Journal of Education & Social Policy

Using Distance Learning in Children Aged Between Three and Six Years Old
Ebtisam Abu Hamad

Abstract
In the years during which children attend kindergarten, they acquire many of the important cognitive and social skills needed for healthy interactions with their teachers, peers, and parents. In the kindergarten environment, the kindergarten teachers, and staff also play an important role in helping the children learn and grow. The outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 forced many of the kindergarten schools to close their doors to protect the health of the children, the kindergarten teachers, and the community. To create an educational framework for the children and to sustain a communication channel between the kindergarten staff and the children in their homes, many kindergarten teachers in Israel reverted to the use of distance learning with the children. Little is known about the influence that distance learning had on kindergarten children kept in their homes by the pandemic. In this study, focus group sessions were held with two groups of kindergarten teachers and two groups of parents to understand the perspectives and concerns of kindergarten teachers and parents about the use of distance learning for the kindergarten children. Despite limited training and a variety of difficulties in engaging the kindergarten children and their parents in distance learning, the kindergarten teachers discovered methods and techniques that were useful for distance learning.

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