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Ensino em Re-Vista

On-line version ISSN 1983-1730

Ensino em Re-Vista vol.28  Uberlândia  2021  Epub June 29, 2023

https://doi.org/10.14393/er-v28a2021-14 

ARTIGOS DE DEMANDA CONTÍNUA

Impressions on teaching and learning in times of pandemic COVID-191

2Doutora em Psicologia. Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janiero (UERJ), Bolsista CEDERJ, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil. E-mail: ms.alfg@gmail.com.


ABSTRACT

The severity of the COVID-19 pandemic led to the adoption of measures to decrease the contagion between people by the virus. Considering the school dynamic, which involves close interaction and crowds, it was decided to suspend face-to-face school activities. In view of the possible negative effects on learning, it was decided to continue teaching remotely. This paper seeks to reflect on the impressions that teachers, students, and parents have about the remote teaching-learning process used by private schools in the city of Rio de Janeiro in the face of the pandemic. The study, qualitative and exploratory in nature, involved 36 participants. We used unstructured interviews as methodology. The results pointed out specificities of each group and indicated that despite the difficulties they faced they developed a new posture towards the teaching-learning process as a whole and discovered other possibilities for teaching and learning in the context of emergency distance learning.

KEYWORDS: Teaching-learning process; Remote education; COVID-19 pandemic

RESUMO

A severidade da pandemia do COVID-19 levou à adoção de medidas para diminuir o contágio entre as pessoas pelo vírus. Considerando a dinâmica escolar, que envolve interação próxima e aglomerações, decidiu-se pela suspensão das atividades escolares presenciais. Face a possíveis efeitos negativos na aprendizagem optou-se pela continuidade do ensino de forma remota. O presente trabalho busca refletir sobre as impressões que professores, alunos e pais têm a respeito do processo de ensino-aprendizagem remoto usado pelas escolas particulares da cidade do Rio de Janeiro ante a pandemia. O estudo de natureza qualitativa e exploratória, envolveu 36 participantes. Como metodologia usamos a entrevista não-estruturada. Os resultados sinalizaram especificidades de cada grupo e indicaram que apesar das dificuldades enfrentadas eles desenvolveram uma nova postura diante do processo de ensino-aprendizagem como um todo e descobriram outras possibilidades para ensinarem e aprenderem no contexto do ensino emergencial a distância.

PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Ensino-aprendizagem; Ensino remoto; Pandemia COVID-19

RESUMEN

La gravedad de la pandemia de COVID-19 llevó a la adopción de medidas para disminuir el contagio entre personas por el virus. Teniendo en cuenta la dinámica escolar, que implica una estrecha interacción y aglomeraciones, se decidió suspender las actividades escolares presenciales. En vista de los posibles efectos negativos sobre el aprendizaje, se decidió seguir dando clases a distancia. Este trabajo pretende reflexionar sobre las impresiones que tienen los profesores, los alumnos y los padres sobre el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje a distancia utilizado por las escuelas privadas de la ciudad de Río de Janeiro antes de la pandemia. El estudio, de carácter cualitativo y exploratorio, contó con 36 participantes. Como metodología se utilizó la entrevista no estructurada. Los resultados señalaron las especificidades de cada grupo e indicaron que, a pesar de las dificultades enfrentadas, desarrollaron una nueva postura hacia el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje en su conjunto y descubrieron otras posibilidades de enseñar y aprender en el contexto de la educación a distancia de emergencia.

PALABRAS CLAVE: Enseñanza-aprendizaje; Educación remota; Pandemia COVID-19

Introduction

The severity of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world has led to the adoption of measures aimed at decreasing the chances of infection among people by the virus, such as: carrying out quarantine, avoiding the use of public transportation, practicing social distancing, doing work remotely, as well as teaching (SEN-CROWE; MCKENNY; ELKBULI, 2020).

According to the literature (ARRUDA, 2020; SEN-CROWE, 2020), the infection of young people by COVID-19 tends to be mild and, in a way, becomes a major problem. Children and adolescents can transmit the virus without knowing they are infected, putting other people at risk, given the possibility that, once infected, they develop a severe clinical picture that requires intensive medical care (SEN-CROWE; MCKENNY; ELKBULI, 2020).

