The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore has resulted in the adoption of home-based learning (similar to remote or distance learning’ worldwide) due to periodic school closures in Singapore. The media and academia have diverse views on the effectiveness of this alternative mode of education. This study draws data from teachers’ interviews and students’ focus group discussions of an ongoing large-scale baseline study on mother tongue education to reveal teachers’ and students’ perceptions of home-based learning. Findings showed that the participating teachers generally mimicked physical lessons online during home-based learning, and they faced difficulties in monitoring students’ tasks online. Though students enjoyed the freedom of doing their learning tasks at their own pace, they were concerned with the lack of teachers’ support and the social-emotional support from peers. With the feedback and reflections from teachers and students, it was observed that despite the availability of technology and online infrastructure, teachers need readiness for transiting between physical teaching and online instruction, whereas students need readiness for self-directed learning. From students’ feedback, it was also noted that parents need readiness for educational technology and support for their children. To better prepare teachers, students, and parents for home-based learning, it is recommended that the developers provide more dedicated resources that take into consideration the different characteristics (e.g. orthography) of each language subject. Parents should also assume a greater role in monitoring their children’s learning on behalf of the teachers for better effect in home-based learning.

由于新加坡定期关闭学校，新加坡爆发的 COVID-19 大流行导致采用家庭学习（类似于全球范围内的远程或远程学习）。媒体和学术界对这种替代教育模式的有效性有不同的看法。本研究从正在进行的大规模母语教育基线研究的教师访谈和学生焦点小组讨论中提取数据，以揭示教师和学生对家庭学习的看法。调查结果显示，参与的教师在居家学习期间普遍模仿网上的实体课，他们在网上监督学生的任务方面遇到困难。尽管学生们享有按照自己的节奏完成学习任务的自由，他们担心缺乏教师的支持和同龄人的社会情感支持。根据师生的反馈和反思，我们发现尽管有技术和在线基础设施，但教师需要做好在实体教学和在线教学之间过渡的准备，而学生则需要做好自主学习的准备。从学生的反馈中，还注意到家长需要为教育技术做好准备并为他们的孩子提供支持。为了更好地为教师、学生和家长做好在家学习的准备，建议开发人员提供更多专用资源，以考虑到每个语言学科的不同特征（例如正字法）。