Dissertation

A Study of the Perceptions of Teachers on Teaching

Mathematics in the Online Mode.

A Dissertation Proposal in partial fulfillment of the

requirement for the degree of
MASTER OF EDUCATION

Investigator
G Narmada Devi

ED220008

M.ED. 2020-2022

Under the Guidance of

Dr. Kalpana Venugopal

Department of Education

Regional Institute of Education, Mysore

Title : A Study of the perceptions of teachers on teaching mathematics in the
online mode.

Introduction :

Online teaching is the process of educating others on virtual platforms. This type
of teaching involves live classes, video conferencing, webinars, and other online
tools. The online applications are developed and designed to facilitate easy
learning and better understanding.

The advancement in technology has improved the quality of distance education

and increased the trend of e-learning. Online tutors and learners are becoming
comfortable with computers and the internet. It is helping them to create a better
virtual learning environment.

Online teaching is a student-centric methodology that increases students’ interest

and participation levels in virtual classrooms. The teaching skills play a great role
in successful interaction with the students.

The online teachers use digital resources to share with their students and are
accessible to so many people. It provides a lot of freedom to individuals to learn,
teach, and develop skills at their own pace. This type of teaching supports one-on-
one basis interaction with the students. It makes them comfortable with tough
subjects.

Teaching online requires strong network connectivity and computing device

systems. Nowadays, more mobile applications are developed as they are easily
accessible by a large population. The mobile versions of the live teaching app
have helped in increasing the attendance and registration of students.

The old paradigm of balanced instruction focused on enabling children and

teachers to succeed at school. Today, the focus is for students to achieve college
and career readiness in life beyond school.

This new paradigm expects that students:

- Construct their own understandings.

- Apply prior knowledge and skills.

- Are consistently challenged.

- Take risks.

- See purpose in what they learn.

The goal is for students to be literate in mathematics so that we can

prepare them for a world where the subject is rapidly growing and is extensively
applied to a diverse number of fields.

Teaching mathematics can only be described as truly effective when it positively

impacts student learning. We know that teaching practices can make a major
difference to student outcomes, as well as what makes a difference in the
classroom.

Research and evidence from the field of mathematics lets us know, with a fair
degree of certitude, how effective teachers of mathematics skillfully integrate a
range of instructional approaches and resources to meet the diverse learning
needs of their students. Effective teachers:

- Know the pedagogy that determines how their students successfully learn.

- Know and understand the content and practices that students need to
comprehend, as described in the Standards framework.

- Know the students they teach as learners.

- Challenge all students at their own level.

- Encourage risk taking.

- Create purposeful learning experiences for students through the use of relevant
and meaningful contexts.
So in this study I focus on the perception of teachers on teaching mathematics in
the online mode. To know how their understanding of students has helped them
in online teaching with respect to assessment, assignment,and teaching
techniques.

Conceptual framework :

Offline mode of education is a face-to-face teaching and learning method that

helps a teacher impart education to his/her pupil in easiest possible way by
understanding if every student is getting the subject properly as there is face-to-
face interaction between a teacher and a student.

Due to this pandemic we had to shift to online teaching and learning at all levels.
Both students and teachers had difficulty in handling technologies.

With mathematics, there are few challenges of online teaching: how to

explain and present mathematics without face to face interaction, how to keep a
record of students’ homework and assignments in real-time and how to assess
their knowledge in the end.

The implementation of learning from home policy with the temporary closure
of learning activities at school which is decided in a sudden and without adequate
preparation by the teachers and school will certainly have an impact on the
learning process. Conventional learning that has been carried out so far is
expected to be immediately repaired and transformed into a learning domain in
all-technological network.
This condition become a new challenge for teachers to package Maths material
and learning into fun and interesting for students during pandemic situation
because Maths is often considered as the most difficult subjects among others in
school, whereas the learning objectives must be achieved. To achieve this goal,
the use of varied online platforms provides the ease of Maths teaching learning
process. The utilization of online multimedia for teaching maths is very important
to increase students’ achievement.
This study is an attempt to know the perception of teachers on teaching
mathematics in the online mode with respect to teaching techniques, Online
assessment, and online assignment along with the problems faced by them during
online teaching.

Review of related literature :

Sangeeta and Urvashi Tandon (2020) , " Factors influencing adoption of online
teaching by school teachers : A study during covid 19 pandemic".

The findings of the study revealed performance expectancy, and facilitating

conditions had a positive impact on behavioural intention as well as attitude.
However, effort expectancy failed to drive teachers' adoption to online teaching.
On the other hand, social influence had insignificant relationship with attitude but
significant relationship with behavioural intention. Attitude had a significant
impact on behavioural intention as well as actual use.

