Psychological status and educational strategies in university teachers: during Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

Introduction: Covid-19 brought countless consequences in many human activity areas like in university education. This phenomenon was analyzed from the point of view of different educational actors. However, the study refers to psychological status and educational strategies from the teachers' perspective from four universities in the Ecuadorian Sierra. Objective: The purpose is to identify the psychological status and educational strategies used by university teachers during a health crisis. Method: The research is a descriptive correlational type with a quantitative-qualitative focus. A survey of twenty-eight items was used, the first part corresponds to the Kessler test of psychological status and the second part is a survey about methodological strategies, its authorship corresponds to the researchers with a statistical value of 0,73 of the Cronbach´s Alfa coefficient, applied to 70 teachers at the following universities: Technical University of Ambato, Central University of Ecuador, Technical university of Cotopaxi, Bolívar State University and Technical University of the North. Results: The results show that 61,76% of the university teachers investigated suffer from psychological discomfort, from that the 33,82% are in the range (22-29 pts.) of high intensity, and 27,94% in (30-50 pts.) very high intensity. On the other side, 65% of teachers use classical conventional resources for teaching, and respect to education mediated by technological tools, sometimes contributes to achieving the learning objectives. Conclusion: It was identified that more than half of the university teachers register symptoms of psychological discomfort. Moreover, they continue using educational strategies like face-to-face education. Therefore, according to teachers' perception, they are not achieving the learning results expected.