Learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of emergency remote instruction on first grade students’ writing: A natural experiment.

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the sudden cancellation of in-class instruction for many students around the world presented an unprecedented disruption in children’s education. As the COVID-19 pandemic took form, multiple concerns were raised about the potential negative impact on students’ learning. The current study examined this proposition for children’s writing. We compared the quality of writing, handwriting fluency, and attitude toward writing of first grade Norwegian students during the COVID-19 pandemic (421 girls, 396 boys), which included emergency remote instruction for almost 7 weeks, with first grade students in the same schools a year before the pandemic began (835 girls, 801 boys). After controlling for variance due to national test scores, school size, proportion of certified teachers, students per special education teacher, school hours per student, student gender, and native language, we found that students attending first grade during the pandemic had lower scores for writing quality, handwriting fluency, and attitude toward writing than their first grade peers tested a year earlier before the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. Implications for policy and instruction as well as future research are presented.

Sharp increase in inequality in education in times of the COVID-19-pandemic

“…Despite the lack of adequate data in many countries, some studies appeared on the use of online learning tools by students [e.g., 5 ] and on the effect of distance schooling on performance and learning gains of students in primary education. Although some studies did not find significant learning losses [e.g., no effects on reading in the USA [ 6 ], no learning deficits on schools with a large share of students with advantaged backgrounds in Australia [ 7 ]], most studies report negative consequences of the school closures for children’s educational development [Belgium [ 2 ], UK [ 4 , 8 ], Italy [ 9 ], Switzerland [ 10 ], Germany [ 11 ], USA [ 12 – 15 ], Norway [ 16 ]]. For higher education, the results are less consistent: some find negative effects [ 17 ] while others indicate that distance learning might have made students more efficient [ 18 ] or see little effects [ 19 ].…”

Understanding education character loss during long-distance learning in pandemic disruption in Madrasah

“…Limiting the loss of character when students first join the school is in an area so affected by the disease that character deficiency in the household results in a lot of learning loss being replaced by completing lessons like this makes online education the main thing. Many countries see character building and other learning losses (Skar et al, 2021).…”

Nordic Economic Policy Review 2022: COVID-19 Effects on the Economy in the Nordics

“…A recent study from Norway by Skar et al (2021) also points to a considerable drop in learning during school closures, at least in the short term. The authors compare 80.…”