As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, more than 1.5 billion students worldwide started learning remotely, and they faced a range of challenges: a lack of immediate support from teachers, problems with technology, psychological well-being and difficulties in independently coping with their duties. The aim of this study was to understand what helped students cope with distance learning and what hindered and made it difficult for students, as well to examine students’ self-assessed problem-solving and self-management skills. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used in the study with 358 students aged M = 16.65 years. Participants answered two open-ended questions and filled the Problem-Solving Questionnaire and the Metacognitive Awareness Scale. Content analysis of students’ answers shows that most frequently students’ goal-orientation, determination to succeed, diligence and specific routines helped them deal with the distance learning. On the contrary, lack of motivation (among other psychological difficulties), distractions, lack of routines, and felt pressure to manage all school tasks were most frequently the aspects that hindered students from coping with the distance learning. Results show significant correlation between most scales of self-assessed problem solving and self-management skills. Students with higher result in total score of self-reported problem-solving skills felt less stress about the distance learning and the pandemic in general.

The relation between academic achievement and various measurements of cognitive abilities, problem-solving skills and self-managed learning has been established in the research before the COVID-19 pandemic and distance learning. The aim of the current research was to analyze the extent to which these aspects predicted the educational achievement of 9th grade students (mean age 15.4 years) during distance learning, when students had to do relatively more tasks independently, organize their daily learning and deal with problems on their own. Relations between self-assessed problem-solving skills, self-management skills, tests of reasoning abilities and the results of diagnostic tests in Mathematics and Latvian were analyzed for n = 256 and n = 244 students, respectively. The results show that: (1) diagnostic test results in Mathematics are best predicted by the parental education level, fluid nonverbal reasoning and verbal reasoning; (2) the best predictors for the results in the diagnostic test in Latvian are parental education, flexibility to change the solution, fluid nonverbal reasoning and verbal reasoning; (3) self-management cannot significantly predict the results of either of the two tests, although it correlates to the results of the tests in both Mathematics and Latvian; (4) only one of the aspects of problem-solving, flexibility to change the solution, can significantly predict results in diagnostic tests. The results confirm the significance of cognitive abilities as an important predictor of academic achievement, as well as the role of parents’ education level. The results also suggest that the flexibility to change the solution, an aspect of problem-solving, might play a role in students’ success in academic tests.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 1,6 billion children worldwide were forced to discontinue face-to-face education and continue with distance learning (OECD, 2020). To many students as well as teachers this was their first experience with distance learning. Students' ability to adapt to distance learning varies and depends on different factors, including individual factors such as the ability to cope with new situations, solve problems and manage their own learning process. In order to successfully deal with the new circumstances in education, it is necessary to work at all levels - including the level of policy development, level of schools as organizations, and at the individual – the student – level. This article focus on the level of the students and look on the distance learning from the perspective of students’ skills, attitudes and ability to adapt to the situation. The aim of this article is to summarize what has been studied so far in different countries about COVID-19 related distance learning and students' difficulties and ability to cope with this situation; and to suggest practices to develop students' skills such as self-management and problem-solving skills to better adapt to new situations in the future.

Developing students' transversal skills is an important education goal, and its implementation requires equipping teachers with appropriate supplementary materials and methodological support. The aim of the research was to develop supplementary materials aimed at enhancing students’ problem-solving and self-regulated learning skills, and to pilot the materials in secondary school lessons. Problem-solving and self-regulated learning skills are transversal skills, so the supplementary materials were not subject-specific and were designed to help teachers promote these students' skills in the lessons of any school subjects. The set of materials comprised 10 worksheets with both questions and prompts that could promote the development of students’ problem-solving and self-regulated learning skills. In total 139 teachers applied to pilot materials for a month, and 36 of them provided feedback by completing a questionnaire. Participants represented different schools and school subjects and were teachers of Grades 5–12; the majority of them (80,6%) had more than 21 years of work experience. Overall, participants evaluated the materials as very helpful for developing students' problem-solving and self-regulated learning skills, as the materials paid particular attention to planning, self-monitoring and self-reflection through a detailed focus on each of these processes, stimulated by questions in the materials. However, the teachers also concluded that the students lacked the in-depth metacognitive skills to self-analyze and self-regulate their performance, and teachers provided feedback and valuable suggestions for improving the supplementary materials. The study contributes to the research area and work of practitioners by demonstrating that appropriately designed supplementary materials are a valuable and useful tool to help teachers develop students' problem-solving and self-regulated learning skills.

International research reports have indicated inequality risks for students’ future success due to COVID-19 pandemic, including risk of dropping out of school and risk of learning losses. Group differences in students’ skills and opportunities have been revealed way before pandemic, and the pandemic itself can contribute as a facilitating factor for the increase of these differences. In this research 952 students in the 9th grade were assessed during distance learning in Latvia. Data were analysed regarding group differences, as well as students’ decisions about continuing education after the primary school. Results show that: 1) Students who had participated in individual face-to-face consultations showed lower verbal and nonverbal reasoning skills, lower grades in four previous study semesters, and had parents with lower education compared to students who had not participated in individual consultations, indicating the importance for such individual support mechanisms for the students facing difficulties; 2) Students with lower parental education level had lower average grades in four previous semesters, lower verbal reasoning and nonverbal reasoning abilities, self-management and problem-solving skills; 3) Girls had higher average grades in all four consecutive semesters and higher problem-solving and self-management skills, compared to boys; 4) Pandemic affected students’ decisions about continuing studies after the 9th grade mostly for those students who had thought about changing the school or the location of school.