+Exploring the Effectiveness of Kindergarten Students’ Online Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Online teaching was adopted in Hong Kong and many other places worldwide due to lockdown policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research explores the effectiveness of kindergarten students’ online learning as measured by parents’ reports of their child’s satisfaction with learning, engagement in learning, effective teaching strategies, and an environment conducive to online learning. Parents of 392 students from 40 randomly selected kindergartens in Hong Kong completed questionnaires in March 2022, a few months after the end of online teaching. A questionnaire was designed for this study, with reliability and validity supported by Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test hypotheses. The findings show that effective teaching strategies and an environment conducive to online learning positively affected student learning. It can cast light on the issue of whether online teaching is suitable for kindergarten students, the appropriate teaching strategies, and the kind of learning environment needed to enhance online learning processes and outcomes.