Pandemic-Related Instructor Talk: How New Instructors Supported Students at the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

ABSTRACT: At the same time that COVID-19 cases in the United States first began to increase, fellows in a mentored teaching apprenticeship for postdoctoral scientists began to teach undergraduate seminars. The fellows suddenly needed to support students emotionally and switch to online instruction. They were encouraged to acknowledge and address the pandemic during each class and decided to do so. In this case study, we examined the language fellows used in response to this encouragement, hypothesizing that they would engage in a variety of pandemic-related instructor talk, i.e., language that instructors use in the classroom that is not directly tied to educational content. We analyzed transcripts from 17 2-hour undergraduate biology seminar courses and found 167 instances of pandemic-related instr

SUBMITTER: Seah YM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8046655 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature