Science Teaching Excites Medical Interest: A Qualitative Inquiry of Science Education during the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic

The national or local lockdowns in response to COVID-19 forced education systems to rapidly shift from in-person to distance learning. The hasty transition undoubtedly imposed tremendous challenges on teachers, students and distance learning infrastructure. The purpose of this study was to investigate how high school science teachers who had previously been trained in flipped-learning and advanced educational technology through the Science Teaching Excites Medical Interest (STEMI) program perceived their transition to distance learning during this pandemic. In this study eleven teachers were interviewed with a semi-structured interview guide. Data were analyzed using the deductive-inductive content analytic approach. Our results indicated that teachers reported having more confidence in using technology for teaching online due in part to their participation in the STEMI program. They also reported internet access as one of the most significant barriers, both for students and teachers. While some teachers thought that students may feel more in control of learning due to absence of time and place limits with distance learning, others may struggle to stay engaged without the classroom support they would normally have received. Teachers generally experienced increased workloads and harder work-life balance with online teaching. In spite of the unforeseen challenges, the pandemic situation afforded teachers with opportunities to adopt different technology in teaching and foresee the need for technology integration in order to better prepare for the unexpected in the future.