Abhinandan Kulal, Anupama Nayak (2020) , " A study on perception of teachers

and students towards online classes in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi district".

The work tries to explain the opinions of students with regard to impact of online
courses, their comfortability in its usage, and the support received from teachers
in online classes along with teachers' opinions on efficacy, teaching practice
followed and training received for an online class.

Findings : The study reveals that students are comfortable with online classes and
are getting enough support from teachers but they do not believe that online
classes will replace traditional classroom teaching. It also finds that teachers are
facing difficulties in conducting online classes due to a lack of proper training and
development for doing online classes. Technical issues are the major problem for
the effectiveness of the online classes.
Rusi Rusmiati Aliyyah (2020)," A perception of primary school teachers of online
learning during the COVID-19 pandemic period - A case study in Indonesia".

This study explores the perceptions of primary school teachers of online learning
in a program developed in Indonesia called School from Home during the COVID-
19 Pandemic.

Teachers perception on instructional strategies, challenges, support, and

motivation of teachers.

The success of online learning in Indonesia during the COVID-19 Pandemic was
determined by the readiness of technology in line with the national humanist
curriculum, support and collaboration from all stakeholders, including
government, schools, teachers, parents and the community.

( 2020) , "Tutor perception on personal and institutional preparedness for

online teaching and learning during the covid-19 crisis : The case of Ghanaian
Colleges of Education " .

The results indicate that only 33.3% of the respondents could teach confidently
online, while 66.7% needed more training to confidently deliver lessons online.

Furthermore, none of the 9 colleges had policies on online teaching. It is

therefore recommended that tutors should be given support in ICT and online
skills and competencies through continuous training.

(2015), "Turkish Mentors' perception of roles, competencies and resources for

online teaching".

This survey study intends to identify roles, competencies and resources for online
teaching in Turkey by asking online mentors of Anadolu University what they
think about the roles they should perform and the competencies and resources
they should possess in order to teach online successfully. Results have shown that
the participant Turkish online mentors agree on the significance of the assessor,
the content expert and process facilitator roles; on the other hand, they indicate
lower level of necessity for the material producer and the administrator roles.
Results have also revealed lack of design competencies among online mentors.

Conclusion :

Previously researches have been done on perception of teachers and students on

online teaching and learning, competencies and resources for online teaching,
preparedness of teacher and institution for online teaching.

These researches are mostly conducted on teachers in general. There is no study

on Maths teachers in particular.

The identified research gap is that, there is no research conducted on secondary

level Maths teachers' perception on online teaching techniques, online
assessment and online assignment.

Need and significance :

Education is very important in day today life. With the sudden outbreak of virus
we were forced to adapt to online mode of teaching and learning at all levels.
Even though there was no proper training given to all the teachers, they had no
other way than online mode of teaching and learning. The knowledge of gadgets,
how to use them effectively and how to deliver content by using appropriate
methodology were all challenges faced by teachers.

Right from chapter delivery to assessment, most of the teachers were forced to
conduct everything online. That too maths being an abstract subject it comes with
added challeges, as how teachers are going to make them understand the
concept.

Taking everything into account, It becomes important to know what teachers

perceive about this online teaching of mathematics and the major factors that
may affect that.
 Also, understanding about the different factors that might influence the teacher's
perception and in turn their maths teaching, would help in greater regulation of
them and in the increase in teacher's efficiency of teaching maths online. It will
also help in making effective changes in online teaching and learning of
mathematics to cater to everyone's need.

This study aims to understand all of these and help not only in the improvement
of teaching learning of mathematics but also for further research to be conducted
in this area.

Statement of the problem :

Education is very important and at this point of time the teaching learning process
has become more complex due to this sudden shift to online mode due to this
pandemic.

Mathematics being an abstract subject, it is very difficult to teach in the online

mode because it requires training in the usage of gadgets like graphic board, and
technologies.

Mathematics contains a number of concepts which require interaction,

continuous support, monitoring from the teacher and these aspects were lacking
in the online mode of teaching.

So the researcher is interested to study the perception of maths teachers on

techniques of online teaching , online assignments and online assessments.

Research Objectives :

1. To study the perceptions of teachers on teaching mathematics in the online

mode with respect to online assignment.

2. To study the perceptions of teachers on teaching mathematics in the online

mode with respect to online assessment.
3. To study the perceptions of teachers on teaching mathematics in the online
mode with respect to techniques of online teaching.

4. To study the perceptions of teachers wrt online assignment, assessment and

techniques of online teaching with reference to :

a. Teaching experience.

b Nature of appointment.

c. gender of teachers.

d. Types of schools.

e. Inservice training for online teaching.

