Digital relational competence: Sensitivity and responsivity to needs of distance and co-located students

Being relationally competent is an essential skill for teachers. This involves, for example, skills in social interaction, emotional communication, and human connection. Two key factors for relational competence are teachers’ sensitivity and responsivity to learner needs. In a distance-learning envi...

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Main Author: Annika Wiklund-Engblom
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences 2018-10-01
Series:Seminar.net
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.hioa.no/index.php/seminar/article/view/2979
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author Annika Wiklund-Engblom
author_facet Annika Wiklund-Engblom
author_sort Annika Wiklund-Engblom
collection DOAJ
description Being relationally competent is an essential skill for teachers. This involves, for example, skills in social interaction, emotional communication, and human connection. Two key factors for relational competence are teachers’ sensitivity and responsivity to learner needs. In a distance-learning environment this can be a challenge because of the technical barriers, which often entail a lack of nonverbal cues that can guide teachers in social interactions and the orchestration of relations. In this study, nine semi-structured interviews capture the experiences of teachers in upper secondary school, in order to explore how they describe their own digital didactical design for distance courses and how they perceive that it supports students’ learning. In the qualitative content analysis of the interview data, the emphasis was placed on teachers’ digital relational competence with regard to their sensitivity and responsivity. These two factors are scrutinized in relation to six categories of student needs: emotional, cognitive-epistemic, metareflective, self-regulatory, social, and practical-logistic needs.
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spelling doaj.art-cb6a494d7bc74ad8b8456f1fb71630e22022-12-22T04:22:09ZengInland Norway University of Applied SciencesSeminar.net1504-48312018-10-01142Digital relational competence: Sensitivity and responsivity to needs of distance and co-located studentsAnnika Wiklund-Engblom0Applied Educational Science, Umeå UniversityBeing relationally competent is an essential skill for teachers. This involves, for example, skills in social interaction, emotional communication, and human connection. Two key factors for relational competence are teachers’ sensitivity and responsivity to learner needs. In a distance-learning environment this can be a challenge because of the technical barriers, which often entail a lack of nonverbal cues that can guide teachers in social interactions and the orchestration of relations. In this study, nine semi-structured interviews capture the experiences of teachers in upper secondary school, in order to explore how they describe their own digital didactical design for distance courses and how they perceive that it supports students’ learning. In the qualitative content analysis of the interview data, the emphasis was placed on teachers’ digital relational competence with regard to their sensitivity and responsivity. These two factors are scrutinized in relation to six categories of student needs: emotional, cognitive-epistemic, metareflective, self-regulatory, social, and practical-logistic needs.https://journals.hioa.no/index.php/seminar/article/view/2979distance learningdigital relational competencelearner needssensitivityresponsivitydigital didactical design
spellingShingle Annika Wiklund-Engblom
Digital relational competence: Sensitivity and responsivity to needs of distance and co-located students
Seminar.net
distance learning
digital relational competence
learner needs
sensitivity
responsivity
digital didactical design
title Digital relational competence: Sensitivity and responsivity to needs of distance and co-located students
title_full Digital relational competence: Sensitivity and responsivity to needs of distance and co-located students
title_fullStr Digital relational competence: Sensitivity and responsivity to needs of distance and co-located students
title_full_unstemmed Digital relational competence: Sensitivity and responsivity to needs of distance and co-located students
title_short Digital relational competence: Sensitivity and responsivity to needs of distance and co-located students
title_sort digital relational competence sensitivity and responsivity to needs of distance and co located students
topic distance learning
digital relational competence
learner needs
sensitivity
responsivity
digital didactical design
url https://journals.hioa.no/index.php/seminar/article/view/2979
work_keys_str_mv AT annikawiklundengblom digitalrelationalcompetencesensitivityandresponsivitytoneedsofdistanceandcolocatedstudents