Russian and Indian Preschool Educators’ Beliefs about Distance Education for Preschoolers

Aleksander Veraksa,Purnima Singh,Nishtha Jain,Margarita Gavrilova,Nickolay Veraksa

doi:10.3390/educsci11120814

Abstract

Increasing interest in the digitization of education raises the question of the specifics of the use of digital devices in preschool education and the perception of these new practices by educators. The primary purpose of this study was to examine educators’ beliefs about distance education for preschool children in Russia and India, given their professional education and cultural background. These two countries were chosen to explore how the education system has dealt with emergency remote teaching in countries with social and economic diversity. The study involved 909 preschool educators (623 from Russia and 286 from India). An exploratory factor analysis of educators’ responses to the Educators’ Beliefs about Distance Education for Preschoolers Questionnaire identified three factors. The first factor reflects the degree of positive or negative beliefs about the promotion potential of distance education for preschool children’s development. The second represents educators’ beliefs about the effectiveness of distance education depending on different teacher, child, and environmental conditions. The third is manifested in the belief among educators that distance education is ineffective in preschool education. The findings suggest that the years of professional education in early childhood pedagogy impacts educators’ beliefs about distance education for preschool children. Regardless of the number of years of education training, educators in India were more likely to believe in the high promotion potential of distance education in early childhood.

Highlights

The first few years of a child’s life are critical to building the foundations of learning that help them succeed in school and beyond (UNICEF, 2017)
The global COVID-19 pandemic and the economic, health, and educational disruption it has caused have affected virtually every aspect of modern human life [1]
The findings suggest that the years of professional education in early childhood pedagogy impacts educators’ beliefs about distance education for preschool children, leading us to accept the first hypothesis

Summary

Introduction

The first few years of a child’s life are critical to building the foundations of learning that help them succeed in school and beyond (UNICEF, 2017). The COVID-19 pandemic has increased these concerns. The global COVID-19 (short for coronavirus disease, i.e., “disease caused by coronavirus”, identified in 2019) pandemic and the economic, health, and educational disruption it has caused have affected virtually every aspect of modern human life [1]. This is the first time that strict quarantine and other restrictions have been imposed in most countries in order to “flatten the curve” of new cases. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected more than 860 million children and adolescents worldwide [3]. The most affordable way to fill the gaps in the interrupted education process has been through remote teaching, which has been used extensively during the pandemic [4]

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Discussion

Conclusion