Perceptions of Elementary School Students about Virtual Classes during Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic in Brazil

Abstract

The new coronavirus outbreak determined the closure of schools and universities around the world. In Brazil, implementation of online teaching faced many challenges, especially for public schools. We analyzed, via an online questionnaire, the speech of children aged 6 to 11 years old to evaluate their thoughts about virtual classes. The results showed a significant negative correlation between children’s learning perception and their feelings about online classes. A duration longer than 3 hours for the virtual classes was associated with students perceiving them as “boring” and “tiresome”; and children who did not enjoy being taught in front of a screen also perceived their learning during this period as “poor”. Possible psychological impacts for children under confinement, like fear and stress may have contributed to these perceptions. Our limitations were: the small sample size compared with Brazil’s population and, also the concentration of answers in the southern (the richest and most developed) region. When giving children predefined answers, we could not be able to realize the true dimension of their emotions. The results showed that there is a need for institutions to prepare a good virtual environment for teaching, with proper training for the staff involved and attractive classes, able to captivate the students’ attention and allow better learning. In a vast territory like Brazil, there is a need of proper public policies and funding to allow better internet access and reduce educational inequality. Families shall be warned to pay attention to children’s signs of poor mental health, once confinement may be a trigger for symptoms of anxiety and depression, a synergistic conjunction that is able to deteriorate the capacity of attention and our children’s ability of learning.