Seah Yee Mey, Chang Ana M, Dabee Smritee, Davidge Brittney, Erickson Jami R, Olanrewaju Ayokunle O, Price Rebecca M
University of Washington Bothell, Bothell, WA 98011.
University of Washington School of Dentistry, Seattle, WA 98195.
J Microbiol Biol Educ. 2021 Mar 31;22(1). doi: 10.1128/jmbe.v22i1.2401. eCollection 2021.
At the same time that COVID-19 cases in the United States first began to increase, fellows in a mentored teaching apprenticeship for postdoctoral scientists began to teach undergraduate seminars. The fellows suddenly needed to support students emotionally and switch to online instruction. They were encouraged to acknowledge and address the pandemic during each class and decided to do so. In this case study, we examined the language fellows used in response to this encouragement, hypothesizing that they would engage in a variety of pandemic-related instructor talk, i.e., language that instructors use in the classroom that is not directly tied to educational content. We analyzed transcripts from 17 2-hour undergraduate biology seminar courses and found 167 instances of pandemic-related instructor talk. We used grounded theory to identify categories that emerged from these quotations: Positive coping mechanisms and self-care; Adjusting to online learning; Compassionate instruction; Personal impacts; COVID-19 and society; Dreaming; and Biology of COVID-19. Talk in these categories may help build relationships among instructors and students. The category about quickly Adjusting to online learning is unique, in that it is unlikely that there will be another time that will require simultaneous and rapid national movement to online instruction. In addition, four of the seven categories are direct consequences of COVID-19 specifically, and thus are unique to this time. Analyzing pandemic-related instructor talk has shed light on how new instructors navigated the trials of teaching in 2020.
在美国新冠肺炎病例刚开始增加的同时，参与博士后科学家指导教学学徒计划的研究员们开始教授本科研讨课。这些研究员突然需要在情感上支持学生，并转向在线教学。他们受到鼓励，要在每堂课上承认并提及疫情，于是他们决定这样做。在这个案例研究中，我们研究了研究员们在回应这一鼓励时所使用的语言，假设他们会进行各种与疫情相关的教师话语，即教师在课堂上使用的与教育内容没有直接关联的语言。我们分析了17门两小时的本科生物学研讨课的文字记录，发现了167个与疫情相关的教师话语实例。我们运用扎根理论来确定从这些引述中出现的类别：积极的应对机制和自我关怀；适应在线学习；富有同情心的教学；个人影响；新冠肺炎与社会；憧憬；以及新冠肺炎的生物学知识。这些类别中的话语可能有助于建立教师与学生之间的关系。关于迅速适应在线学习的类别是独特的，因为不太可能再有另一个时期需要全国同时迅速转向在线教学。此外，七个类别中的四个类别特别是新冠肺炎的直接后果，因此是这个时期所特有的。分析与疫情相关的教师话语有助于了解新教师在2020年是如何应对教学考验的。