5. To find out the problems faced by teachers teaching mathematics through the
online mode.

Research questions :

1. What is the perceptions of teachers on teaching mathematics in the online

mode with respect to online assignment ?

2. What is the perceptions of teachers on teaching mathematics in the online

mode with respect to online assessment ?

3. What is the perceptions of teachers on teaching mathematics in the online

mode with respect to techniques of online teaching ?

4. What is the perceptions of teachers with respect to online assignment,

assessment and techniques of online teaching with reference to :

a. Teaching experience ?

b Nature of appointment ?

c. gender of teachers ?
d. Types of schools ?

e. Inservice training for online teaching ?

5. What are the problems faced by teachers teaching mathematics through the
online mode.

Variables of the study :

Gender

Teaching experience

Types of schools ( Government and Private)

Inservice Training in online teaching

Nature of appointment ( Permanent or Contractual)

Operational definition :

Perception means ideas, belief or experience of the teachers.

Perception : Perceptions of Mathematics teachers on using online techniques for

teaching, assignments and assessments.

Teachers : Here teachers refer to class 8th to 10th teachers who taught maths in
the online mode during the pandemic.

Online mode: In my study, online mode means synchronous teaching, where

teacher takes live classes through web and video conferencing technologies.
(google meet, hangouts, zoom etc.)

Design of the study : Qualitative Survey Method.

Population : In the present study the population consists of all the CBSE
secondary school Maths teachers of classes 8th, 9th and 10th of Mysore city .

Sample : By simple random sampling method 8 CBSE Secondary Schools(4

government and 4 private) would be selected where online maths teaching was
done for class 8th to 10th at Mysore city during the pandemic.

Tools of the study :

Questionnaire
Topic: A Study of the Perceptions of Teachers on Teaching Mathematics in the Online Mode.

Objectives :

1. To study the perceptions of teachers on teaching mathematics in the online mode with respect to
online assignment.

2. To study the perceptions of teachers on teaching mathematics in the online mode with respect to
online assessment.

3. To study the perceptions of teachers on teaching mathematics in the online mode with respect to
techniques of online teaching.

4. To study the perceptions of teachers wrt online assignment, assessment and techniques of online
teaching with reference to :

a. Teaching experience.

b Nature of appointment.

c. gender of teachers.

d. Types of schools.

e. Inservice training for online teaching.

5. To find out the problems faced by teachers teaching mathematics through the online mode.

General questions about the respondent :

1. Name:

2. Age:

3. Gender:

4. Teaching which class:

5. Name of the school :

6. Nature of appointment ( Permanent /Contractual):

7. Total teaching experience :

8.Total teaching experience in online mode:

9. Total teaching experience in offline mode :

Questionnaire related to techniques of online teaching : ( multiple options

can be chosen as answer)
1. What are the Facilities used for online classes ?

A. Laptop.

B. Computer

C. Mobile phone/Tablet.

D. Others.

2. What are the Platforms used for online teaching?

A. Youtube.

B. Zoom meeting.

C. Google classroom.

D. Mail

D. Whatsapp.

F. Google meet

G. Others ( mention it)

3. How comfortable are you in giving online classes?

A. Very comfortable

B. Sometimes need help.

C. Most of the time need help.

D. All the time I need help.

4. How do you feel about the work load in the online teaching ?

A. Teacher's work load is lighter.

B. Teacher's work load is same as offline.

C. Teacher work load is heavier.

5. Is it possible for you to ensure that students are understanding you and your teaching?

A. Not possible at all.

B. Most of the time not possible.

C. Sometimes possible and sometimes not possible.

D. Most of the time possible.

All the time possible.

6. How do you feel about connecting Maths with real world during online class?

A. Find it easy.

B. Find it same as offline.

C. Find it difficult.

7. How comfortable are the students in asking doubts in the online class?

A. Very comfortable

B. Very rarely ask doubts.

C. Not comfortable at all.

8. How do you teach the abstract concepts of Maths?

A. Use videos.

B. Demonstrate by turning on the video.

C. Orally explain let them imagine.

D. Others.
9. How do students ask their doubts?

A. During online class itself.

B. Through whatsapp ( after the class)

C. Through Mail( after the class)

D. Through google classroom after the class.

E. Others.

10. What kind of materials do you use?

A. Attractive learning video.

B. Powerpoint presentation.

C. Digital board.

D. Documents/ Pdf notes.

E. Others

11. Would you like to suggest anything related to the improvement of online teaching experience :

Ouestionnaire related to online assessment :

1. How often do you conduct online assessments?

A. Less often than offline.

B Same as offline.

C. More often than offline.

2. Is it possible for you to ensure that students are are not cheating ?

A. Yes, it is possible

B. No, it is not possible

C. Sometimes possible and sometimes not.

3.Do you conduct class test for assessing the students ?

