Pedagogical Senses of Digital Learning ion the Context of the Covid‑19 Pandemic: Case Studies of Several Eastern European Countries

Abstract

In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, teacher education at universities has faced great problems concerning the teaching-learning practice. Educational processes have become possible only with the help of digital technologies. The development of digital technologies and the new level of accessibility to educational resources have opened up new ways for teaching and learning and the creation of new didactic scenarios. The reopening of educational institutions after the Covid-19 is followed by many tasks that challenge the main actors in the teaching-learning process in a new way. The authors reflect on whether it makes sense for teachers and future teachers to continue learning how to work with digital technologies and create new learning formats for their students. In order to develop teacher education at universities and serious attention to digital didactics, not only the challenges but also the pedagogical senses of the Covid-19 pandemic need to be identified. The unconscious and «detached» perception of current digital transformations in educational policy, higher teacher education and school education hinders the development of teacher education at the university and decreases the role of the teacher in society. A comparative analysis of cases of teacher education from five Eastern European universities is used to address these goals. The analysis aims to examine the hypotheses stated with inductive reasoning.