific requirements of this new educational environment and its developmental capacities, and instead of using traditional teaching methods, prioritize their focus on educating students in all areas, encouraging group collaboration and participation in the virtual classroom, fostering students' curiosity and flourishing their individual creativity, strengthening students’ motivation students and paying attention to students’ individual abilities, interests, talents and personal differences of students in the new ecosystem so that they teachers could  hope for an effective and active presence of students in their virtual classes.