Research shows complex impact of Covid on education
A new wave of research from the Assessment Research team at Cambridge University Press & Assessment – the largest team of its kind in Europe – puts the complexity of Covid disruption to education in the spotlight.
Using qualitative research into teachers’ views and experiences around the world, the key findings of the latest research were:
- Students experienced a broad loss of skills which included practical skills – essential to physical education, lab work in science and creative subjects such as art and music – as well as ‘soft skills’ such as communications.
- Teachers’ relationships with their students during remote schooling contributed most to teacher wellbeing at a stressful time.
- Student wellbeing emerged as an important theme in Covid-related ‘recovery curricula’ literature.
See detailed summaries of research below
The team explored teachers’ views in different countries and schools via surveys, questionnaires, interviews and diaries.
Together, this qualitative research provides a teachers’-eye-view of the pandemic’s impact from a point in time – 2021 – one year after many schools were closed and teaching switched to remote where possible. UNESCO estimated lockdowns affected about 990 million learners.
Tim Oates, Director of Assessment Research and Development (ARD), explained: “While lockdowns of the Covid era may be behind us, the legacy is not. We want to capture the nuance and variety of ways education was changed to add new insights to the compelling evidence out there on the impact of Covid. We also want to help build a more resilient system for the future. Asking teachers who are closest to students is one of the best ways of understanding the nature and extent of how students were impacted and what they have lost."
While teachers and students enjoy the return to post-pandemic teaching and learning, this latest Cambridge research contributes to an expanding body of research by the team on the impact of Covid-19 on education.
The Assessment Research team will be presenting further research about the impact of Covid at the Association for Educational Assessment Conference 2022 in Dublin, 9 -12 November, where the theme is ‘New Visions for Assessment in Uncertain Times’.
Summaries
The research into teachers’ views of learning loss was based on a survey of 404 teachers at 198 schools in 38 countries from April to June 2021. 77% of the teachers were from secondary schools. While just under 50% of the teachers were from the UK, the next largest teacher groups (of 30) were from China and India respectively.
The research identified a wide range of student skills impacted by the pandemic, in addition to literacy and numeracy, which have been identified through research using standardised tests.
Teachers reported that practical skills were among the worst hit by the shift to remote classrooms. Examples given by teachers included lab skills in science, PE, sketching in art, and playing and composing music. General study skills, such as management of workload and collaborative skills, were also perceived to have been lost which was a concern for students growing into their secondary school roles.
There was consistency in the views of teachers from both state and independent schools in the UK and outside the UK in response to the following question: ‘How far ahead or behind in their curriculum learning do you feel most of your students are at the moment, compared to a typical year?’ Nearly 60% of teachers judged their students ‘a little behind’. Estimates of ‘a long way behind’ were greater from teachers in state schools (13%) than in independent (5%) and ‘more than a little behind’ in state secondaries compared to independent secondaries. Students were most commonly estimated at 1 to 2 months behind – in line with findings from quantitative testing. Over 10% of those surveyed estimated their students were 5 to 6 months or more behind.
Teachers also perceived the loss was greater in primary than in secondary schools. In more evidence of a widening attainment gap, 68% of those surveyed found the gap behind their most and least able students had increased during the pandemic. There were a small number of teachers who thought students’ skills were ahead, for example in areas such as IT skills of presenting and displaying data.
Teachers reported that the on-going relationships they developed with their students during remote teaching contributed more to their wellbeing than any other factor, at a time of huge pressure and workload. This small-scale research study used teachers’ diaries from January to May 2021. It involved 15 GCSE and A Level teachers from nine comprehensive and six independent schools in England.
The research also captured the negative impacts on teacher wellbeing due to marking work (at a time when student results were based on teacher grades) and administrative tasks. The research highlighted teacher unease at the changing relationship with their students when they were put in the position of judges as well as teachers.
This ‘personal’ research approach was awarded a prize for methodology at the recent British Educational Research Association (BERA) Conference held in September 2022.
Student wellbeing and resilience emerged as themes in Covid-related ‘recovery curricula’ literature, according to what we believe is the first literature review of this area of policy. The research charts the growth in this new ‘science’ of recovery curricula since 2000. From 2000 to 2009, recovery curricula were largely created to deal with the educational consequences of war and civil conflicts.
Literacy and numeracy were a key focus of these recovery curricula. The health emergency-inspired curricula that emerged in 2020 signalled a shift of emphasis, moving away from literacy and numeracy, and placing a greater emphasis on encouraging educational continuity, student re-engagement and catching up on missed learning.
The research also puts recovery curricula into a broader context that included the launch of new institutions such as the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) in 2000. This was linked to UNESCO, which is the lead agency for promoting education as part of an emergency response and long-term recovery.
For earlier research published by the Assessment Research team in 2021 on the impact of Covid on education, see Research Matters, Spring 2021.
