Online teaching in China during the COVID-19 pandemic : how online teaching affects K-12 teachers

In response to the outbreak of the COVID-19, the China's Ministry of Education (MOE) launched an emergency initiative called "Stop Going to School Without Stopping Teaching and Learning" to guarantee students studying at home. K-12 schools across the country are actively participating in the experiment of transition in-person classroom learning into a virtual experience. This report pays attention to K-12 teachers from three perspectives: (1) How do K-12 teachers deliver learning to students?; (2) What roles do K-12 teachers play?; (3) what difficulties that K-12 teachers are facing?. Based on a careful review of the literature and thorough analysis of the online teaching practice recently in China, I analyzed the seven online platforms widely used by Chinese teachers and three main online teaching methods. Also, I redefined the tasks and the role of teachers in a virtual environment. Besides, the difficulties faced by primary and secondary school teachers are carefully discussed. Finally, a series of suggestions are given to improve the online teaching experience in the future.Curriculum and Instructio