Emergency remote teaching during COVID-19 pandemic: lessons learned from Cyprus

ABSTRACT

The world’s education systems made extra efforts to respond to school closures and the consequences of the pandemic. This brief case study investigates the implementation of distance education in Cyprus K-12 schools during the pandemic. Teachers, learners, and parents encountered several challenges. The paper highlights critical issues that should be considered in policy and practice of distance education in Cyprus and other countries with similar context.

KEYWORDS:

• Distance education
• emergency remote teaching
• online learning
• conceptual framework
• primary education
• secondary education
• teachers
• COVID-19 pandemic

Acknowledgments

The research was conducted by the Centre for the Advancement of Research and Development in Educational Technology (https://www.cardet.org), with the support of the Cyprus Pedagogical Institute and the approval of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth. This research is part of a large-scale study aimed at preparing a comprehensive action plan for implementing distance education in Cyprus, based on teachers, parents, students, experts, and stakeholders’ voices.

Disclaimer

The views presented in this research are the views of the authors and CARDET and do not necessarily represent the views of the Cyprus Pedagogical Institute nor the views of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).