Parents’ Beliefs and Attitudes on Their Children’s Distance Education Performance during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Greek Preschool Settings

Background: Current research and the bibliography suggest that both synchronous and asynchronous distance education in the early years of education is a new era to explore the teaching of young children.

Aims: The aim of this study was to assess the extent of use of online classroom platforms in early years, both in the private and public sector, and to correlate parents' attitudes towards children’s behavioral changes during the pandemic lockdown in Greece.

Methodology: The participants were 216 parents with preschool-aged children (between 2:6 to 4:0 years) in Greek pre-school settings in two cities of North and West Greece. A questionnaire on the use of ICT during the pandemic Covid -19 and its’ outcomes was distributed online to all parents. The parents' perception was generally negative and was not preferred to frontal teaching, while they were not satisfied with the results.

Results: A remarkable percentage of children did not participate in online education due to their parents' attitude on the appropriateness of their age to participate in online education. However, the deterrent attitude of parents was not related to their level of education and willingness to help their children. The parents' perception was generally negative and was not preferred to frontal teaching, while they were not satisfied with the results. As far as the implementation of distance education is concerned, private broadcasters have introduced more synchronous distance education compared to public ones. Finally, there were positive correlations between asynchronous distance learning of 1-3 hours per day and children's irritability, as well as feelings of stress and anxiety and asynchronous distance learning of more than 6 hours per day. The correlation between children's distraction and asynchronous distance learning for 1-3 hours per day was negative.

Conclusion: Further discussions for policy makers and teachers are planned.