BEST PRACTICES OF SCHOOL TEACHERS TO SUSTAIN THEIR STUDENTS LEARNING DURING CRISIS

This research aims to identify the best practices implemented by school teachers in Palestine online during COVID-19. A qualitative approach was used to explore in-depth the best practices through two focus group sessions composed of 24 different specialty teachers from different schools. Moreover, semi-structured interviews with 10 teachers were also conducted to listen to their lived experiences and how they sustain teaching and communicating with their students. A grounded theory was used to analyze and categorize the qualitative data. The findings of this study are unique and novel since no other studies related to online learning were done during COVID- 19 in Palestine to support best practices that teachers should adopt. Moreover, the results will benefit teachers to rejuvenate and adapt their methods and strategies in different ways to fit learners’ needs. The results revealed that teachers use many free tools such as Google Classroom and Zoom and spend a lot of time understanding and learning about these tools. Teachers were eager to explore and use new teaching strategies to engage their students and support them emotionally during the COVID-19 crisis. Additionally, teachers were committed to their social responsibilities during the crisis, weremotivatedand self-learners, as they asserted by exchanging experiences with colleagues. This study could be used to adapt experiences to other scenarios, so teachers can benefit from the findings of the studyand can transfer them to other contexts.It is recommended to conduct a mixed approach for generalization purposes for further investigation.