That said and considering the school space and dynamics, which invariably involve close interaction and crowding, it was decided to suspend the face-to-face school activities. Believing that the suspension of classes without a concrete forecast for its return could negatively impact students, it was decided to continue classes remotely (ARRUDA, 2020; BURGESS; SIEVERTSEN, 2020; SENHORAS, 2020).

The transition from face-to-face teaching to the remote version in brazilian schools, occurred in a short period of time, from 15 days to, at most, one month, given the urgency for the students to start their school routine again. The preparation time was important both for the school to structure the virtual learning environment and for the families to organize themselves in order to reconcile their parents' work, their children's studies, and the available technological support so that everyone could do their activities.

In the city of Rio de Janeiro, context of analysis of this study, it was found that private schools had, on average, 15 days to organize themselves in terms of preparing the remote classes. This period also included the preparation of teachers for the use of the virtual class platform and the guidance for parents on how distance learning will be held (RONDINI; PEDRO; DUARTE, 2020).

For the vast majority of teachers, the time dedicated to the construction of a new pedagogical practice proved to be insufficient. There was no time to address the various issues that arose during the process of building and adapting to remote teaching, such as: understanding how a virtual classroom works, how and which resources can be used to compose the class, and how to create a stimulating and challenging learning environment (ARRUDA, 2020).

We observed that the teachers participated in several meetings and working groups in order to have more information about how online teaching works and thus ensure the continuity of the educational process. Therefore, the teachers' lack of didactic-methodological experience with remote teaching made them plan their classes intuitively, trying to adapt the content to the digital educational tools made available by the school. Thus, they tended to transfer to the virtual environment the face-to-face teaching model, whose methodology does not have the same effect, since distance learning has its own characteristics and dynamics, implying the development of a differentiated pedagogical approach.

Thus, this paper proposes a reflection on the impressions that teachers, students, and parents have regarding the remote teaching-learning process used by private schools in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, considering the context of the new coronavirus pandemic.

We conducted an exploratory study, qualitative in nature. Participants were asked to speak freely about how they are experiencing remote teaching in times of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thirty-six subjects from two private schools, whose public is mostly middle class, participated in the study. Both schools are located in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro. The subjects were equally distributed between the two schools, defined as A and B. Twelve teachers (6 elementary and 6 high school), 12 students (6 elementary and 6 high school) and 12 parents (6 elementary and 6 high school) participated. We did not distinguish between the genders of the participants.

From face-to-face classroom to virtual: the challenge for teachers

Distance learning in Brazil began in the 20th century through correspondence courses. Over the years, distance education was updated due to the emergence of new media that allowed a new form of organization of classes, as well as, access to them. Thus, we see courses taking place via radio, TV and, more recently, via the internet (VIANNA; ATAIDE; FERREIRA, 2015).

Distance Education (DE) was regulated as an educational modality by the law 9.394/96, in which the teaching-learning process occurs mediated by devices linked to information and communication technology allowing student-teacher interaction to occur in a different space-time. The Article 2 of Decree 5.622, of December 19, 2005, expanded the offer of distance learning considering, among other areas, the basic education (DIAS; LEITE, 2010).

According to Arruda (2020), distance education involves a number of specialized actions aimed for developing teaching strategies that combine the synchronous and asynchronous aspects of learning. For this reason, the teacher does not work alone in distance education, there is a whole team that advises him in the development of his work, guaranteeing the technical, pedagogical and aesthetic quality of his classes and the materials he uses as supplements.

Faced with the suspension of classroom classes, the school had to build remote learning spaces, but these spaces tended to move away from the characteristic structure of distance education. What we noticed in this process of adaptation of the classroom school was the use of various technological resources, with the purpose of transferring the structure of the classroom to the remote environment, without expressing the care related to the use of technical and pedagogical language inherent to distance education.

