There have been many attempts by governments and the press to assess the effects of Covid 19 school closures, but none as thorough as this report published by Frontiers in Psychology, an Open Access Publisher and Open Science Platform specialising in educational psychology. While it was accepted – and backed up by research – that closing schools was one of the best ways to limit the transmission of the Covid virus, inevitably there have been “side effects” to this which have affected learning, particularly in maths, reading and science. The key going forward is how to counter these losses. The paper suggests that “on a micro level, educational policy makers should determine potential supportive measures that increase the active learning time on task. On a macro level, national policy makers should determine potential compensatory measures to support students in their learning and to avoid failed educational careers”. Technology is a huge resource where “systematic online material and software have been found to compensate for learning losses, specifically in high-risk children”, but this does require countries to have previously invested in giving children this tool.
#covid #learningloss
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.746289/full