Embracing the New Normal Set Up from Modular to Face-to-Face Learning:

Experiences and Insights of Teachers

A thesis
Presented to
The Thesis Committee, Department of Teacher Education UM
Tagum College, Tagum City

In Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirement for
Elementary Education Research 1

May, Mary Joy A.

Lapiz, Glendel M.

Estilo, Ron Ford Van B.

Introduction

Over a billion students are at risk of falling behind academically as a result of

school closures intended to contain the spread of COVID-19 (UNICEF, 2020).

Majority of countries and territories abruptly shifted to online learning platforms to

mitigate the impact of school closures, address learning losses and adapt education

systems particularly for vulnerable and disadvantaged communities (UNESCO,

2020). As the pandemic reshapes how schools operate all over the world, teachers

take on multiple roles affecting all facets of life. To reduce the virus propagation and

stop infections, most countries have momentarily shut down school’s facilities (Tria,

2020). The Basic Educational-Learning Continuity Plan has been the DepEd's

primary reaction from the pandemic's inception (BELCP). To provide high-quality

training in the "new normal" setting, the BE-LCP makes use of self-learning modules

as well as other learning modalities including online, blended, television- and radio-

based instruction. Teachers bear a great amount of responsibility for taking

purposeful actions and ensuring that all learners continue to receive a high-quality,

inclusive, and equitable education despite the pandemic and they are immediately

challenged with implementing distance learning modalities upon the outbreak of the

epidemic, frequently without adequate direction, education, or resources. As a

consequence of this approach, not only pupils but also instructors and staff have

been shielded from catching COVID-19 (DepEd, 2020). Consequently, educators,

who are the leaders in this educational movement crises, and they are heavily

accountable for taking deliberate effort and ensuring that everyone students continue

to enjoy an excellent, despite the challenges, inclusive and egalitarian education

pandemic (UNESCO, 2020).

 During the modular instruction, teachers engage themselves in learning the

concepts presented in the module. They develop a sense of responsibility in

accomplishing the tasks provided in the module. (Nardo, 2017). However, they

include greater self-discipline and self-motivation required for themselves, increased

preparation time and lack of administrative resources needed to track students and

operate multiple modules. In the present time most of the teachers have manifested

characteristics that pointed out the negative effect of modules. Malipot (2020)

emphasized that teachers use modular remote learning to vent their grievances.

Teachers have received numerous training and seminars to be more equipped in

delivering better education during the COVID-19 epidemic, since it is a departmental

rule to train teachers not only for professional growth but also to become ready for

unexpected conditions, according to Bagood (2020). The primary obstacles that

surfaced, attested by Dangle and Sumaoang (2020), were a lack of school funds in

the design and distribution of modules, students' struggles with self-studying, and

parents' lack of understanding to academically assist their child/children.

Furthermore, the challenge during the pandemic is how to create a balance between

relevant basic competencies for the students to acquire and the teachers’ desire to

achieve the intended outcomes of the curriculum. The learners’ engagement in the

teachinglearning process needs to be taken into consideration in the context of

flexibility (Dayagbil, F. 2021).

Research Questions

This study seeks to find the answers of the following questions:

1. What are the experiences of the teachers in the new normal set up from

modular to face to face?

2. How do teachers cope up with the experiences?

3. What are their insights in the new normal set up?

Review of Related Literature

The New Normal Set-Up

Over a year, education systems have been unexpectedly and drastically

changed by the COVID-19 crisis. As a result, educators, who are on the front lines of

this educational crisis, bear a great amount of responsibility for taking purposeful

actions and ensuring that all learners continue to receive a high-quality, inclusive,

and equitable education despite the pandemic (UNESCO, 2020). It is the intent of

this study to look into the challenges in teaching and learning continuity amidst the

pandemic. The need to mitigate the immediate impact of school closures on the

continuity of learning among learners from their perspectives is an important

consideration (Edizon, 2020; Hijazi, 2020; UNESCO, 2020).

Curriculum recalibration is not just about the content of what is to be learned

and taught but how it is to be learned, taught, and assessed in the context of the

challenges brought about by the pandemic. A flexible curriculum design should be

learner centered; take into account the demographic profile and circumstances of

learners–such as access to technology, technological literacies, different learning

styles and capabilities, different knowledge backgrounds and experiences - and

ensure varied and flexible forms of assessment (Ryan and Tilbury, 2013; Gachago et

al., 2018). In the new setting, students are expected to read, understand and comply

with the tasks without the guidance of the teachers. They are forced to assume

selfdirected independent learning. The teachers on the other hand affirmed that the
use of face-to-face delivery would not work anymore in the new learning

environment.