We often come across the idea that to teach an online class would be enough to act as if it were a face-to-face class. This resulted in various problems that can be seen in the current transition from face-to-face to remote education, for example, the inadequacy of complementary material and the inefficient use of technological tools. It seems that the difficulties observed may stem from the school not having considered how much teachers know about the relationship between technology and pedagogical practices (GOMES, 2014; RONDINI; PEDRO; DUARTE, 2020). The short time schools had to organize and enable their virtual classrooms seems to have led them to privilege the technical preparation of the teacher for online teaching. However, most teachers signaled difficulties in putting into practice what they had programmed for their students, as we can see in the statements below:

“I am still groping in the remote classroom. I've never worked so hard !! It would be easier if I had someone to explain how everything works, I feel something is missing ”. (Teacher, Elementary School I, school A)

“I prepared the slides until early morning hours and I was unable to insert them on the platform to support the live class. The students tried to help, but there was no way. I had to improvise. ”(Teacher, Elementary School II, School B)

“I recorded the video for the recorded class. I was on deadline and posted it in the room. I got a message from support saying it's too big and I would need to edit. How? I decided to record it again, a never ending job.” (Teacher, High School, School B)

Given the apparent lack of guidance on didactics and methodology commonly used in distance education, teachers prepared their classes based on what they know, i.e., based on the face-to-face teaching model and the technological resources they use in their daily routine. In addition, many reported a lack of support from a specialist in the field to help them with tips on how they should organize the class, especially with regard to live and recorded classes.

“And suddenly, besides being teachers, we became youtubers! And how do we do it? By trial and error! And it is very difficult to record a video. Record it. Delete. Record it. Endless.” (Teacher, Elementary I, School B)

“I never imagined I would experience this. Suddenly, I have to record classes. Interacting live with my students, through a screen. I feel kind of artificial. I don't feel comfortable. It would be great to have someone to help in this new way of teaching.” (Teacher, Ensino Fundamental II, School B)

“Honestly, we should have taken a crash course on how to record a video. The other day I watched a recorded class and found it horrible! After that, I looked for information to try to improve. I miss this guidance from the school. There is no one from the area to help. We just do what we do and share what works with our colleagues.” (Teacher, High School, School A)

The private school, for the most part, is attentive to the advances in technology aimed at education (KENSKY, 2007). As soon as a new equipment or resource appears, the school turns to get them under the premise that the quality of education tends to improve. However, what positively qualifies the teaching is not the technology itself, but the way the teacher can use it considering the pedagogical content and the audience to which it is intended (GOMES, 2014). Once the teacher understands how to use a technological tool, he has the chance to explore it productively and thus has the possibility of making student learning more dynamic and functional.

The issues raised by the interviewed teachers concerning how unprepared and inadequate they feel for the activities they need to develop, might not even exist, if the school had a careful look at the continuing education of teachers.

The speech of the elementary school teacher below exemplifies how his practice changed from the moment the teacher understood how to use editing resources to make her videos. Such report reinforces the importance of teachers having specific training or at least a specialist available to assist them in their difficulties.

"Learning to use the video editing application was a great discovery in my life as a teacher. I can talk about the videos before, poor students [laughs] and after. It makes a huge difference! It is a lot of work. In fact, a lot of work, but it is worth it! I even get distracted preparing it. "(Teacher, Elementary School II, School B)

Time has always been a challenge for teachers. The daily routine, for most of them, has always been heavy with many demands where they have to split themselves between: school(s), classes, students, tests to be planned and corrected, preparing classes, posting grades, and their personal life, which involves another complex set of aspects.

The new work context arising from the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have expanded the teacher's routine leading to an even more fleeting perception of time.

“The time for lessons preparation is short and we still have to divide it with family and school meetings. I have at least two a week. To keep up I have to work until late at night or use the weekends. I am in this dilemma." (Teacher, Elementary I, School A)

"I find it very difficult to reconcile homework, family demands and the heavy duty activities at school now. It's complicated, especially for me, who has young children and a wife who is also a teacher. Did you feel the drama? But we take a deep breath and keep going. (Teacher, Elementary School II, School B)

"Sometimes, in fact many times, I prepare my lessons or make the videos late at night. During the day there is so much to do that I don't even know ... I take care of the house, help my kids with their studies, and have school meetings. I feel that I am getting tired. The pace is hard, besides the stress of the coronavirus." (Teacher, High School, School A).

