A major percentage of college students in the United States are mothers and fathers. According to reports, about 20{af0afab2a7197b4b77fcd3bf971aba285b2cb7aa14e17a071e3a1bf5ccadd6db} of undergraduate college students and a lot more than a 3rd of graduate college students are raising young children less than the age of 18, with mothers accounting for much more than 50 {af0afab2a7197b4b77fcd3bf971aba285b2cb7aa14e17a071e3a1bf5ccadd6db} of the two populations.
To get a far better understanding of the experiences of these learners, scientists at the College of Maine University of Instruction and Human Advancement posted an write-up in the Journal of Computing in Greater Education that functions circumstance scientific tests of 6 academically significant-attaining doing work moms enrolled in distance education courses in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their conclusions advise that successful study course layout, generating use of prior expertise, scaffolding instruction and encouraging social presence can mitigate interruptions and lower the cognitive load of operating moms who are college or university learners.
All 4 of the study’s authors are working moms and a few of them are graduate students. Direct creator Anne Fensie is the mom of 3 youngsters, two with distinctive needs. She’s an adjunct professor of laptop or computer science at the University of Maine at Augusta and a doctoral scholar in increased instruction at the College of Maine.
“My initially attempt at doctoral reports when my children ended up younger was not profitable,” she says. “I struggled with psychological overall health at the time. With the enable of my loved ones, I have since structured my residence setting to safeguard my get the job done time, even though there continue to be interruptions. I did my master’s software in a hybrid structure and I’m in a position to do significantly of my doctoral studies remotely.”
Co-creator Teri St. Pierre has three small children less than 18. She’s an assistant professor of mathematics and director of Early Faculty at the College of Maine at Presque Isle, as effectively as a doctoral university student in larger education and learning at UMaine.
“I earned just one graduate diploma live and a person totally on line,” St. Pierre suggests. “I’ve been ready to construction my part of ‘student’ in the dwelling rather with a home business office and external guidance. As a night owl, I’m in a position to operate late in the evening when my husband and children are not a distraction.”
Jennifer Jain, one more co-writer, is the mother of a teenager and a younger grownup, who both equally are living at residence with her, her spouse and a puppy dog. An interdisciplinary Ph.D. university student, who also will work element-time as a investigate assistant at the UMaine Heart on Aging, Jain has also labored as a college lecturer and a recreational therapist in mental health. She delayed her doctoral studies thanks to her husband’s occupation and is now navigating relatives, do the job and school.
“Acquiring time to do schoolwork is a obstacle,” Jain says. “I are likely to juggle get the job done and faculty in the mornings, when there are less interruptions. I had less time in the afternoons, when there had been additional distractions. In the night hrs, when there are no distractions, I often fall asleep at the pc.”
Fensie, St. Pierre, Jain and the study’s fourth creator, UMaine associate professor of curriculum, assessment and instruction Asli Sezen-Barrie, say their individual encounters served them identify with the worries and distractions confronted by the individuals in their research.
They interviewed faculty members who taught the distance programs that the university student individuals were enrolled in, as very well as the doing work mother college students them selves. The students also employed Zoom to file their study sessions for at least a fifty percent-hour once a week in the course of the analyze time period. The researchers also carried out weekly phone or Zoom test-ins with the learners to debrief their research sessions and to clarify what the researchers experienced observed.
Just after examining the interviews and research observations, the scientists wrote situation research for the 6 working moms who participated in the challenge. Each and every circumstance review discusses the troubles, supports and approaches the doing the job mothers experienced as they took portion in length education courses.
For example, Rebecca, a 35–44-12 months-old lady in an undergraduate organization software, who was enrolled in a finance class through the review, labored total-time, experienced three school-aged kids, and shared household duties with her husband. With no personal space in her property to do schoolwork, Rebecca “scheduled time primarily based on the type of endeavor and the amount of interruptions she could deal with.” If she actually essential to concentrate—studying for an exam, for example—she would often function in her automobile.
The review took put through the COVID-19 pandemic, which contributors reported possessing each optimistic and adverse impacts on their life at house and faculty. 1 performing mom explained the pandemic encouraged her to go back to university whole-time. Many others said it designed it challenging to deal with time and manage focus on their schoolwork.
An overarching theme drawn from the interviews and scenario studies was the have to have for efficient study course style and design to guidance length learners, particularly all those who are moms and dads. The authors establish particular procedures that length studying faculty and college students can use to cut down the cognitive calls for and interruptions that can hamper finding out. For case in point, they explore the significance of encouraging social existence in their online courses. A single participant who was component of an on-line social operate program talked about how “the small group that I fashioned within just my cohort has been a godsend.”
Other methods consist of scaffolding instruction, or breaking down intricate finding out concepts into scaled-down, extra manageable responsibilities, and applying students’ prior expertise, as perfectly as related and genuine discovering functions.