This shows that this pandemic has created a new platform in teaching and

learning delivery that students are compelled to accept. In this situation, students

have to take responsibility for their learning, be more self-directed, make decisions

about what they will focus on how much time they will spend on learning outside the

classroom (The Higher Education Academy, 2014; Camacho and Legare, 2016).

Challenges Encountered by the Teachers from Modular to Face-to-Face

Due to a variety of circumstances amidst COVID-19, teachers had difficulty in

the transfer of high-quality education. It was discovered that they have difficulties in

validating their pupils' performances. With today’s mode of instruction, it is really a

challenge to validate students’ output and performance. From the narrative,

“teachers cannot monitor and evaluate the actual progress of the students”.

Assessing and engaging students are crucial issues in these times (Khlaif et al.,

2021).

According to Agarin (2021) the teacher's physical relationship with the

students has an impact on the students' academic performance. Following the

discovery of this information on the use of modular distant learning as a means of

delivering high-quality education during the epidemic, there has been a vacuum in

understanding of its implications for basic education and the role that teachers play in

achieving the modality's goals. With this, Anzaldo (2021) claimed that not all learners

do their modules committedly and without the presence of teachers and classmates

who remind them of their work, students are more likely to become sidetracked and

lose sight of deadlines. Particularly, given the lack of face-to-face lectures and the
fact that they were only using modules on their own. Akin to Pentang et al. (2020),

learners who independently worked on their modules do not fully guarantee quality

learning.

Another concern was found in the study. Parents are the ones answering the

modules. Parents’ writing was recognized by the teachers. As it can be noted on the

participants narrative, “it is evident that the outputs submitted were not from the

students but the output of the parent/guardian”. Anzaldo (2021) support this claim

that parents pamper their children and do their task instead of them. The parent’s

primary role in modular learning is to establish a connection and guide the child

(Manlangit et al., 2020), however, it is alarming that they go beyond this role.

Adjustment of Elementary Teachers to the Face-to-Face

The findings of this study demonstrated that, despite adversity, teachers have

adapted and justified the significant impact of face-to-face learning on learner

performance. The hardest aspect for the teachers in this face-to-face setting was

figuring out how to strike a balance between the curriculum's intended results and

the students' need to learn important fundamental skills. Flexibility must be viewed in

the perspective of the learners' participation in the teaching-learning process, they

developed a better understanding of their students' well-being and learning and

appear to be widely recognized as instructional specialists in the new usual set-up

from modular to face-to-face learning.

According to (Magsambol, 2021), teachers were challenged with the student’s

difficulty in understanding the face-to-face learning, because parents pamper their

children and do their task instead of them. Similarly, teachers have a lot of catching

up to do because they are promoting students to the next level even though they’re
unsure if their students actually learn. From Modular Distance Learning into face-

toface, teachers make sure that the quality of students learning remains and have

been finding ways to continue students‟ learning process.

Moreover, the teachers’ perspectives are equally as important as the learners

since they are the ones providing and sustaining the learning process. Teachers

should effectively approach these current challenges to facilitate learning among

learners, learner differentiation, and learner-centeredness and be ready to assume

the role of facilitators on the remote learning platforms (Chi-Kin Lee, 2020; Edizon,

2020; Hijazi, 2020).

Theoretical Lense

This study was anchored by Secuya’s Theory of Education Transition, it

simply states that appreciation, accommodation, and resilience are considered to be

the teacher’s adaptable determinants as an instructional specialist in the education

transition. Being a teacher in this time of transition requires teachers to appreciate

their function (recognition and understanding), to accommodate certain initiatives

(adjust), and to be resilient in difficult circumstance (efforts) for the learning continuity

to thrive amid the prevailing challenges and other adversities of the pandemic. The

theory can provide a frame of reference for the educational leaders and institutions

for them to come up with regulations and other guidelines that are responsive to the

needs and experiences of the teacher’s in actualizing the objectives of face-to-face

learning in the public basic education system. This can also provide a better

understanding of how the teachers understand their function, accommodate certain

measures and initiatives, and be resilient to fulfill their role as an instructional

specialist in the education transition amid the uncertainties in the time of crisis.
 As indicated by the discoveries of Dargo and Dimas (2021), students'

scholarly exhibition diminished after the execution of Modular Distance Learning

(MDL). This basically implies that up close and personal guidance is more powerful

and useful to the understudies. It was likewise found that MDL had more adverse

consequences than constructive outcomes. As per the review's respondents, there

are a few justifications for why particular distance learning unfavorably affects

understudies' learning. To start with, there is an absence of commitment between the

educator and the understudies. At long last, there are an excessive number of

assignments/exercises in the modules. According to (Briones 2020), In this new

normal educational system, students learn at their own speed at home by answering

modules,or family support and having tutors that will spend more money to learn and

listening to instructional radio and TV shows and having(or not) the necessary social

and academic capital to develop personal strategies to overcome these including

preparation for the subject, workload, overcrowded timetables, 24/7 challenges.