But faced with the challenge of remote teaching that requires a proactive role from the teacher, without offering in return the proper training on how to act in the virtual learning environment, we note that teachers are not intimidated and have been working hard. Therefore, they seek information, support each other and, above all, count on their students, who like them, are also getting it right and getting it wrong in the experience of remote teaching in times of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Last week my son made a special, unscheduled appearance in my live class [laughs]. The students loved it. I was a little embarrassed, but it was kind of nice, because we took that breather...” (Teacher, Elementary School II, School A).

“Although the moment is difficult, it makes us want to improve. I have been studying distance learning and looking for applications that can help me make the class lighter. My biggest goal is to make them [the students] less stressed and more attentive. I use Darth Vader's voice to talk to my students, I write using many colors, I create and they respond positively. Everybody wins!” (Teacher, High School, School B)

Students and screen learning

The news that school activities would be continued remotely, due to the new coronavirus pandemic, was positively received by most of the interviewed students, regardless of the segment they study. This reaction was not surprising, considering the remarkable interest they have in the technological context and its interfaces. The agility with which students manipulate the available technological resources turns out to be an important feature of the behavior of the current generation.

Avid for technology, where we highlight the use of the internet and electronic games, students spend countless hours of their day in front of a screen (computer, notebook, cell phone or tablet), where they perform numerous simultaneous tasks or not, indicating that they have flexibility to deal with the multiple demands present in the digital context (GOMES and CORREA, 2009; ZOMER, SANTOS and COSTA, 2018).

However, for most students, using the internet for leisure proved to be very different from using it for study, especially to attend regular classes planned by the school. The students' expectations with the learning process, considering the analyzed narratives, seem geared towards the idea that they thought they would have a more practical and dynamic learning experience, which would provide more autonomy to organize their studies. However, this "magical vision" was not confirmed with the regular computer classes proposed by the school, as we can see, in the following statements.

“I don't want to study on the computer anymore...I want to go to school.” (Student, Elementary School I, School A)

“I liked it in the beginning, when it didn't have video and live class. When it had just the exercises and slides it was kind of cool.” (Student, Elementary School II, School B)

“I confess that I was excited with the news. I think it is important to continue studying, especially for us that is in high school. But taking classes at a distance is very different from what I imagined. It is quite heavy.” (Student, High School, School A)

“We're going into the second week of school and I'm still adjusting into it.”

According to the interviewed students the class routine in all segments was loaded, in which we found a combination of recorded and live classes and activities distributed throughout the school shift.

We can assume that the schools have thought the organization of the remote classes based on the face-to-face teaching dynamics, in which we have also verified the use of breaks for the students to rest. The two schools that participated in this study performed very similar activities. The differences refer to the duration of the classes, specifically, in relation to elementary school. School A organized the school activities for a 3-hour period, and School B organized them for a 4-hour period. With regard to the timetable for high school, both schools followed the timetables that they maintained in the face-to-face model. Thus, the students in schools A and B had fixed schedules for the classes to take place, where they attended and performed the tasks as if they were "at school".

That said, it was not difficult to predict that the adopted structure, strongly rooted in the face-to-face model, would generate difficulties in the remote learning process, such as: demotivation, lack of interest, fatigue or stress, as we can see from the students' reports below.

“It's the same as before. Class, class, class. I miss school! My teacher, my friends... everybody” (Student, Elementary, I, School B)

“I miss my friends. We have a break, but it's not like playtime at school.” (Student, Elementary School II, School A)

“The classes are monotonous and we have a lot of new content. It's hard to concentrate. We spend a lot of time in front of the screen and the school doesn't use the tools as it should. As it is, I don't like it” (Student, High School, School B)

The students’ criticism of the way the classes were organized ratifies the hypothesis that the school was not concerned with the didactic and pedagogical aspects adequate for remote teaching. The structure designed proved to be inefficient to keep the students’ engagement, in a constant and productive way during the classes in all observed segments.

The reports presented also lead us to think that, in face of the remote learning proposal, the students expected a different type of learning, where they could have autonomy to build their knowledge, through the various tools available in this teaching modality. However, the class routine proved to be traditional and even heavier, demanding from the student a greater dedication to the studies and seeming not to consider the delicate context that they are living regarding the pandemic of the new coronavirus.

