DELIvERY Project: Did E-Learning Inform Educational Research with Youths? The impact of online learning post pandemic among primary teachers.

The Covid- 19 pandemic resulted in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) institutions resorting to remote learning to train teachers. A recent OfSTED report (2021) indicated that “despite partnerships’ best efforts, research shows that as the trainees have had much reduced opportunity to teach in the classroom and therefore develop core knowledge and skills, such as behaviour management.” Currently a dearth of literature exists over the efficacy and confidence of student teachers who primarily used online teaching placements as impromptu alternative assessments, due to restricted access to Northern Ireland schools (McGill et al, 2021). Therefore, this paper presents the mixed methods case study findings of a post pandemic longitudinal study of PGCE Primary teachers who had been ITE students during 2020. Qualitative data from semi structured interviews conducted with the graduates, revealed a generation of teachers who although displayed a high confidence in embedding technological use, a follow-up survey highlighted minimal use of online learning platforms to engage parents and pupils in their current pedagogical practice. Focus group data with the parents who engaged with the PGCE student teachers also made comparisons of classroom online engagement now and during the Covid – 19 pandemic. Findings are concurrent with other research studies (Bacher-Hicks et al., 2023) that highlight the deficiencies of supporting learning in online teaching and learning. Parents reported that although they felt under prepared to transition to online learning during the pandemic, they felt the student teachers had provided very useful learning material that supporting learning at home. This study concludes with policy recommendations that highlights the importance of providing more robust mechanisms of teacher professional learning for the pandemic teaching graduates for missed learning and the paper also indicates how digital skills should be utilized more effectively to engage families given the expertise of Covid graduate teachers in providing online learning.