Nevertheless the analyze centered on substantial-achieving pupils, the researchers argue that the strategies “could be advantageous for all adult learners in distance education.”
Additional details:
Anne Fensie et al, Engaged studying in the course of distraction: a scenario review of thriving doing work moms in distance instruction, Journal of Computing in Increased Education and learning (2023). DOI: 10.1007/s12528-023-09359-
Furnished by
College of Maine
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Examine examines how functioning moms in distance instruction navigate interruptions and realize academic accomplishment (2023, April 7)
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Maine Education and learning Commissioner Pender Makin (remaining) and Gov. Janet Mills (suitable)
Conventional educational mastering — like reading, crafting, and math — should be a lessen precedence in Maine colleges than social-psychological finding out and programming on race and gender, Maine Department of Schooling Commissioner Pender Makin explained to lawmakers on Wednesday.
“Academic finding out is surely going to get a backseat to all of these other items,” Makin informed lawmakers on the Instruction and Cultural Affairs Committee.
Makin’s remarks came amid a legislative hearing on the federal Section of Education’s recent risk to withhold Title 1A administrative cash because of to difficulties with Maine’s pupil testing.
Close to the end of the hearing, Republican lawmakers questioned Makin about the tradeoffs that arrive when a university decides to concentrate on fairness, diversity, gender concept, and social-psychological programming.
In response, Makin expressed the see that students are physiologically incapable of finding out about math, reading, and creating unless lecturers first handle their social-psychological requires.
“I guess, I would say it definitely does arrive down to mind science,” Makin reported.
“Every little one in the area requires to come to feel secure. If one person doesn’t experience safe and sound in the space, the small children who feel fairly safe and sure about themselves come to feel much less protected,” she reported.
“Your child who is in a classroom who observes the marginalization or bullying or diminishing of a different human becoming, that produces anxiety in the uninvolved baby who is in that placing,” she reported. “It makes disorders that are averse to the high tutorial targets that we set for our pupils.”
Education Commissioner Pender Makin
Makin, a previous public university administrator, has served as Gov. Janet Mills’ Instruction Commissioner considering that 2019.
Social-emotional studying (SEL) is a controversial technique to childhood schooling that has been increasingly adopted by educational institutions across the nation.
Underneath SEL, university staff turn into dependable for training small children self-consciousness, social recognition, partnership abilities, and responsible decision-generating. That can include things like the benefit of shaking palms and building eye get hold of, conflict resolution, or listening to some others and obtaining empathy.
When implementing SEL, quite a few domains previously assumed to be the position of parents fall into the purview of educators, administrators, steering counselors, social staff, and other college staff.
“SEL Can Be Imagined Of As Wholesome Humaning,” the Maine DOE site says.
SEL is inextricably sure up in contemporary progressive theories about fairness and gender are introduced into general public educational institutions.
In Maine, education officers rely on the Maine Built-in Youth Well being Study (MIYHS) to notify their approach to SEL, and they believe that MIYHS information show bullying on the foundation of race, ethnicity, sexuality, and gender is the best impediment to making absolutely sure all learners experience secure and succeed academically.
[RELATED: Maine’s High School Students Are Far More Likely Than Peers to Identify as LGBT. Why?…]
SEL is controversial for the reason that it serves as the automobile for progressive theories about gender and race, at times described as “gender ideology” and “Critical Race Theory” (CRT).
On gender, this incorporates, for instance, telling young students that there are dozens of potential gender identities they can pick out from, that gender is a social construct unrelated to biological sex. It also includes telling pupils that often physicians make a “mistake” when observing the gender of a new child youngster, as was done by way of a now-deleted Maine DOE online video.
For CRT, this involves, amid other things, teaching college students that white people today have inherent privilege, though non-white college students have inherent victimhood. CRT is also the driving pressure at the rear of the “equity audits,” which additional and far more Maine universities have employed range consultants to complete.
In Makin’s perspective, adopting this politically billed strategy to educating in general public faculties is vital in get to make all college students truly feel protected plenty of to interact their prefrontal cortexes in academic discovering. In the SEL framework, only by teaching these theoretical beliefs about gender and race can bullying be removed from the classroom.
For Sampson, the SEL strategy is counterproductive and ultimately undermines tutorial finding out.
“They’re turning lecturers into psychologist and therapists,” Sampson said. “They’re earning kids nervous about gender and race when they are emotionally immature and cannot tackle this things.”
“You explain to a baby that they have white privilege, that they can be any gender they want, and the consequence is a confused, traumatized little one who cannot study the principles,” she explained.
Rep. Sheila A. Lyman (R-Livermore Falls), a retired community university instructor, questioned no matter whether the prioritization of social-emotional mastering meant teachers would be assuming the purpose of moms and dads.
