COVID‐19 school closures and cumulative disadvantage: Assessing the learning gap in formal, informal and non‐formal education

By 15 April 2020, more than 1.5 billion students worldwide experienced school closures in an effort to slow the spread of a novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), during the worldwide coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. These interruptions in formal in-person educational experiences caused adverse consequences on school-age children’s academic outcomes. Using a pre-existing database, we calculated changes in children’s reading ability without formal education (i.e., the summer months). The resultant models predicted that the rate of reading ability gain in kindergarten children during COVID-19 school closures without formal in-person education will decrease 66% (2.46 vs. 7.17 points/100 days), compared to the business-as-usual scenario, resulting in a 31% less reading ability gain from 1 January 2020 to 1 September 2020. Additionally, the model predicted that kindergarten children who have books read to them daily would have 2.3 points less loss (42%) compared to those who do not, who are predicted to have a 5.6-point loss during the same time period. Even though reading books to children will not substitute the critical role of formal education in teaching children how to read, families, educators, and policy makers can promote this simple strategy to facilitate and maintain reading ability gain during school closures, which may be a common occurrence as nations see the public health benefits of physical distancing for the current and future pandemic outbreaks.

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Play in early childhood classrooms during COVID-19

10.31219/osf.io/dspzq ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Christina O'Keeffe ◽

Sinead McNally

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Formal Education ◽

Health And Safety ◽

Social Contact ◽

Early Childhood Classroom ◽

School Closures ◽

Primary School Teachers ◽

Children’S Wellbeing ◽

Early Childhood Classrooms ◽

Returning To School

The COVID-19 pandemic posed major challenges for the lives of children in terms of school closures, loss of routine, reduced social contact, bereavement and trauma. The pandemic also gave rise to a focus on play as a fundamental support for children’s wellbeing. This study examined early childhood teachers’ practices surrounding play upon returning to school in Ireland after lockdown restrictions which included a six-month period of school closures. Building on previous research on play in early childhood education during the early stages of the pandemic, this qualitative study examined the practices of 12 primary school teachers in early childhood classrooms (children aged 3-8 years). Through reflexive thematic analysis of three focus groups, four themes were identified that encapsulated teachers’ practices regarding play in the early childhood classroom upon returning to school following school closures: 1) play was more organised and structured (i.e. teachers planned for play); 2) teachers incorporated COVID-19-specific regulations around health and safety into play practices (3) play in the classroom embodied similar characteristics and qualities as pre-COVID-19; and 4) play was a recognised priority in the early childhood classroom. For educational policy, these findings highlight play as a ‘go-to’ strategy by teachers for supporting children in formal education during a pandemic and indicate that play is a well-established context that can be used in educational policies to support children’s learning, especially during and after times of crises.

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Modeling Reading Ability Gain in Kindergarten Children during COVID-19 School Closures

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17176371 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (17) ◽

pp. 6371

Author(s):

Xue Bao ◽

Hang Qu ◽

Ruixiong Zhang ◽

Tiffany P. Hogan

Keyword(s):

Reading Ability ◽

Formal Education ◽

Critical Role ◽

Kindergarten Children ◽

School Closures ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Simple Strategy ◽

Time Period ◽

Novel Coronavirus ◽

Business As Usual

By 15 April 2020, more than 1.5 billion students worldwide experienced school closures in an effort to slow the spread of a novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), during the worldwide coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. These interruptions in formal in-person educational experiences caused adverse consequences on school-age children’s academic outcomes. Using a pre-existing database, we calculated changes in children’s reading ability without formal education (i.e., the summer months). The resultant models predicted that the rate of reading ability gain in kindergarten children during COVID-19 school closures without formal in-person education will decrease 66% (2.46 vs. 7.17 points/100 days), compared to the business-as-usual scenario, resulting in a 31% less reading ability gain from 1 January 2020 to 1 September 2020. Additionally, the model predicted that kindergarten children who have books read to them daily would have 2.3 points less loss (42%) compared to those who do not, who are predicted to have a 5.6-point loss during the same time period. Even though reading books to children will not substitute the critical role of formal education in teaching children how to read, families, educators, and policy makers can promote this simple strategy to facilitate and maintain reading ability gain during school closures, which may be a common occurrence as nations see the public health benefits of physical distancing for the current and future pandemic outbreaks.

