Lessons from the Pandemic: Analyzing the Experience of Distant Learning in Secondary Schools

Abstract

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, educational institutions switched to distance learning in March 2020. The study focuses on how the sudden transition affected the level of teachers' anxiety and professional burnout. A total of 282 teachers from general education schools participated in the study. The results showed that the teachers successfully coped with the transition: the level of anxiety and burnout was similar to the results of previous studies of teachers before the pandemic. A significant role in the adaptation of teachers to the urgent transition to online education was played by their attitudes. In particular, those who adapted to the change and were able to get used to the distance format of work showed the lowest levels of anxiety compared with other groups who resisted the change and experienced difficulties. An important condition for successful distance learning, according to teachers, is the detailed regulation of infrastructural aspects of the educational process by the administration. The article discusses the next steps to improve the quality of distance learning based on experience.