“As a practitioner, I know the time restraints,” explained Lyman. “I labored with many quite a few kids that had some large social-emotional requirements.”
“So I have an abundance of thoughts and possibly problems when I hear you say that this might be the priority,” stated Lyman.
“There’s a large amount of worried folks appropriate now, with dealing with the tutorial piece, the social-psychological piece, what is likely to be the precedence, where by do mothers and fathers get to weigh in, and how is it heard and listened to,” she claimed.
In reaction, Makin clarified her remarks about “academic learning” taking a “backseat” and provided lawmakers with a lesson in mind chemistry.
“I’m not stating we acquire in excess of the parenting. I’m declaring the mind will prioritize for us, and the studying will not happen until these other parts are in position, and we know that,” stated Makin.
“When I said the priority: Our complete goal, as a university technique, a general public let us say Pre-K by means of 12 faculty schooling process, is to get young children academically and you know all set in all people different techniques to enter the entire world and to be prosperous for their next step,” stated Makin.
“The priorities, what I was trying to explain is, in the brain. The brain prioritizes for us. The brain will not discover the math or the looking through or any of the other content locations when in dysregulated, coursing with cortisol and norepinephrine, it will — like the very little editor in their head is going to get pushed out of its seat, and the dysregulation can take around,” she reported.
“Learning will not materialize for the kids until they are regulated,” she claimed. “So that is the prioritization for us.”
Lawmakers also requested thoughts about the slipping Maine scholar examination scores — a measure of the quality of Maine’s faculties.
Makin at to start with appeared to deny that Maine’s test scores have slipped in current yrs.
“Why are we continuing to see this decline? Do you have any explanations for it?” questioned Rep. Heidi Sampson (R-Alfred).
“I do not know that we in Maine are looking at a specific drop,” said Makin.
Final October, the release of the Countrywide Evaluation of Education Progress (NAEP), sometimes called the Nation’s Report Card, showed sharp decreases in math and reading from 2019 to 2022, which includes looking through scores at the lowest degree in three a long time.
[RELATED: Secret audio reveals Maine teacher ranting about politics, mocking Trump-supporting parents]
Makin explained missing a yr and a fifty percent of school all through the governing administration lockdowns, homelessness, material use issues, and typically heightened concentrations of nervousness have all contributed to the difficulties Maine’s learners and universities are confronting.
“What we are viewing is a big boost in psychological wellbeing,” she claimed. “We have a crisis of disengagement.”
Rep. Barbara Bagshaw (R-Windham) afterwards pressed Makin on her declare that university student examination scores have not fallen in modern yrs.
“You really don’t think our take a look at scores are slipping?” requested Bagshaw.
“It is dependent which examination scores,” stated Makin.
She said Maine has seen decreased test scores on the NAEP than in past years, but she questioned regardless of whether higher exam scores really should truly be the goal anyhow.
[LISTEN BELOW: Maine Wire EIC Steve Robinson joined WVOM’s Ric Tyler this morning to talk about Education Commissioner Pender Makin’s remarks…]
“At the close of the working day, do we worth higher test scores over all else? And if we do, there is a confirmed way that I could get our check scores shifting forward. What we do is we teach to the examination,” she stated, introducing that accomplishing so could appear at the price of scholar creativity.
In reaction to the federal Section of Education’s threat to withhold income from MDOE more than alterations to scholar assessments, Makin certain the committee that her company experienced responded properly and that the $117,000 in administrative funding underneath Title 1A funding was not at chance.
Makin’s watch that conventional tutorial instruction have to take a backseat to progressive ideas about social-emotional understanding, race, and gender is diametrically opposed to what most Maine residents want from their general public educational institutions.
In a Maine Wire / Co/Efficient poll, bipartisan majorities reported they needed Maine’s public schools to get away from DEI and gender-centered programing and focus more on the essentials, like studying, math, composing, and science.
[RELATED: MAINE WIRE POLL: Most Maine Voters Say Schools Should Get “Back to Basics,” Ditch DEI and Gender Programming…]
77 per cent of Maine voters reported colleges should really be centered on the basic principles instead than paying out time on how gender, sexuality, and race influence the life of each day Americans, together with 91 percent of Republicans and 62 percent of Democrats in the poll.
Sampson, who has previously served on the Maine Condition Board of Training, claimed in a cellphone interview that providing classic educational instruction a backseat in Maine schools would a recipe for catastrophe.
“Children are unable to understand in this variety of surroundings,” she said. “That’s why check scores are down.”
“Commissioner Makin uncovered her priorities, and they are not the priorities Maine moms and dads wishes.”