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A full year COVID-19 crisis with interrupted learning and two school closures: The effects on learning growth and inequality in primary education

10.31219/osf.io/78fje ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Carla Haelermans ◽

Madelon Jacobs ◽

Lynn van Vugt ◽

Bas Aarts ◽

Henry Abbink ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Primary Education ◽

Formal Education ◽

Standardized Test ◽

Family Background ◽

Background Information ◽

Socioeconomic Background ◽

School Students ◽

School Closures ◽

Standard Deviations ◽

Learning Growth

After more than a year of COVID-19 crisis and the school closures that followed all around the world, the concerns about lower learning growth and exacerbated inequalities are larger than ever. In this paper, we use unique data to analyse how one full year of COVID-19 crisis in Dutch primary education has affected learning growth and pre-existing inequalities. We draw on a dataset that includes around 330,000 Dutch primary school students from about 1,600 schools, with standardized test scores for reading, spelling and mathematics, as well as rich (family) background information of the students. The results show a lower learning growth over a full year for all three domains, varying from 0.06 standard deviations for spelling to 0.12 for maths and 0.17 standard deviations for reading. Furthermore, we find that the lower learning growth is (much) larger for vulnerable students with a low socioeconomic background. This implies that pre-existing inequalities between students from different backgrounds have increased. These results are quite alarming and suggest that distance learning could not compensate for classroom teaching, although it prevented some damage that would have occurred if students had not enjoyed any formal education at all.

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A Call to Address Academic Difficulties Resulting from the COVID-19-Related Change in Education Delivery

World Journal of Education and Humanities ◽

10.22158/wjeh.v2n4p6 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2 (4) ◽

pp. p6

Author(s):

José E. Náñez ◽

Steven R. Holloway ◽

David B. Jarrett ◽

Jackson K. Ryan

Keyword(s):

Distance Learning ◽

Formal Education ◽

Content Delivery ◽

School Closures ◽

Academic Difficulties ◽

Face To Face ◽

Teaching Content ◽

Learning Instruction ◽

Education Delivery ◽

Blunt Tool

As the corona virus pandemic forced school closures worldwide, online platforms have become invaluable tools for allowing instruction to continue smoothly and, hopefully, for mitigating the severity of any student learning disruptions associated with the COVID-19 forced school closures. Although distance-learning is currently necessary, it is a blunt tool that may prove to be inadequate, compared to face-to-face teaching content delivery, for meeting students’ educational needs resulting from COVID-19-forced school closures. It is very likely that the sudden shift to distance-learning has will disadvantage many students who are not experienced with or prepared for the dramatic changes that have occurred in the delivery of formal education. Here, we proffer a call to education-scholars to engage in investigations designed to provide research-informed knowledge and understanding of what pedagogical methodologies are needed for addressing learning deficiencies inherent in distance-learning instruction, and to effectuate the changes needed to provide an equitable educational experience to all students, during the uncertain times of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Engaging School Going Children During COVID-19 Lockdown

JOURNAL FOR CLINICAL AND DIAGNOSTIC RESEARCH ◽

10.7860/jcdr/2020/44800.13952 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Pooja Rameshrao Kasturkar ◽

Jaya Pranoykumar Gawai

Keyword(s):

