Abstract
This paper explains the university lecturers’ experiences of teaching Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The 210 research participants were drawn from a single university in Zimbabwe, a developing country in southern Africa. While there exists literature on the online teaching approaches during COVID-19, this paper argues that there is limited literature on lecturers’ experiences in teaching STEM courses online because focuses literature discusses the experiences of lecturers in developing countries with different contextual conditions. Other existing literature focuses on learners, whose online learning experiences may be different from those of the lecturers. Furthermore, much existing literature focuses on a similar subject uses data collected using qualitative methods. Lastly, focuses literature did not apply any theory for guidance. It was therefore, imperative to fill this gap in the literature by conducting this quantitative research. That was guided by Giddens’ Structuration theory, which focussed on the lecturers of a university in a developing country context. The findings of this research support Structuration theory’s observation that human activities are bound by space and time. Poor economic conditions and the restrictive period of COVID-19 constrained online teaching activities. Furthermore, the traditional teaching methods, misallocation of online teaching resources, and reliance on the prevailing teaching culture corresponding to structures of signification, domination, and legitimation respectively, also constrained teaching of STEM courses online. The paper concludes with a causal loop diagram of factors influencing the lecturers’ teaching of STEM courses online.
Author Information
Sibusisiwe Dube, National University of Science and Technology, Zimbabwe
Belinda Mutunhu, University of South Africa, South Africa
Sinokubekezela P. Dube, National University of Science and Technology, Zimbabwe
Paper Information
Conference: ERI2023
Stream: STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Arts & Math) Education
This paper is part of the ERI2023 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Dube S., Mutunhu B., & Dube S. (2023) Lecturers’ Experiences in Teaching STEM Courses Online During COVID-19: Case of a Zimbabwean University ISSN: 2435-1202 – The IAFOR Conference on Educational Research & Innovation: 2023 Official Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2435-1202.2023.5
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2435-1202.2023.5
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