A total of 179 out of the possible 663 students (27{af0afab2a7197b4b77fcd3bf971aba285b2cb7aa14e17a071e3a1bf5ccadd6db} completion) completed the online survey in June 2020. Median age of students was 19 years (IQR 18–28 years) and there were approximately three times as many females as males (Table 1), reflective of the undergraduate health sciences cohort (70{af0afab2a7197b4b77fcd3bf971aba285b2cb7aa14e17a071e3a1bf5ccadd6db} female). Student numbers were also reflective of the broader enrolment numbers in the programs (i.e., occupational therapy is the largest program). Just over half (53{af0afab2a7197b4b77fcd3bf971aba285b2cb7aa14e17a071e3a1bf5ccadd6db}; n = 94) of students had no prior experience in undertaking a Bachelor degree, and 76{af0afab2a7197b4b77fcd3bf971aba285b2cb7aa14e17a071e3a1bf5ccadd6db} of students had not completed any online courses prior to enrolment.
Table 1 Demographic characteristics
Quantitative results to the sense of belonging questionnaire
In terms of students’ sense of belonging to the university, the majority felt ‘quite’ or ‘extremely’ happy with their choice of university (74{af0afab2a7197b4b77fcd3bf971aba285b2cb7aa14e17a071e3a1bf5ccadd6db}) and felt ‘quite’ or ‘extremely’ welcomed by the university (68{af0afab2a7197b4b77fcd3bf971aba285b2cb7aa14e17a071e3a1bf5ccadd6db}). While most students felt respected by both staff (70{af0afab2a7197b4b77fcd3bf971aba285b2cb7aa14e17a071e3a1bf5ccadd6db}) and students (60{af0afab2a7197b4b77fcd3bf971aba285b2cb7aa14e17a071e3a1bf5ccadd6db}) at the university, students reported less connectiveness (23.5{af0afab2a7197b4b77fcd3bf971aba285b2cb7aa14e17a071e3a1bf5ccadd6db}) to the university. Only 20{af0afab2a7197b4b77fcd3bf971aba285b2cb7aa14e17a071e3a1bf5ccadd6db} of students reported they felt they were understood as an individual, and only 13{af0afab2a7197b4b77fcd3bf971aba285b2cb7aa14e17a071e3a1bf5ccadd6db} felt they ‘quite’ or ‘extremely’ mattered to others at the university (Table 2).
Table 2 Online learning and Sense of Belonging to the University [1]
Table 3 shows how the online learning experiences impacted on students’ perception of the course; 27{af0afab2a7197b4b77fcd3bf971aba285b2cb7aa14e17a071e3a1bf5ccadd6db} of students felt ‘quite’ or ‘extremely’ connected to staff while 16{af0afab2a7197b4b77fcd3bf971aba285b2cb7aa14e17a071e3a1bf5ccadd6db} of students felt ‘quite’ or ‘extremely’ connected to other students. While 49{af0afab2a7197b4b77fcd3bf971aba285b2cb7aa14e17a071e3a1bf5ccadd6db} of students rated 4 and above for the level of respect that they received from other students and their contribution towards the subject, students who had prior higher education felt less respected than students who had no prior higher education (p = 0.03). When asked how the online subject had contributed to understanding, knowledge/skills in their chosen health profession, about half of the students rated the online subject highly (rating 4 and above). Students who had prior higher education indicated higher ratings of understanding and knowledge/skills compared to students without prior higher education (p = 0.07 and p = 0.03 respectively). There was also a significantly higher proportion of students with no prior higher education who identified the online learning experience as either ‘quite’ or ‘extremely’ likely to impact their intention to continue with their current course (p = 0.001).
Table 3 Impact of online profession-specific subject on perception of the course
Qualitative results
Qualitative findings provided insight into experiences of staff and students during the rapid, unplanned transition to online learning. Student questionnaire responses included two open-ended questions expanding on enablers and barriers to sense of belonging. These yielded 145 enablers and 254 barriers to students’ feeling a sense of belonging. Data were subjected to qualitative content analysis by two authors and categories are presented in Additional file 1.
Three focus groups were conducted: two student sessions, each with two students enrolled in Speech Pathology and Paramedicine, and one academic session with five participants. Four full time academics and one casual academic participated from a total population of nine eligible academics. Using the processes described in the methods, focus group analysis was compared with the survey content analysis and the authors identified synergies between them. Findings were then integrated under a global theme, underpinned by organising and basic themes. The following themes reflect triangulation between academic and student focus group data in addition to survey responses.
Global theme—navigating belonging during the COVID-19 crisis: a shared responsibility
“We are in this together…making the best of this”
This theme explores sense of belonging creation during this period as a shared process, where participants perceived they worked together to get through the crisis. Students and academics encountered many challenges as they transitioned to online learning but despite hard times, were able to engage positively. The global theme revealed students and academics were navigating belonging during the COVID-19 crisis, and this journey was a shared responsibility. Both groups were working to achieve positive student engagement that would in turn create a sense of belonging in first-year students. A strong commitment of working hard to make the best out of this was mutually acknowledged.