Despite the difficulty in staying concentrated during the online classes, most of the interviewed students do the proposed activities and seek support from the school, through the coordinators, whenever they have any problems. The students in the 8th and 9th grades of Elementary II and High School, for having more autonomy, were more engaged in the search for a balance between student and school demands.

All students indicated that they supported their teachers and, whenever possible, helped them by giving advice on how to use certain resources, by offering feedback on their activities or simply by encouraging them to continue. The following statements illustrate these aspects.

“I thought the history video wasn't very good, but I said it was so she would be happy.” (Student, elementary school I, School A)

“On Friday we talk with the teacher about what we liked best and what we didn't like so much or found difficult.” (Student, Elementary School I, School B)

“We wrote a letter to the coordinator asking the school to give 15 days of revision, because we have a lot of new contents. Many students have many doubts, because we have accumulated a lot of information. I think these revision weeks will be very good for everyone, not only for the students.” (Student, Elementary School II, School A)

“My class is starting a petition to improve our classes. We want the school to do something. The teachers are trying very hard. We talk to them, give them tips and stuff, but it's a lot of new topics. The teacher doesn't have time to prepare calmly. Everything is new and for everyone. We need to improve because I think that face-to-face teaching will take a long time to return.” (Student, High School, School B)

Parents’ understanding of remote teaching and their children's learning

Parents and guardians worried about the academic formation of their children, due to the possible discontinuity of the daily study routine, accepted the schools' decision to substitute face-to-face teaching by remote teaching, as long as the practice of social distance was necessary.

Upon receiving the class schedule and the general instructions offered by the schools on how the remote study would work, the parents were faced with some problems, whose complexity varied according to the schooling of their children and the family dynamics.

Parents in the initial grades, whose children were in elementary school I, commented on the recurring need to interfere so that their children would perform the scheduled activities. The unexpected demand of this supposed active monitoring overloaded the parents, since they had to conciliate work-related activities with their children's school tasks. The following statements ratify this idea:

“I had to insist a lot with my son to do the live class. I stay around it all day. Alone they don't attend class. They get distracted very easily. It is extremely tiring. I can only work when the class is over.” (Parent, Elementary School I, School A)

“Online school is turning my life upside down. I have to do so much with them!", "I have been working late at night to free up the computer for their class and be available. I can, to some extent, mess with my schedule, they can't. If they don't watch, they miss content. If they don't attend, they miss out on content.” (Parent, Elementary School I, School B)

In the other segments, elementary school II and high school, the issue of monitoring the children's studies did not emerge strongly. Parents showed less concern about having to “study with their kids”. Some mentioned monitoring their children's study routine leaving them more "free". Probably, the age of these students, around 11-17 years old, and their school experience corroborated to the development of a more autonomous study practice, where students would ask their parents for help when they had any doubts or if they needed to do something more elaborated, as we can see in the statements below.

“Here at home we always talk to them, showing them that they are too old to take responsibility and keep up with the subjects on their own, and that at some point they will be demanded to do so. The only thing I say is to keep everything up to date.” (Parent, Elementary School II, School A).

“I keep up with their studies, but I don’t study with them. I just tell them not to pile up the tasks and to come to me if they need help. So far it’s working out well.” (Parent, elementary school II, School B)

“Around here, I make them more comfortable. Some recorded classes they watch in the afternoon, depending on their mood and the day. I go into the room once in a while to see if they are attending. And we keep going!” (Parent, High School, School A)

“Sometimes, I ask how the classes are going, what they are doing. I don’t ask too much. What I notice is the anxiety for the return to school.” (Parent, High School, School B)

The main concern of parents was about their children’s performance. The guardians indicated that they have many doubts about the quality of learning and are afraid that important gaps will occur, due to what they observed about the organization of the classes and the quality of some materials that, many times, do not hold the attention or interest of the students.

“I think the school should offer more dynamic alternatives to get the student's attention and interest. The planning should approach the contents in a more playful way, with adequate language and time, also adequate.” (Parent, elementary school I, School A)

“The video lessons, recorded or live, are very long. Sometimes they exceed the class time of 45 minutes. My son has already accumulated a number of videos. It's impossible to learn this way.” (Parent, Elementary School II, School A).