Similarly, there’s a lot of students drop out due to financial struggles adjustments in

distance learning such as factors impacting students' experiences.

METHODS

Design and Procedure

This study used the qualitative phenomenological design. This study involves

interviews to the elementary teachers in their experiences and insights from modular

to face-to-face. We used thematic method that support the analysis and abstraction

of data in order to construct a theory based on empirical data. The phenomenological

study was one type of qualitative research. The purpose of a phenomenology study

was to comprehend participant experiences more deeply (Creswell, 2007).

Qualitative research was often defined as being subjective rather than objective in

which the findings are gathered in a written format unlike numerical format. This

design focused on establishing answer to the why and how based on the

phenomenon. Furthermore, one of the reasons for conducting qualitative research

was to gain a comprehensive understanding of a specific topic or issue based on

teachers' experiences and insights regarding face-to-face iinteractions (Creswell

2007).

Phenomenological research is a qualitative research approach that seeks to

understand and describe the universal essence of a phenomenon. The methodology

examines human experience in daily life while putting aside the researchers’ prior

notions about the phenomenon. In other words, phenomenology research

investigates actual events to learn more about how people interpret them. However,

this method is frequently used to investigate lived experience, learn more about how

people think, and broaden a researcher's understanding of a phenomena. For

instance, a researcher might look at issues like workplace antisocial behavior,

women's experiences with specific diseases, and many others (Delve. Ho, L., &

Limpaecher, A.(2022).

The research involved fourteen teachers whose background were based on

their experiences and insights from modular to face-to-face set-up. Participants

required to respond to the questions provide to them. After, they were requested to

participate in a Focus Group Discussion and in-depth interview face-to-face were

conducted at the convenience of the participants, according to health protocols. The

participants maybe use in either English, Cebuano or Filipino during on the interview.
At the end of this study, themes and common patterns were extracted from their

responses (Jamon&Cabanes, 2019).

Moreover, this study concentrated on how the participants value the conduct

of researchers about their experiences or insights from modular to face-to-face. Our

job in this study is to interview and collect information to the teachers who had

experienced in teaching students this new normal set-up, specially to those teachers

who had 3 years up handling primary grade. As a result, we are confident that the

study's findings will benefit everyone specially to the teachers and students

relationship towards the pandemic.

Research Participants

In this phenomenological study, the informants are 14 elementary teachers

who experienced difficulties from modular to face-to-face, who were chosen through

purposive sampling. The study took place in the DepEd RXI- Division of Tagum City

with 7 participants for the Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and size of 7 for the in-

depth interview. The researcher can interact with the participants during a one-on-

one interview using nonverbal cues to allow them for an open and comprehensive

discussion.

The in-dept interviews were conducted to the teachers with at least 5 years of

teaching experience, with the combination of 4 females and 3 males individually and

in the focus group discussion were participated by another 5 female teachers and 2

males who experience the transition from modular to face-to-face set up. To protect

the identity and information of the study, we were use pseudonym to our participants

in order to protect their privacy and confidentially.

Research Interview Guide

The main instrument for this study was a research-interview guide, which was

conducted in either English or Cebuano, depending on the respondents' comfort

level. This research is based on preliminary interviews, content-appropriate

questions, and concluding statements that will aid in recognizing and comprehending

Teachers' Experiences and Insights from Modular to Face-to-Face Learning. An

informed consent form was presented to the chosen responders. They were given

ample time to consider their option to take part in the study. Following the acquisition

of permission, participants were told about the nature of the study, the breadth of

participation, the risks and rewards, as well as their rights, benefits, and

confidentiality.

In addition, credibility and trustworthiness within the study was increased

through multiple data collection sources to describe the phenomenon of interest such

as formal responses, observations, individual interviews, and focus group

discussions Creswell’s (2013).

Finally, three concluding questions were posed to the attendees. Each

participant will be given the same set of open-ended questions, with the option to

elaborate as required. To preserve participant privacy, reporting, and data analysis,

all replies will be coded.

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