| Abstract [eng] |
Classroom management is an essential component of successful learning as chaotic environments are unable to support the attainment of educational goals. While management of traditional brick-and-mortar classrooms has been studied extensively over the years, technology-mediated instruction, which has especially grown in popularity following the COVID-19 pandemic, brings its own set of challenges to classroom management. In light of this, the study sought to gain insight into the ecology that develops in remote classrooms, with its challenges, and practices used to overcome them and create an environment conducive to learning. To achieve this, authentic video data from Zoom classrooms was collected and examined using multimodal conversational analysis. The key questions the study asked were: (1) what are the key parameters of the architecture of the remote learning environment studied and their features; (2) what effect do these parameters and their features have on classroom interaction; and (3) what classroom management practices emerge in response to the changes in classroom architecture and interaction patterns imposed by these changes? The study showed a gradual qualitative shift in the resources used for instruction and classroom management by replacing the resources of the physical space of the classroom (e.g. 3D models or whiteboard) with their digital equivalents (e.g. a visualiser image of teacher’s notes). The data suggests that the introduction of digital tools was mainly used to re-establish the teacher’s authority (compromised by failure to preserve a boundary between personal and professional selves, student association of poor IT skills with incompetence and other factors) rather than aimed at directly improving the quality of teaching. The replacement of embodied practices (e.g. walking around the classroom) with navigation of the virtual space (e.g. sharing the teacher’s screen with students more effectively) was also observed and attempts to explain these empirical facts throught the processes of instrumental genesis or resemiotisation were made. A significant number of overlaps caused by the interactional pattern imposed by Zoom was also observed and linked to gradual reduction of verbal interaction as well as increase of more formal and abstract ways of gathering feedback (e.g. by using written surveys or ‘thumbs up’), making it severely limited and lacking nuance, and increasing teacher workload as most of these feedback-gathering methods require much more advance preparation. Since some of these practices and tendencies can potentially have a significant effect both on student learning and on teacher job satisfaction, further research into features of remote learning environments and their effects on classroom management and learning are recommended. |