Students perceived academics had done “a really good job at making sure we belonged…in those first few weeks that we were on campus but even more so probably while we were in Zoom” (Student-Astrid-Focus Group). Academics perceived students were actively engaged in making online learning work and were collegial and collaborative.
The shared experiences about navigating belonging during the COVID-19 crisis, have been captured under four organising themes: dimensions of belonging, individual experiences and challenges, reconceptualising teaching and learning, and relationships are central to belonging. Within each organising theme, basic themes were identified that provide depth to the organising theme (Fig. 1). Additional files 1 and 2 present a summary of the quotes obtained from the open-ended surveys and focus groups respectively, that contribute to the themes in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1
Pictorial representation of the global, organising, and basic themes
Organising theme: dimensions of belonging
This theme outlines that belonging is a multidimensional experience with several facets underpinning participants’ experiences. Students and academics identified several dimensions of belonging in relation to first year students’ experiences, as illustrated by two basic themes that sit under the organising theme: what it means to belong, and layers of belonging.
Basic theme: what it means to belong
This theme explores the idea that belonging at university is underpinned by feeling valued and connected. Academics and students agreed that having a sense of being valued by the university and a desire to have an active connection across all aspects of university life was important for students.
Belonging as a student was gained through a connection with the “vocation” (Student-Claire-Focus Group) or the course and career, and with people who will “be there” (Student-Claire-Focus Group) for them. Furthermore, support of academics was critical to gaining a sense of belonging. It was noted by academics and students, that when students feel they belong at university, they are actively engaged in their learning, and this sense of belonging in turn shapes their overall identity. Students can then “actually sort of relax and become themselves” (Staff-Brooke).
Belonging to their cohort, their course, their future profession, and their university was important for students. One academic noted that the “concept of acceptance” is part of the sense of belonging and goes “both ways” (Staff-Brooke).
Both academics and students agreed that the rapid change to online learning due to COVID-19, meant that developing a sense of belonging was challenged.
Basic theme: layers of belonging
This theme identified layers of belonging reflected in participants’ experiences. Peer, academic and professional layers each contributed to an overall sense of belonging and key examples are provided below.
Peers
Belonging to peers was described as “having that connection to someone that’s going through exactly the same thing as what you’re going through” (Student-Astrid-Focus Group). Students were concerned that when learning moved online that this sense of belonging would be jeopardised by less opportunities for in-person interaction.
Academics
Being connected to academics was perceived by students as directly impacting learning, with one student commenting: “…when they’re not connecting with the teacher, they’re not connecting with the content, they’re not connecting with the feedback. That’s when you develop this sense of feeling like you just don’t belong” (Student-Emily-Focus Group).
Academics perceived it was also important for students to develop a sense of belonging to the university community.
Profession
Belonging to a profession was identified as an important feature of belonging by academics and students. Studying a degree with a clear professional identity facilitated first year students to feel they belonged compared to those undertaking general health science degrees which may have multiple pathways and career options less directly aligned to first year studies.
One academic actively encouraged first year students to belong to their professional association as a way of fostering belonging in first years.
Organising theme—Individual experiences and challenges
This theme outlines that while there are similarities in participants’ experiences, individuals have unique contexts and factors shaping their experiences. Academics and students reflected upon personal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on their teaching or learning and how they responded as individuals to the ensuing challenges. Two basic themes emerged: Challenges of transition and recognising different learning preferences.
Basic theme —challenges of transition
This theme explored the significant challenges of transitioning to online teaching and learning. For some students, the transition to online learning offered potential benefits of flexibility and reduced travel time. Two of the four students in the focus groups opted for online learning opportunities available in other subjects of study prior to the pandemic to efficiently manage their study and external commitments. Nonetheless, the pandemic brought a raft of personal challenges that diminished these expected benefits. Covid-related changes to family employment, reduced access to childcare support and non-optional home schooling presented new concerns.
Clearly, students missed the opportunity to focus attention on their learning needs when balancing childcare demands and home-schooling during lockdowns.
Unlike a conventional online courses where students choose or plan to be online, the sudden, unexpected, and unplanned move to online study was prefaced by a short period (four weeks) of in-person class time. This initial in-person time was identified as being key to relationship building.
Academics identified positive experiences and challenges during the transition to online learning. The rapid change presented a problem to be solved and individuals could “embrace it and to work effectively…as a team” (Staff-Jane). Quickly strategizing and responding to the demands of online learning required team knowledge, experience, and support. Hence, enhanced team culture was a further positive for academics, being “present for each other” (Staff-Brooke).
Basic theme : recognising different learning preferences
This theme identifies experiences of online learning influenced by personal attributes, individual expectations and learning preferences. Such key factors impacted students’ capacity to maintain focus on academic goals after the rapid change to online learning. Some students reflected that barriers were not solely a feature of online learning environments, reporting that competing priorities, including work commitments and limited contact time with staff as pre-existing challenges to belonging. However, some students directly attributed their limited engagement and reduced motivation to the online learning environment.
