Teaching Junior High School Chemistry During the COVID-19 Community Quarantine Season: Lessons, Challenges, And Opportunities

Abstract

This paper reports an autoethnographic study of a junior high school chemistry teacher’s field experience in remote chemistry teaching during the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) brought by COVID-19 in the Philippines. The teaching of chemistry for Junior High School in an online setting is possible but has challenges as well. Rooted from the pedagogic data and self-narration, this work examined the insights on the lessons, challenges and opportunities associated in teaching chemistry in basic education in an online mode. The researcher’s online chemistry teaching experience can be recapped in an acronym “REACH OUT”. Reinventing the wheel; Exploring the possibilities; Aligning to core essentials; Creating a learning routine; Hooking students online meaningfully; Offering consistent means of communication; Using authentic and reflective assessments; and Trusting the process. This paper, a pioneering of its kind, offers implications that can be embraced as we move into the new normal of having optimized online teaching experience and in shaping an undisruptive education that is responsive to crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic.