Motivation, Intensity and Quality of Educational Activity of Russian Schoolchildren in Online Learning

Abstract

The article analyzes the possibility of transitioning a general education school to an online learning format. The indicators are such categories as educational activity, quality of education, intensity of education, learning motives. To achieve this goal, a sociological survey of high school students in Rostov-on-Don (Russia), as well as their parents and school teachers, was conducted. The last two groups of respondents are presented in the status of experts. Based on the analysis of empirical data, the following conclusions were made. More than half of all high school students surveyed (66.6%) expressed their intention to continue the online learning experience they received during the response to the COVID-19 epidemic. However, the conjugations of willingness to study online with the categories “learning motives”, “quality of education”, “intensity of education” showed that the high motivation declared by high school students for the learning process does not correspond to their real behavior in distance lessons. The main motive for choosing online education for high school students is the convenience of this format of education. The survey showed a low degree of significance of other reasons for choosing online education. Preferences for online convenience and the desire to learn asynchronously reflect the unmanifested goal of getting out of the teacher’s control in order to reduce their educational activity. It can be assumed that this is due to the social immaturity of high school students and the lack of understanding by most of them of the value of secondary education. Based on the analyzed data, three approximately equal groups of respondents were identified. In the first group, high school students are focused on the standard school-lesson system with elements of e-learning (40% of respondents). In the second group, the advantages of online learning are articulated, which are associated with convenience and greater resource potential compared to classical learning (35% of respondents). The third group represents the interests of high school students, who are not so much interested in the format of education as the opportunity to get out of the control of the teacher and find themselves in a convenient educational environment to simulate learning activities (25% of respondents). This means that online learning format, the usefulness of which is obvious only if students have a stable cognitive activity, is unacceptable for most high school students.