“It's a lot of content given in a fast-paced, uninterrupted manner. There could be stops for review. It makes me very worried and not confident in the quality of learning.” (Parent, elementary school II, School B)

“My biggest concern is how the fundamental and basic concepts are turning out. I think they won't be learned well and that will impact school life in the future...anyway, we'll see what happens.” (Parent, High School, School B)

Another aspect that the parents interviewed pointed out was the lack of dialogue with the school. They said they did not receive enough information about the pedagogical planning and how the evaluations would be done, as we can see, in the following reports:

“There are adults who don't work with distance learning! Imagine them! We are already closing the second month of classes and we don't have any feedback from the school about how the kids are doing and how they will do in the future. How can parents and teachers measure the children's performance?” (Parent, Elementary School I, School A).

“Unfortunately, the school needed to create a platform in 2 weeks, train teachers, assemble didactic supplies, and train students. So I understand the problems, but I am not reassured. It lacks an open conversation with us to explain how it will be.” (Parent, Elementary School II, School A)

“We are going to do 2 months without knowing anything about the schedule of the content to be covered per subject.” (Parent, High School, School A)

“Will be tests? Will there be face-to-face class replacement? Review? I can't tell you. The school doesn't say anything about it.” (Parent, High School, School B)

“Each segment has its issues, but I believe that for high school it is worse. It's a lot of subjects to be taught... those who are in the 1st year will do their HS in two and a half years. Those in the 2nd year, who have most of the material, will do it in one semester and those in the 3rd year have lost so much, that when I think about them my heart gets really tight. I don't think it's possible to recover... The school is wrong in not embracing our demands. They should offer less impersonal answers.” (Parent, High School, School A)

“For the little ones the biggest problem is literacy, it will delay about 6 months. Of course the break is not good, but I think the school will do something more specific when face-to-face classes restart. I hope so, because the only information I have is that the school is trying its best and etc etc.” (Parent, Elementary I, School B)

About the students' assessment, we observed that most parents understand it as necessary, but expect the school to think about the modus operandi of the evaluation process with criterion and care, because the moment requires attention to the students, given the difficulties they may be facing related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the adaptation to remote education. The comments below illustrate the parents' concern about this issue:

“We are left between a rock and a hard place, because evaluation is very important. But, in my opinion, it would be very inhumane to fail a student. The school should think of another kind of way to evaluate the student. No one is at ease to study and take tests.” (Parent, Elementary School I, School A)

“I am against making evaluations worth grades. I think students should do diagnostic evaluations, so that teachers can see what they need to improve. They are stressed, tired with this routine, and they are still very young. The school hasn't positioned itself on this yet, but I will be against the use of traditional assessments.” (Parent, Elementary School, School B)

“My biggest doubt, and I think most people's as well, is how the evaluation will look this year. Will we have the same test-and-test scheme? Would that be right, considering the pandemic and the classes the way they are going?” (Parent, Elementary School II, School A)

“The exams are part of the school routine. They need to happen, even for the teachers to know if the students are learning or not, but I would like them to happen later on, not while we have distance learning. It bothers me that the school has no position on this.” (Parent, Elementary School II, School B)

“One thing that worries me a lot is seeing our kids locked in their rooms, since all this started, just studying, studying, studying. Imagine if we had that routine of tests, one after the other! I don't think we should have them, but they are necessary. I don't know what to think, they're still suffering from the pandemic.” (Parent, High School, School A)

“About these evaluations, I think the school should consider the moment the students are going through and the level of anxiety they may be experiencing. The result may not be consistent with what they know. I hope the school will be that careful.” (Parent, High School, School B)

Conclusion

In the face of the new coronavirus pandemic, a series of measures had to be adopted in order to try to contain the virus and minimize its impact on society. This resulted in the construction of new ways of being in society, in which virtual interaction was favored as a counterpoint to the need to maintain social distance. Thus, working, studying, shopping, chatting, or small celebrations began to occur with technology as the main interface.

With regard to education, after less than a month of classes starting, the school and its actors were taken by surprise with the suspension of in-person classes in the state of Rio de Janeiro. It was believed that in about 15 days, there would be a positive picture of confrontation with the new coronavirus that would guide society back to normality. But, this is not what happened. The number of those contaminated by COVID-19 has grown, underlining the need to keep schools with their face-to-face activities interrupted.

