Executive summary

This paper^[1] tried to assess distance learning especially the electronic education that was imposed by the circumstances of Covid19 pandemic in Turkey. The assessment process was done by a quick survey taken by the Turkish teachers, students and parents about their opinion regarding this process. The focus was on a sample of parents of Syrian and Arab students regarding their opinion in the process of distance learning imposed by Covid19 pandemic and to what extent the Syrian and Arab students follow and benefit from this process. The paper deduced the following results:

• 65% of parents wasn’t satisfied with the distance learning experience while 35% of them saw that this experience is acceptable- good.
• 50% of the students or less followed the distance learning operation- regardless its effectiveness- in one of its forms where video lessons or artificial learning platform or live lessons as video lessons were followed by 50% of the students while the artificial learning platform EBA was followed by 43% and live lessons were followed by 36% of the students. However, parents saw that students benefited primarily from live lessons then comes artificial platform and finally video lessons.
• The video educational lessons weren’t attractive for many students as 40% of the students weren’t interested in following them according to their parents while the percentage of the students that showed zero interest in the educational platform was the lowest one as it reached 17% only. In addition to that, the percentage of students that weren’t interested in following live lessons was 9%.
• The study stated that there is a segment of parents that didn’t exceed 10% didn’t know of the existence of one of the tools that were used in distance learning process.
• The female students showed higher interest in following video lessons with a percentage of 55% compared to 47% from the male students.
• Students in regular classes benefited more in all sides and from all tools than their peers in integration classes as students of integration classes showed less interest in following video lessons with a percentage of 46% in return for 51% for the regular classes’ students.
• The results indicate that the rate of following video lessons and benefiting from electronic education platform EBA among Syrian students in Istanbul city was better that the general rate among their peers in the rest of provinces.
• The language factor had a clear effect on the benefit from educational process among students as the results showed higher and ascending clear benefit for students that are advanced in language.
• About the effect of the study stage: The students of the preparatory stage showed the best results regarding following video lessons, using the platform and attending live lessons followed by the students of the secondary stage and finally the primary stage. On the other hand, students of the secondary stage showed the higher percentage in giving no interest in all the available tools while the students of the primary stage showed the higher percentage in not attending live lessons.
• The results indicate that more than half of the students didn’t follow their teachers during distance learning process.
• The parents weren’t prepared to shift to the distance learning process and they weren’t provided by clear instructions about their role in this process and this what made them show less interest in follow-up and communication.
• The necessary infrastructure to achieved the success of the electronic education wasn’t available for most of the Syrian families especially the electronic devices as many of the Syrian families had more than one child at school and they didn’t have enough devices to suffice for all students, also the TV wasn’t available in all houses this is in addition to the additional financial burdens resulted from this process on the family and the need for big Internet buckets.
• The early announcement of the success of all students and moving them to the next grades relying on their results in the class caused a converse situation that led to the decrease of student’s enthusiasm and his wish in continuing the educational process as he regarded his attendance and study have no value in his educational course.
• Some parents referred to the decrease of student’s level in Turkish language especially among students with medium and low educational levels in Turkish language and this is because the process of distance learning rely mainly in memorizing words while the student wasn’t able to interact in conversation and vocal participation.
• And regarding integration classes: The distance learning process continued during summer vacation but the number of imposed study classes wasn’t enough for many parents as many of them showed a clear confusion about the future of the integration classes students in the next year.

Recommendations

And to reach with the distance learning process to a better effect, especially with the confirmation of the Turkish Ministry of Education of starting the education 2020-2021 artificially or in case any new situations happen, we provide a group of recommendations^[2] which are:

Recommendations concerning distance learning in general:

• designing and implementing a remedial education place of cases of partial or emergent dropout and it should include many assessments to specify the level of students’ education in addition to training teachers and enabling them to make their guidance and educational practices fit with the levels and needs of the students, and also specifying the priorities of gaining children for basic skills which are a well-established strategies to enhance education outside the frame of the crises.
• Taking into consideration that the content required for distance learning is different from the traditional learning that relies on school book and worksheets which don’t suffice the requested content to prepare presentations in PowerPoint and it also requires the teacher to consider that the student may fall into boredom or get confused more than the traditional class so the teacher has to provide strategies during the class asking the student to use some tools or free applications to apply the information he received practically like for example gauging distance or specifying speed of a van in the street and so on.
• It’s important to realize that the same pattern of exercises can’t fit all the students for the same percentage so the teacher has to know weakness points and strength points of his students and encourage them to work in groups according to activities that fit their interests.
• Teachers can use many digital tools to ease the educational process for the children like installing programs for reading screen and using voice orders or programs that allow audio recording and assess the pronunciation especially in English and other languages.
• Some teachers or even Ministry of Education can make partnerships with some pioneer companies in the field of designing electronic curricula like Newsela which modifies the content of some subjects and makes it fit various groups, it also can launch a new course for teachers around designing education through Internet customized for specific residential groups.
• Easing accessibility for requested equipment like tablets- especially those that use smart pens- or printers for affordable prices and on comforting installments in order to make families able to secure the required equipment, this is in addition to studying the possibility of providing grants and presents for poor or clever students.
• Studying the possibility of providing a free tablet for each family that has at least three children in school.
• Allocating Internet buckets for affordable prices customized for school students in a way that allows them to access educational platform and following lessons only.