A. Yes

B. No

4. Does the class test be live( keeping the video on) or not live ( you ask to submit the paper within
specified time) ?

A. Live

B. Not live

C. Sometimes live ,Sometimes not live.

D. Don't conduct class test at all.

5. How often do you conduct Formative assessment?

A. More often than offline

B. Same as offline.

C. Less often than offline.

D. Don't conduct at all.

6. How often do you conduct summative assessment?

A. More often

B. Less often.

C. Same as offline

D. Don't conduct at all.

7.What type of questions do you include in assessment?

A. Application questions.

B. Memory questions.

C. Others.

8. What type of test do you conduct?

A. Objective type.

B. Explanation type.

C. Others.

D. Don't conduct test at all.

9. Do you use google form or pen paper test ?

A. Use online google form.

B. Send pdf/document question paper.

C. others.

D. Don't conduct at all.

10. How do you send them the questions for assessment?

A. Share in google meet.

B. Mail.

C. Google classroom.

D. Others.

11. Do you think online assessment really helps the students?

A. Yes, it helps.

B. No, it doesn't.

C. Sometimes it does and sometimes doesn't.

12. How is the performance of the students in online assessment?

A. Better that offline assessment.

B. Same as offline assessment

C. Poor than offline assessments.

D. Don't conduct assessment at all.

Inservice training for online teaching :

1. Was any Inservice training given to you for online mode of Maths teaching (Yes/No)

2. If yes, it was of how much duration (in days/weeks/months):

3. What kind of training did you attend:

a. Seminar

b. Discussion

c. Workshops

d. Conference

e. Demonstration

d. Others (please mention it)

4. How was the Inservice training on online teaching conducted? (offline/ online mode)

5. Was the Inservice training on general online teaching or specific to maths?

6.How many training sessions you have attended related to maths?

7. Do you feel that training was helpful to you while taking online classes ?

8. Did you receive any training on ICT? ((briefly explain)

9. Did you receive any training on online assignment specific to maths subject ? (briefly explain)
10. Did you receive any training on how to conduct online assessment specific to maths subject? ( briefly
explain)

11. Did you attend any inservice training related to online maths teaching resources?

12. Was there any follow up sessions to ensure the effectiveness of the Inservice training program?

13. What kind of follow up sessions were conducted, if any?

14. What are your views on the quality of these in-service training programme ?

15. What are your suggestions for improving the in-service training program?

Problems faced during online Maths teaching :

1. Was there any difficulty to reach students in remote areas ?

A. Yes

B. No

C. Sometimes.

2.Was there any difficulty to motivate the students ?

A. Yes

B. No

C. Sometimes.

3.Was there any challenge to keep track of student’s progress ?

A. Yes

B. No

C. Sometimes.

4. How often do you face problems related to internet connectivity?

A. Always.

B. Most of the times face problem.

C. Sometimes face problem.

D. Rarely face problems.

E. No problem at all.

5. How often do you face problems related to electricity ?

A. Always.
B. Most of the times face problem.

C. Sometimes face problem.

D. Rarely face problems.

E. No problem at all.

6.How often do you face problems related to discipline of the online class?

A. Always.

B. Most of the times face problem.

C. Sometimes face problem.

D. Rarely face problems.

E. No problem at all.

7.How often do you face problems related to lack of technical knowledge?

A. Always.

B. Most of the times face problem.

C. Sometimes face problem.

D. Rarely face problems.

E. No problem at all.

8.How often do you face problems due to Lack of motivation in online learner ?

A. Always.

B. Most of the times face problem.

C. Sometimes face problem.

D. Rarely face problems.

E. No problem at all.
9.Did you find it difficult to concretise the abstract concepts?

A. Yes

B. No

C. Sometimes

10.Did you find it difficult to manage both house and the class?

A. Yes

B. No

C. Sometimes.

11. Was it a challenge to complete your syllabus within the stipulated time?

A. Yes

B. Sometimes

C. No

12. Was there any work pressure from the school's side ?

A. Yes

B. No

C. Sometimes

13. Was it difficult to clarify students' spontaneous doubts ?

A. Yes

B. No

C. Sometimes.
14. Was it difficult to make students' understand numerical sums?

A. Always

B. Most of the time

C. Sometimes

D. Very rarely.

E. Not at all.

15. Did you face problem in organizing resource materials for online maths teaching?

A. Yes

B. Sometimes.

C. No

Delimitation :

- This study does not cover all over India.

- This study is limited to only CBSE school teachers.

- This study is limited to only secondary school teachers.

- This study is limited to Mysore city.

- This study is limited to only Maths teachers.

- This study does not cover teachers of all the subjects.