Unpacking the Pandemic: The Lasting Impact of Education Learning Gaps
The pandemic taught us quite a few lessons when it comes to dealing with the unprecedented. In the educational sphere, COVID-19 presented us with a few challenges. It also left us with some significant changes, especially when it came to learning beyond the classroom and reaching students despite school closures.
A main concern regarding the pandemic’s effect on education worldwide is the learning gaps it left among children.1,2 Aside from a decline in overall learning achievement, a delay in developmental milestones was also observed in young children and those who have special needs. But what exactly are the reasons behind the widening gap – and more importantly, how do we go about closing it?
School closures
The closing of schools to prevent the virus from spreading impacted traditional learning in three ways.
- New learning technologies were hastily implemented despite educators’ lack of teacher training and experience in remote instruction.2
- The absence of in-classroom learning contributed to changes in peer environments, with children interacting less with other students (especially from different socioeconomic backgrounds).2
- Parental demands also became a concern as remote learning put increasingly more strain on time and financial resources.2
Overall, students' lack of in-classroom feedback and support from teachers in real-time had caused an impact on their overall learning achievement and social-emotional development.
References
- Turner, C. (2022, June 22). 6 things we’ve learned about how the pandemic disrupted learning. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2022/06/22/1105970186/pandemic-learning-loss-findings
- Pinto, S. (2023, August). The pandemic’s effects on children’s education. (n.d.). Richmond Fed. https://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/economic_brief/2023/eb_23-29
- Goldhaber, D. Kane, T. McEachin, A. Morton, E. Patterson, T. Staiger, T. (2022, May). The Consequences of Remote and Hybrid Instruction During the Pandemic. Center for Education Policy Research Harvard University. https://cepr.harvard.edu/files/cepr/files/5-4.pdf?m=1651690491
- Carbonari, M. Davison, M. DeArmond, M. Dewey, D. Dizon-Ross, E. Goldhaber, D. Hashim, A. Kane, T. McEachin, A. Morton, E. Patterson, T. Staiger,D. (2022, December). The Challenges of Implementing Academic COVID Recovery Interventions: Evidence from the Road to Recovery Project | CALDER. (n.d.). https://caldercenter.org/publications/challenges-implementing-academic-covid-recovery-interventions-evidence-road-recovery
About the Author
Nicole Torres
Nicole is an experienced digital marketer with a background in design and information architecture.
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