Students suggested that active engagement “comes down to personality” (Student-Astrid- Focus Group). If a student was not shy they were comfortable to come forward and participate online. Some students perceived clear links between personal discipline, engagement, commitment, and achievement in online learning environments.
Further, students perceived effective (and ineffective) online group functioning reflected personalities of individual members, with some groups/personalities seen as being able to organise whilst other groups lacked leadership and cohesion.
Students who perceived themselves as active engagers reported being drawn towards other students who demonstrated motivation to interact and learn. Other students perceived their personalities or learning preferences were misaligned with the expectations of belonging in online learning environments and focussed upon tasks rather than connection.
Academics recognised student diversity and a need to reflect and re-evaluate expectations of students in online environments. They accepted that some students may be quietly engaging and learning to belong, but this was harder to observe in online compared to in-person learning environments.
Organising theme—relationships are central to belonging
This theme identified the relationship between all parties as a fundamental aspect of creating a sense of belonging. Two basic themes were influential in shaping perceptions of how relationships and connections contribute to belonging: collaboration with peers is fundamental, and effective and regular communication with staff is necessary.
Basic theme —collaboration with peers is fundamental
This theme revealed collaboration with student peers was a key element of creating a sense of belonging. The degree of social interaction with student peers and opportunities to create friendships contributed to feelings of belonging. Accordingly, students found it problematic when peers neglected to turn cameras on during classes, making interaction very difficult. Visualisation of peers and use of cameras in online classes impacted students’ opportunities to get to know each other.
Challenges posed by online learning were further highlighted in the student survey through a focus on non-academic aspects of university and campus life. Typically, university campuses offer interactional opportunities through clubs, sport, and shared spaces to learn and socialise. Campus life, students suggested, may facilitate learning and personal development. Absence of this type of interaction was linked to barriers in developing friendships and consequently a lesser sense of belonging as reflected in Additional file 1.
Basic theme— communication with academics is necessary
This theme outlined that communicating with academics was a key component of creating a sense of belonging. With less opportunities for peer support, there was stronger reliance on the academic-student connection, although students reported positive and negative interactions with academics during online learning.
Positive interactions and individualised communication with academics enhanced student sense of satisfaction and belonging. Furthermore, students in the focus groups reported a feeling of trust and a bond created by a shared challenge. Survey responses echoed this sentiment, noting that academics were “non-judgmental and supportive” (Student Survey 18) and created a sense of camaraderie. However, when students perceived impersonal communication from academics, they felt less connected or believed that teaching had become a “transaction” (Student-Astrid- Focus Group). Perceived levels of enthusiasm and engagement from academics influenced student’s perceptions of connection and belonging.
Students identified the online environment as a barrier to communication with academics. While systematic and university level communication was perceived as a useful source of information, students prioritised individualised communication from academic staff as key to belonging.
Academics concurred that effective communication was challenged in online environments, missing non-verbal cues and responsivity that characterises a classroom environment. Although the online learning environment provides an opportunity for academics to connect professionally with students, there were students who left their cameras off, with one academic noting they didn’t push this issue because there are many reasons for students choosing this option.
Organising theme: reconceptualising teaching and learning
This theme reveals how academics and students reconceptualised their expectations and modes of teaching and learning, to manage the crisis. It was not easy for academics or students, and many strategies were employed to make it work, with two basic themes emerging: challenges to online teaching and learning, and strategies to engage and connect.
Basic theme: challenges of online teaching and learning: “how do I make this work?”
This theme outlined many challenges faced by both academics and students during a rapid change to online mode. With the rapid change to online learning, academics asked themselves, ‘How do I make this work?’.
Managing workload
Academics reported their workload increased significantly, and they “found it a juggling act” (Staff-Louise) to meet their teaching requirements. Administrative loads consequently increased when reduced in-person contact with students led to more electronic communication. Academics needed to up-skill in online teaching in a short time frame and perceived this responsibility as all encompassing.
The rapid switch to online learning attracted significant academic workload, implementing and adapting content to see how material “might play out in a Zoom environment…[where]…everything takes longer” (Staff-Natalie).
Some students noticed a temptation to disengage from online learning, which meant balancing their workload and study demands became a challenge as they also faced significant workload and stressors in their personal lives due to COVID-19.
Class dynamics
Academics and students spoke about the change to classroom dynamics. The online environment was noted as being one in which it was difficult to read the room to see how students were progressing with their work. Others tried to use humour to enliven a class, only to have the Zoom frame freeze, killing the mood they were trying to create. Hence, staff felt teaching online was less conversational, flexible and responsive compared to face-to-face. Moreover, academics missed hands-on practical elements; a big shift for some programs.