Recommendations related to activating the role of parents:

• Preparing parents before the start of schools and make them aware of the importance of pursuing their children for the study as well as reviewing some successful experiences in distance learning.
• Enhancing the periodical meetings or surveys that receive notes of parents through allowing registration for the parents within the electronic platform and following the progress of their children or through receiving weekly periodical reports that get produced automatically about the progress of the student.
• Clarifying the requested tasks from the parents completely regarding following the compliance of the student with the educational process or following his homework and setting proper circumstances for study.
• Sending alerting messages for the parents through phones in case the student delayed in performing his homework or stopped entering the educational platform.

Regarding activating the role of the student^[3]:

• Preparing the student psychologically for the distance learning process and asserting its seriousness and effect on his educational level as well as reviewing some successful experiences for the students that achieved success and excellence through it.
• Asserting on the student to get prepared for electronic study by preparing a special space for him where he can all his stuff as well as using headphones and a microphone with good quality. The student has also to commit to the complete school uniform during the class as this will make him psychologically prepared for the study.
• Asserting the importance of attending live lessons on scheduled times and keeping cameras open during the lesson as this will help the teacher to control the class.
• Making some live lessons and some filmed videos that explain for the student the programs he needs during the educational process and to train him on using these programs.
• The teacher shall provide clear explanation for the students about the tasks requested from them during the year as well as the responsibilities put on them and the importance of performing what is asked from them on the specified time.

Recommendations related to developing distance learning platform:

• Easing the process of student registration in the electronic platform as well as providing EBA code in an easier way.
• Programming the education platform and prepare it to send automatic messages to the parents in case the student didn’t enter the platform daily or according to the schedule.
• Programing the platform to allocate an Email address for each student and make him able to communicate with his teachers and with the management through it, as well as allowing him to send and download the requested tasks to cancel the use of social media and it will help the teachers to follow his performance in a better way.
• Programming the platform to accept recorded audio files or visual files in order to encourage and develop the student’s conversation skills.
• Programing the platform to allow the issuance of small secondary meetings chat rooms beside the main meetings chat rooms to help the teacher divide his students into work teams which will help in enhancing communication and team work as well as developing communication skills. It also shall allow the teacher to move around these rooms easily to follow the discussions of the students and the course of their work.
• Programming the platform on having a Honor Roll that shall include names and pictures of students that had the highest scores in some subjects or those who complied with attendance on the specified times or those who provide additional projects or works or those who the teacher nominate them because of the progress of their level or because of their distinction in some sides.
• Reactivating the library department of the platform by scheduling a group of books that the student should read and making sure that he completes these books by providing a test or a summary for the book.
• Allowing live lessons in a recorded form for the students that weren’t able to attend on their time and for a specified period and taking in consideration evaluating the student who attended the recorded lesson with half of the evaluation specified for the student that attended it live.
• Allocating a technical support team to be available during the official work hours to solve the technical problems of the students especially in the first months.
• Developing the ability of the distance learning platform to receive big numbers of students in the same time.
• Providing some recorded courses in a group of additional informative topics like programing and photo editing programs or design programs or literary writing or montage or elocution and these topics shall require the students to provide projects in them in order to complete them as they can allow the student to discover his talents and they also allows him to get additional evaluation for activities that can help in the final student’s assessment at the end of the year.
• Allowing the student to enter the platform any time and reprogramming the platform on sending advance notifications to the student to remind him on having a live lesson or having homework that are about to expire in case he didn’t sign in to the platform.
• Making periodical individual or group competitions according to each educational level in order to enhance the competition among students and enhancing the team work spirit as well as encouraging the student to think in problems and find solutions for them.

 Regarding activating and enhancing the role of the teachers:

• Considering the diversity of activities that fit different patterns of teachers by using charts or clipboards or tables or pictures as well as relying on colors and all these are good tools for the teachers that rely on the visual pattern. Or using recordings and audio books which fits the auditory pattern. Or using supporting activities for the subject of the lesson that rely on drawings or acting or puzzles or tangible things that fit the sensorial pattern. Also encouraging group discussions and activities of critical thinking as well as games that focus on a group of scenarios and encouraging students to asking questions that requires interpretation. Also directing the students towards projects that work on finding solutions for some problems or works on reaching results that rely on facts and this fits the analytical pattern. In addition to performing some “scientific” experiments or making classes in the open air as well as using examples from the nature to explain some phenomena.
• Being careful that the student might fall into the isolation trap as a result for not interacting with his peers or not being monitored by the teacher for being busy as it’s important that the student and the teacher share the educational process and that the teacher divides his students into small groups during the class and set competition between them.
• The process of student assessment should be developed as it’s not enough to perform tests that rely only on multiple choices or solving work papers. There must be other tools to assess the student like asking the student to make a video- in a topic different from his peers- in which he explains a specific topic or explains how to solve a problem and then make the students review all the videos and check their quality as a type of test for their knowledge.
• The teacher can develop the skills of his students in the field of scientific research and ask them to expand in some parts as well as searching in references and books.
• Being careful from transforming the space of electronic platform into a boring and serious shape that lacks joy and fun. The teacher can overcome this by using some auditory programs or comic videos or making funny polls related to the lesson’s topic to keep the joy of learning as well as using some tactics to elevate the tense of the students and make him attentive.
• The teacher can using some websites that can detect plagiarism to guarantee that the student will do his homework by himself and doesn’t copy them from other websites.
• Making sure that live classes include specific number of students that isn’t more than 10 to 15 students in primary stage and not more than 25 students in the rest of the stages to guarantee the ability of the teacher to control the class and allowing the students to participate and interact.
• Allocating an assistant teacher to follow the electronic homework and communicate with families as well as helping the teacher in control electronic class and controlling microphones and following chat windows.
• Establishing groups for teachers of same specialties where they can share their experiences and know some skills they need as well as exchanging materials and presentations prepared by them.
• Making specialized courses that focus on additional skills required in distance learning and methods of preparing content as well as programs and applications that the teacher can use.
• Making periodical reports about the basic and additional activity of the teachers and getting periodical assessment from the students in order to reward distinctive teachers and encouraging others to benefit from them.
• Allocating one hour during the artificial school day to be a break for the students where they can share general topics under the supervision of the teachers as well as allocating other hours during the week to do some activities like drawing, building models or learning cooking and doing some skills as attending such classes can help the assessment of the student at the end of the year.
• Giving a clear role for the Syrian teachers that were selected for schools to follow the Syrian and Arabs students and making sure that they know all the updates and changes that happen periodically on the educational process. Also making sure that they follow the dropped out students or those who don’t do homework on time and communicate with their families and inform them about the extent of their child’s interaction.
• Asking Syrian teachers to prepare lists that contain the most important Turkish terms used in each class and in each subject in order to translate them into Arabic and distribute them on students after editing the translation and checking its quality.

Regarding the curricula of distance learning:

• Collaborating and coordinating with some universities in order to prepare educational programs in specific topics through which it can be possible to discover distinctive students and give them special attention as well as easing the opportunities of joining college for them as success in such programs will be an additional factor to ease joining university or getting grants on the student.
• Focusing on performing periodical assessment processes for the students with the purpose of discovering weaknesses in the artificial curriculums or knowing weakness points the student suffer from and working on treating them later with additional videos and exercises.
• Checking curriculums provided by other countries and benefiting from their experiences as well a setting partnerships to exchange information with them.
• Working on enhancing distance learning curriculums by some curriculums specialized for psychological support that will help the student to understand himself and deal with his emotions as well as expressing them and asking consultancy if he has any problems.

Regarding integration classes:

• Encouraging students in integration classes by their teachers and asserting the importance of attending video lessons and live lessons.
• Asking the students of integration classes to follow some recorded video lessons related to lower grades and discuss them as well as asking them to use the platform to solve some exercises and following some videos related to lower grades.
• Establishing a special department in the educational platform related to teaching Turkish language for non-speakers and it shall include games, exercises and tools to help the student learn faster.
• Encouraging the integration students to speak and read as well as asking them to prepare some short recorded videos that will help them to express themselves.
• Focusing on other scientific subjects beside Turkish language and preparing the students to return to their main classes by performing reviews on previous information in these subjects.
• Using Syrian teachers to follow the development of the integration classes and relying on them to help the teachers during live lessons.
• Training teachers of integration classes on some additional skills that are necessary to teach Turkish language for non-speakers and benefiting from some ready videos or songs or some exercises and drawings.
• Performing periodical assessments for students of integration classes to know vulnerability and weakness points of the students as well as making periodical selection for the students according to the progress in their educational levels.
• Making sure that the live lessons contain specific number of students so that the student can participate and interact.
• Making some Syrian students that scored progress in learning Turkish language to help students of integration classes through filming some videos in specific subjects and explaining them in both Arabic and Turkish languages and this shall be considered an activity that enhances the marks of the student and elevates his assessment at the end of the year.
• Allowing the students of integration classes to attend some artificial lessons or real lessons with their basic classes, especially in basic subjects like mathematics and science even if they weren’t able to comprehend all the lesson, and they shall continue in attending Turkish language lessons in order to enhance relationships with their Turkish peers and to avoid the feeling of being less clever than his peers and also to keep his relationship with his basic teacher.

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