Impacts of COVID19
The impacts of the COVID19 pandemic are wide-ranging, not just for health but also for education. Wrexham University’s Education Team was involved in collaborative work funded by the Welsh Government to investigate the health and wellbeing of learners and practitioners, including what this means for initial teacher education.
Alongside Bangor University and the University of South Wales, WGU was awarded a joint grant in June 2020 to gather evidence from leaders and teachers from a small sample of schools. The researchers interviewed stakeholders across 12 schools such as leaders, teachers, staff, and students in initial teacher education institutions.
The main findings showed positive increases in focus on the health and wellbeing of the learners and practitioners during the difficult period of COVID19 lockdown, both at the school and community level. The findings suggested that the learners’ support was enacted on the guidance of the Welsh Government and local authorities; however, there were some suggestions that guidance was sometimes contradictory. Support implemented included advice on COVID19, learning progression, and technological literacy, as well as an increase in outdoor learning.
The impact on practitioners was significant due to their increased workloads resulting from acute teaching changes, such as moving to online learning. Practitioners were also burdened by exponentially increased communication with parents, acting as intermediaries between parents and government and local authorities.
Final recommendations included an increasing provision in initial teacher education for outdoor learning and embedding health and wellbeing considerations into the start of new curriculums.
The team were also involved with Aberystwyth University and the University of South Wales on a similar project exploring the experiences of distance and blended learning during the pandemic. This project included an initial survey with all stakeholders and follow-up interviews and focus groups based on the survey results.
As expected, the move from traditional learning to online and blended learning posed many challenges, but also provided opportunities. For example, schools could adopt creative learning methods using technology, and learners could become more independent and have agency over their activities and learning pace. Furthermore, collaboration was easier online for learners and teachers, and parental engagement also increased. As such, some learners thrived with the new conditions.
Even though there were gains for teaching and learning via the digital route, a monumental challenge was adapting quickly to the changes. Other problems included technical restrictions, such as poor internet and connectivity, or lack of hardware and software, and dramatically reduced social interactions between classmates and teaching staff. It also became more difficult to educate those learners who were initially hard to reach or vulnerable, with disadvantaged students faring the worst.
Recommendations for recovery involved targeting the learners who transitioned from primary to secondary school, secondary school to Further Education colleges, or from Further Education to university during the lockdown, as they would have missed out on vital learning experiences. Additionally, emphasis should be on the importance of home learning environments and independent learning skills.
Welsh Government Research Hwb.
For study six
For study one