Technological challenges
Academics learnt new skills quickly, but often these skills would be challenged when technology failed. Some academics reported a sense of vulnerability due to technological ineptitude but acknowledged that making mistakes in front of students could humanise the experience. Academics also acknowledged that some students did not have adequate technological resources to meet changes in their learning requirements when classes were placed online.
Basic theme: strategies to engage and connect
This theme reflected the strategies academics and students employed to remain engaged and connected. Academics worked hard to enhance online learning and hoped to connect with students and engage them in activities. Students too were active and appreciated academics’ efforts to facilitate engagement and connection. Underlying many of the strategies adopted by academics was a deep concern for student welfare during this time. Therefore, many academics aimed to ensure students were engaged and connected with each other and with the academic team. Academics built in small group opportunities during online teaching so students could connect, learn, and socialise.
Staff also spoke about informing students they could contact staff for support. One staff member described crossing the divide and actively discouraging a ‘them and us’ dynamic between students and staff.
A variety of teaching tools were identified by staff to build connection and promote engagement. Such tools included interactive quizzes, ice breakers activities, integrating reflective practices into activities and ‘drop in’ sessions. Staff also encouraged students to establish social media groups or other group experiences outside the classroom. Some staff members arrived early to zoom classes and left late to enable students to connect informally.
Students appreciated staff attempts to provide these activities. Students found these initiatives helpful, recognising staff placed effort into knowing students personally and focussing on student wellbeing and achievement. Students cited examples of provision of extra resources, mini-lectures, additional question and answer sessions, and fast response times to student queries. Students also initiated their own engagement strategies, including using group and personal messaging over platforms such as Facebook messenger.
This is the second story in a series about the state of special education in Oregon, including how students and educators are faring after years of pandemic disruptions. You can read the first story here.
Even before the pandemic, Jennifer Brooks had submitted six complaints to the Lake Oswego School District on behalf of her son, Hudson.
Hudson was in the middle of third grade in March 2020, when state leaders closed classrooms and sent students home to learn on laptops in response to COVID-19.
Hudson has dyslexia and dysgraphia, learning disabilities that can make reading and writing difficult. He qualifies for special education services through an individualized education plan he’s had since second grade.
When Hudson had to shift to learning online, that extra support went online too, through a program called Lexia Core5. Brooks said it was not working for her son.
“He’s exhausted from staring at the screen and this is in addition to his full day of school,” Brooks recalled sharing with the school district.
By January 2022, back in-person, Brooks could see her son falling further behind his peers in fifth grade. She pulled Hudson out of school for tutoring and hoped his reading skills would improve before middle school.
The pandemic gave parents like Brooks a front row seat to their child’s education. For some families, the pandemic, the extended period that Oregon schools spent in distance learning and the rocky return to in-person school afterwards exposed inadequacies in the support some students with disabilities receive. Parents and educators are facing the potential for academic and developmental setbacks that may hinder progress for children with disabilities for years to come.
In Lake Oswego, school officials say online programs used in special education are “based on specific student needs.” They note many teachers have received training in a dyslexia-related program called LETRS.
But the software programs and training efforts weren’t moving quickly enough for parents like Brooks, with concerns for their children’s learning.
Jennifer Brooks talks with her son, Hudson, as she picks him up from school in Lake Oswego, Jan. 26, 2023. Hudson, who has learning disabilities that can make reading and writing difficult, fell behind his peers at school during the pandemic.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
Now a sixth grader at Lakeridge Middle School, Hudson continues to receive outside tutoring separate from the school district.
“I have asked [the school district] to not provide any literacy intervention for reading,” Brooks said. “They don’t know how to do it.”
“He doesn’t trust them to be honest, he doesn’t really trust the school after all these years … and knowing that what they have him do doesn’t help him and then they don’t listen to that.”
Based on discussions with parents and educators in other parts of Oregon, the challenges in Lake Oswego — an affluent school district with fewer students in special education than the state average — are not unique.
At the same time, reading is having a moment. Parents and advocates across the country are speaking out about what they see as inadequate approaches to teach children to read. Oregon advocates and teachers want to see school districts spend federal COVID-19 relief funds on phonics-based reading programs. West Linn-Wilsonville parents have been advocating for more support and a new curriculum at school board meetings. Improved reading for Black students has become a focus of the NAACP nationally as a new podcast shares the story of “how teaching kids to read went so wrong.”
Hanging in the balance are students with specific learning challenges, like reading. Parents of students like Hudson and Greyson Chavez, a middle schooler in Beaverton, are pushing solutions before it’s too late.
Feeling frustrated at school and learning to read at home
If students don’t get what they need in early grades, they don’t develop those foundational skills that are necessary throughout school and life after school. Reading is an essential skill for students to build so they can learn complex subjects as they get older.
