Search results

Prior to the spring 2020, education in the United States looked very similar to how it had always looked … students attended brick-and-mortar schools, used technology in their classrooms and homes to supplement their learning, and relied on the support of teachers as needed or wanted. Parents, for their part, were involved in the traditional supportive roles of checking over homework, monitoring attendance, and providing encouragement as warranted, and worked to balance this role with professional and community obligations and responsibilities. The COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe, and parents as well as teachers were suddenly thrust into different and less familiar roles, as teaching and learning transitioned to a virtual experience. In examining this transition, a team consisting of researchers from Florida and North Carolina sought to determine the effectiveness of the parent roles in schooling from the educator perspective. In this chapter, the findings of this study are explored and analyzed, with recommendations made for research moving forward in this area.

This chapter will explore the impact virtual learning had on students and their social and emotional development as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors’ guiding question(s) for this chapter will be: How has social and emotional growth been considered as part of the missing piece to virtual learning? How are social and emotional learning opportunities addressed to achieve maximum student success and development as future leaders in a global society? What lessons have been learned during the pandemic regarding virtual teaching that can help develop more robust curriculum/learning choices for supporting students’ social and emotional well-being? Using research on digital learning and student and teacher interviews, the authors will gather data to report on the positives and opportunities for growth from the impact of the pandemic and virtual learning. The authors discuss implications of this work.

Educators who work in K-12 educational settings have only begun to make sense of the many consequences the COVID-19 pandemic has had for students. Months of remote teaching and learning have made one thing quite clear; the academic, physical, and mental health benefits of in-person schooling are difficult to replicate through online learning. The COVID-19 pandemic has elevated the importance of social emotional learning (SEL) as children have experienced substantial reductions in social contact with peers while attending school remotely. Given the profound impact this past year has had on children’s social emotional (SE) health, it has never been more important for educators, parents, and caregivers to support student’s SE health. While it may be tempting to put student’ SE well-being on the back burner as we scramble to make up for lost learning; we stand at a crossroad. We can radically weave SEL into the school day to ensure students continue to develop critical SE skills in a socially distanced world or we can fall back on business as usual.