Educational Experiences of STEM Students During the Pandemic: What Did We Learn So Far?

The study aimed to describe the two–year online learning experiences of senior high school STEM students using various methods such as surveys, open-ended questions, and interviews. Out of 402 senior high school students of Taguig Science High School under the STEM strand, 95 students from both grade 11 and 12 answered the online questionnaire, and five students agreed to be interviewed. Results indicated that although students had high support from their family and high confidence in the use of educational technologies, most of them had mixed experiences in their lessons, highlighting the adjustment of both students and teachers on forced remote lesson delivery using online learning platforms. With this adjustment, teaching strategies employed are often ineffective, overwhelming students, developing laboratory skills seems difficult to do, taking quizzes becomes nerve-racking and pressuring, especially for math-related tasks, and the digital divide has become evident. Beyond these, however, students develop independent learning, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills, resourcefulness, technological competence, flexibility, and control over their learning. Acclimatization and adaptation played a key role in deciding the learning success of forced remote learning, and online classes have somehow provided the necessary and positive educational experiences required and needed by the students.