PARADIGM SHIFT: FROM MODERN TO CLASSICAL UNDERGRAD TEACHING METHODOLOGIES DURING COVID-19

Abstract

COVID-19 proved a big economic, health and educational test for the global community and affected almost all walks of life by presenting challenges to the stakeholders. The study unfolds the importance of classic methods of teaching practiced during COVID-19 when faculty was asked to adopt emergency remote learning without any prior virtual teaching experience. The study was conducted on fifty teachers engaged in teaching at tertiary level through a questionnaire to know the approaches/methodologies they adopted during online teaching.  The questionnaire includes items related to various modern and classical approaches including the use of languages during online teaching other than English as foreign language which is medium of instruction in normal conditions. The results reflect that a majority faculty not only used national or regional language for teaching but also practiced classical approaches to achieve set objectives. The subjects were found dominant during online teaching with the use of local languages and pedagogical approaches. In the light of the results the study enables us to believe that desperate diseases need desperate remedies and hence, suggests that for realizing educational objectives blended teaching methodologies are apt to apply during abnormal conditions.