The school, as a whole, seems to have favored the setting of the virtual learning space. Numerous technological resources were made available so that the teaching-learning process could occur in a productive and functional way to enable the continuity of studies.

At first sight, everything seemed to happen without major problems. In approximately 15 days, the virtual school was up and running at full speed, but the preparation time was not enough for the extensive training of teachers to teach at a distance, and it was also not enough for the schools to foresee the difficulties that the students would have to perform the tasks at home, considering the family dynamics.

Although the situation everyone is facing is complex, involving the specifics of remote education and the unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen great efforts by teachers, students, and parents to create a minimally functional and, above all, supportive learning environment.

The speeches presented indicated that there is a distancing of the school, as an institution, for the teaching-learning process itself, which is built on the relationship between student and teacher, and not by the use of technology itself. The school, concerned with guaranteeing a "remote learning structure" seems to have left in second place the teacher's training, that is, what he or she understands and needs to know about teaching at a distance. If the school had taken the minimum care with teacher training, teachers could have more easily adapted their teaching materials and, consequently, their classes would be more dynamic, because they would tend to reflect a balance between the two models of teaching, face-to-face and remote, in this initial moment of construction.

Teaching remotely may seem simple, but it is not. Teaching online requires diligence, time for investment, and a critical eye from the teacher, to verify if what he or she intends to teach meets the: how, when, how much, and for whom it is intended.

We understand that the school's preliminary idea was to do "some" online classes, but the negative repercussion of the pandemic led them to continue with this emergency project. Therefore, the posture of "putting out fires" was maintained, hindering the remote pedagogical planning in the medium term, which, in turn, contributed to the continuity of the problems observed in the beginning of the remote classes, despite the almost three months of suspension of the face-to-face classes.

Thus, we can see the current urgency for the school to think about and seek to solve the problems observed. Until the vaccine against the new coronavirus is available to everyone, remote teaching tends to be a resource that will go hand in hand with face-to-face teaching to ensure continuity and access to classes by all students. Therefore, in order not to overburden teachers, to minimize parents' insecurity about possible learning gaps, and to encourage students to study, schools cannot insist on looking at remote learning through the lens of face-to-face teaching.

It is important to emphasize that the current teaching-learning context is no longer the same. Students and teachers have also changed and, therefore, transposing the face-to-face teaching model, with all its characteristics, to virtual learning platforms may not produce the results expected by the school. Finally, and as relevant as the academic education of students, is the care for the human formation of students and teachers.

A quality education is not only built with well-structured classes, with the contents taught and evaluated impeccably through tests and exams. Quality, above all, is achieved when teacher, student and parents are positively involved in the process, that is, when they have reasons that lead them to interact in an active and dialogical way, despite the problems they experience.

The support that the school can offer to teachers, students, and parents can mitigate the observed negative aspects of remote teaching and maximize the positive aspects, still modest in their expressions, but existents.

The most important aspect of this experience was the perception of teachers, students, and parents that, besides the difficulties faced, they developed a new attitude towards the teaching-learning process as a whole and discovered new possibilities for teaching and learning. Paraphrasing the poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade, they discovered that in the middle of the path there was a rock and decided to climb it, because the view from the top allows a glimpse of a whole horizon yet to be explored.

“I will definitely be using some of the tools in my future classes. Despite the confusion at the beginning, I think it worked out well. Imagine, we can use it calmly. It will be very good.” (Teacher, Elementary School I, school A)

“Now I search for other videos about the lessons on the Internet. I didn't do that. I used to read the notebook, the book, the sheets, and that was it. Now I see that there is a lot of cool stuff on the Internet that helps me to study.” (Student, Elementary School II, School B)

“Look, the tips on pedagogical sites for me, it's worth it! If I think it's not very good, if he still has doubts, I look for some extra exercises and that's it. I'll use them forever.” (Parent, Elementary School I, School A)

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1English version by Ana Lucia Gomes. E-mail: ms.alfg@gmail.com.

Received: June 01, 2020; Accepted: January 01, 2021

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