CHALLENGES FROM PHYSICAL CLASS TO ONLINE LEARNING IN YOUNG CHILDREN AND PRESCHOOL TEACHERS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

As an urgent response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ministry of Education Malaysia mandated that all schools stop physical class and use online platforms to deliver lessons. Although preschools were not required to deliver online class and had no mandatory online educational programs, however online learning has emerged as a new method of teaching to support young children’s learning. This research aims to explore the responses in young children and understand the difficulties faced by preschool teachers during online learning. A total of eight young children and three teachers participated in this research study. The findings in this study discovered that online learning is both beneficial to young children on laying foundational for better learning outcomes and helped teachers to improve techniques in dealing with young children virtually.