Practices and challenges of virtual teaching at community schools

Abstract

The present study entitled Practices and Challenges of Virtual Teaching at Community Schools aims to explore the practices of teachers for online-virtual teaching at government schools of Nuwakot district. It also aims to find out the challenges of virtual teaching through the study. Furthermore, research aims to suggest some pedagogical implications of the study. The research adopted the mixed research approach to carry out the investigation under survey research design. The sample population for the study were the teachers working in the community schools of Nuwakot District. The sampling procedure was random sampling. The researcher applied a set of questionnaire with close ended and open ended questions as tools of data collection. The data collected via both open and close ended questionnaires from the sample population has been genuinely appreciated that helped to complete this research work. The study found practice of virtual teaching less effective due to various challenges as like: lack of sufficient technical devices, internet access issues, digital literacy issues, poor school infrastructure, lack of training, and lack of technical as well as administrative support from the schools to the teachers. No any school ran the online virtual class fully even during the lockdown days. So is the case found even at present day in the selected government schools. This thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter deals with the introduction of the study along with the background of the study, statement of the problem, objectives of the study, research questions, significance of the study, delimitations of the study and definition of the key terms. The second chapter consists of review of related theoretical literature, review of empirical literature, implications of the review for the study and conceptual framework. Similarly, the third chapter is about methodology and procedures consisting of research design, research tools, sources of data, data collection procedures, data analysis procedures and ethical considerations. Furthermore, the fourth chapter is about results and discussions along with the analysis and interpretation of the data and findings. Moreover, the fifth chapter presents the conclusions and implications related to the policy level, practice level and further research of the study on the basis of the findings. At the last but not the least, the references and appendices are included on the research.