Teachers’ virtual training: assessments of a pilot experience during the pandemic

Abstract

This work aims to present the results of a teacher’s training course in literacy taught online during 2020. It addresses teacher’s self-assessment of the educational development during the course and the assessment of the children’s learning process in kindergarten and first grade. The course was free of charge and developed in an e-learning platform due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The course articulated the development of theoretical knowledge and proposals for class interventions utilizing the framework of “We Want to Learn program”. The training course process involved the design of a digital platform. The course implementation covered 140 hours of training using a combination of individual learning with virtual workshops. A total of 534 teachers participated in the training. The qualitative results of the training and its impact in children's learning were assessed at the end of the school year using a self-guided digital survey. The data showed that more than 70% of the teachers considered the literacy proposal optimal. In relation to the course, the participants stated that they had acquired strategies to guide families during virtual classes and that more than 80% of the kindergarten and 1st grade classroom students developed the literacy skills that are proposed in the curriculum.