Social Life ◽

Short Communication ◽

Prime Minister ◽

Virus Disease ◽

Daily Routine ◽

Current Crisis ◽

School Closures ◽

Children And Young People ◽

Learning Gap ◽

Corona Virus

Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is current crisis in more than 200 countries in the world. The virus originated in bats and was transmitted to humans in December 2019 via still unknown intermediate animals in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. In India, Corona virus confirmed cases are 101,139, recovered cases are 39,174, deaths 3,163 and active cases are 58,802 on the date of 19 May 2020. “In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared phase wise complete lockdown for corona virus pandemics to save India and every Indian.” In this lockdown period, children are getting bored, separation from playgroups and friends and their daily routine of playing is creating a lot of anxiety for children, they are losing their attachments. Children’s social life and learning have been affected. Due to the corona virus (COVID-19) pandemic, closure of schools has affected the education of more than 1.5 billion children and young people worldwide. It should be well-known that school closures are liable to broaden the learning gap between the lower-income and higher-income families among children. So we need to engage the children in purposive and creative activity and give them some leaning task related to their studies. This short communication concludes with the key learning for the parents of children on how to engage school going children during covid-19 lockdown.

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Classification of Infant Vocalizations by Untrained Listeners

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2019_jslhr-s-18-0494 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 62 (9) ◽

pp. 3265-3275

Author(s):

Heather L. Ramsdell-Hudock ◽

Anne S. Warlaumont ◽

Lindsey E. Foss ◽

Candice Perry

Keyword(s):

Formal Education ◽

Additional Insight ◽

Listener Responses ◽

Infant Vocalization ◽

Early Infant ◽

Infant Vocalizations ◽

Audio Recordings ◽

Speech And Language Development ◽

Insight Into

Purpose To better enable communication among researchers, clinicians, and caregivers, we aimed to assess how untrained listeners classify early infant vocalization types in comparison to terms currently used by researchers and clinicians. Method Listeners were caregivers with no prior formal education in speech and language development. A 1st group of listeners reported on clinician/researcher-classified vowel, squeal, growl, raspberry, whisper, laugh, and cry vocalizations obtained from archived video/audio recordings of 10 infants from 4 through 12 months of age. A list of commonly used terms was generated based on listener responses and the standard research terminology. A 2nd group of listeners was presented with the same vocalizations and asked to select terms from the list that they thought best described the sounds. Results Classifications of the vocalizations by listeners largely overlapped with published categorical descriptors and yielded additional insight into alternate terms commonly used. The biggest discrepancies were found for the vowel category. Conclusion Prior research has shown that caregivers are accurate in identifying canonical babbling, a major prelinguistic vocalization milestone occurring at about 6–7 months of age. This indicates that caregivers are also well attuned to even earlier emerging vocalization types. This supports the value of continuing basic and clinical research on the vocal types infants produce in the 1st months of life and on their potential diagnostic utility, and may also help improve communication between speech-language pathologists and families.

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Validity and Reliability of the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE)

GeroPsych ◽

10.1024/1662-9647/a000209 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 32 (3) ◽

pp. 145-151

Author(s):

Mahshid Foroughan ◽

Zahra Jafari ◽

Ida Ghaemmagham Farahani ◽

Vahid Rashedi

Keyword(s):

Psychometric Properties ◽

Elderly Population ◽

Formal Education ◽

The Elderly ◽

Cognitive State ◽

Validity And Reliability ◽

Internal Reliability ◽

Dsm Iv ◽

Test Retest Reliability ◽

Farsi Version

Abstract. This study examines the psychometric properties of the IQCODE and its applicability in the Iranian elderly population. A group of 95 elderly patients with at least 4 years of formal education who fulfilled the criteria of DSM-IV-TR for dementia were examined by the MMSE and the AMTs. The Farsi version of the IQCODE was subsequently administered to their primary caregivers. Results showed a significant correlation ( p = .01) between the score of the questionnaire and the results of the MMSE ( r = −0.647) and AMTs ( r = −0.641). A high internal reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (α = 0.927) and test-retest reliability by correlation coefficient ( r = 0.81). This study found that the IQCODE has acceptable psychometric properties and can be used for evaluating the cognitive state in the elderly population of Iran.

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