Learning from the COVID-19 home-schooling experience: Listening to pupils, parents/carers and teachers

Abstract

In Spring 2020, schools in many countries had to close in response to the COVID-19 virus pandemic and move to remote teaching. This paper explores the views of pupils, parents/carers and teachers of ‘home-school’ in one Norwegian municipality, gathered through parallel online surveys in April 2020 during the peak of the COVID-19 lockdown period. It finds that adaptation happened very quickly and that home-school was well received by pupils and parents. There was more creative learning, better progress, more useful feedback and greater student independence. School leaders reported that they wanted to implement changes based on the experience of remote learning enforced by the lockdown, so that the crisis has become an opportunity for grassroots innovation.

#Mathathome during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Exploring and Reimagining Resources and Social Supports for Parents

“…Nonetheless, interpreting findings in relation to existing literature suggests that the experiences of parents described by our analyses likely provide insights into typical mathematics experiences during COVID-19 emergency remote instruction. Moreover, studies from around the world (e.g., Norway, Indonesia, Nigeria), which focused on broader educational experiences, showed a similar increase in parental involvement in schooling during the initial transition to remote instruction [23,[37][38][39][40]. Looking across findings from recent studies on parents' experiences with emergency remote instruction during the early stages of COVID-19 suggests that our findings have broader implications despite the large number of participants from the United States.…”

“…Such findings prompt initial optimism about the potential for sustaining high levels of parental engagement in school mathematics, which can promote higher levels of mathematics achievement [8], beyond the COVID-19 crisis [36]. Researchers in Norway also reported that emergency remote instruction provided greater opportunities for creative tasks within the school curriculum, especially for younger students; for teacher feedback through digital platforms; and for student independence to develop [38].…”

“…Across Twitter and survey data, elementary mathematics content was emphasized. Other researchers also noted that parental engagement during emergency remote instruction was especially high among parents of younger children [23,38,43]. The over-emphasis on elementary mathematics suggests that limited opportunities for parental engagement are available in online spaces, such as Twitter.…”

“…A next step might focus on how teachers and schools can foster and develop these initial efforts. Successful models from emergency remote instruction that directly involved schools, for example, could provide useful insights into promoting creative mathematics engagement that aligns with the school curriculum at home, e.g., [38].…”

Parental experiences of homeschooling during the COVID-19 pandemic: differences between seven European countries and between children with and without mental health conditions

“…However, it is also important to consider that online teaching can lead to increased inequalities between children, further exposing those with a low socioeconomic background to adverse effects. A recent OECD-report [26] showed that schools have faced many challenges during COVID-19 school closures (e.g., poor availability of effective online platforms and poor technical skills among teachers). The report also emphasized that closing schools "has shed light on inequalities related to access to education, and on student well-being in the absence of social interactions and social services provided in schools" (p. 32).…”