This article explores the psychosocial impact of online teaching and learning on students, following the decision by South African universities to move teaching and learning from physical contact platforms to cyberspace interactions. South Africa’s intervention, like many other countries, adopted the necessary measures that would prevent the spread of the virus among its population, particularly educational institutions. One such measure was the decision to shut down institutions in South Africa and the contingent measure to operationalise teaching and learning using cyberspace. The unprecedented move to online teaching engendered levels of anxiety and fear, and presented a highly disruptive and traumatic experience for many students, especially those from impoverished and rural backgrounds. While focusing on student psychosocial vulnerabilities during this pandemic, the article also presents background factors such as social and economic factors that constrain student success in South Africa’s higher education institutions (HEIs), and which became exacerbated during the pandemic. It further explores the behavioural significance of online teaching and learning’s impact on the physical and psychological energy that students devote to their academic work. The study is underpinned by psychosocial and student-integration theories, and it weaves the argument articulated by leaning heavily on the secondary data. Lastly, by way of recommendation, the study highlights the unique challenges that the COVID-19 disaster posed for South African students in HEIs and emphasises the need to give symbolic attention to these unique challenges. The study, therefore, is proposing improvement in preparedness and the mitigation of societal disruption in South African society and higher education during future pandemics.
This chapter outlines the aspects entailed in the effective implementation of inclusive education. Four building blocks for the effective implementation of inclusive education are highlighted as the teacher, collaboration, organization, and motivation (TCOM) pyramid. Other elements identified as important are teachers' qualifications, the adoption of inclusive teaching strategies, inclusive assessment, and collaboration. Furthermore, the school is flagged as an organization that contributes to the effective implementation of inclusive education. The schools' characteristics are highlighted as the culture, climate, resources, leadership, structure, and staff capacities. The chapter concludes by presenting motivation as another aspect that contributes towards the effective implementation of inclusive education. Lastly, tenets of motivation that include the qualified benefit, compatibility, intricacy, visibility, and urgency are presented to show how they contribute towards the effective implementation of inclusive education in schools.
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