In class, Greyson, an eighth grader at Mountain View Middle School in Beaverton, didn’t like reading out loud. He’d get nervous that he might stumble on words, or mess up in front of his peers.
“It made me feel like something’s wrong, that maybe I just wasn’t trying hard enough, or wasn’t smart,” Greyson said.
Kim Harley and her son Greyson Chavez. Greyson is an eighth grader at Mountain View Middle School in Beaverton. He struggled with reading at school until his mom started teaching him herself last year using a phonics-based system she found online. With the help of a tutor, Greyson is reading at grade level.
Elizabeth Miller / OPB
Like Hudson, Greyson has dyslexia. Also similar to Hudson, Greyson and his mom, Kim Harley, said the support he received through the special education department at his school wasn’t working. Harley hired a tutor and found other materials so her son can learn.
“The help at home is definitely a lot better than the help at school,” Greyson said. “The help at school is … less of teaching the kids how to read or how to do math and more of putting them in front of a computer screen for a couple of hours.”
Not every child with dyslexia qualifies for special education support. They can qualify for services if they are determined to have a “specific learning disability” potentially based on weak academic performance in subjects such as reading and writing.
Like many parents across the country, Harley said the pandemic gave her an in-depth look at Greyson’s educational experience. She watched him struggle with math, reading and writing.
On reading tests in seventh grade, last year, Harley found that her son’s reading level had actually regressed from where he was in third grade. So she spent $300 on Barton reading system materials, a phonics-based program that uses little multi-colored tiles to help students differentiate between sounds. Last September, Harley had Greyson tested again and said he jumped to fourth grade reading level.
“It’s very apparent that he is very capable of learning,” Harley said. “He just was not getting what he needed at school.”
Beaverton officials say parts of their core instruction are phonics-based like the Barton system, and that students who qualify for special education services receive individual help. Similar to Lake Oswego, Beaverton officials add that specific elementary staff are currently receiving LETRS training.
Harley and Hudson’s mom, Jennifer Brooks, are part of a large number of parents and advocates who disagree with the reading interventions provided by their districts.
Greyson said that while his writing skills have improved, he’s still working on reading.
Kim Harley used this box of materials to teach her son Greyson to read last year. The box includes multi-colored tiles to help differentiate sounds.
Elizabeth Miller / OPB
“I still don’t know if I’m as confident with reading anymore,” Greyson said. “I don’t like to read, I don’t read books, but I think I’ve gotten better with it. I can read a lot harder words now, that’s good.”
The help Harley is paying for — the tutor and the Barton system — are ultimately helping Grayson complete assignments and feel successful in eighth grade, including reading-heavy courses like history and social studies.
The tutoring paid off. In January 2023, new test results showed Greyson was reading at grade level.
“He just needs a little bit”
Some students with learning disabilities may only need a few extra minutes of support to find academic success. And not getting that support can compromise both their learning, and their attitude about learning.
Alison Gash’s son has trouble focusing in the classroom environment. He has several conditions — autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and visual processing problems — that make learning different for him.
To succeed, Gash said her son needs extra one-on-one support in math and writing — someone to help break down questions so he can answer them.
“He can do the math, he just can’t decode the instructions,” Gash said.
Her son is in fourth grade at a public school in Portland for high-achieving students. She has asked not to include her son’s name to avoid possible repercussions against him. Gash said the lack of adequate support has left her son with anxiety and negative feelings about his education.
“Time’s running out for him to really be able to see school as a positive experience,” Gash said.
“He comes home from school and says, ‘my brain is broken, I can’t do work’,” Gash recalled. “And I’m like, that’s just heartbreaking because your brain is awesome, we just haven’t found the setting that will allow you to see that.”
She’s been working to get her son an aide at school, but has been told there aren’t resources for him. District officials say there are two paraeducators assigned to the school.
“PPS is committed to serving all students, and will work tirelessly to ensure those requiring specialized services receive support as highlighted in their Individualized Education Plan in an inclusive and caring environment,” PPS officials shared with OPB in response to questions about lack of support for students.
Gash is a political science professor at the University of Oregon, and has worked with the university to make classrooms more accessible for students with various learning needs. She said children need spaces that support how they learn — and it’s different for every student.
“Some kids are fine being at a table with three other kids and having to do work in a classroom with 24 other kids,” Gash said. “A lot of kids aren’t, and for a lot of kids, that kind of space simply will not work for their capacity to learn.”
She said she doesn’t see a space that works for her son at his current school.
“He just needs a little bit,” Gash said. “But even the little bit that he needs, we can’t get.”
If children like hers are going to be in those classrooms, Gash said, they might need an adult in the room to help, whether that’s a paraeducator, or an aide, or a parent volunteer.
Small changes can lead to significant problems
Just as seemingly small supports can make a big difference with students, when a relatively small cut is made to services, it can cause significant problems.
At the end of October, special education staff at Kelly Elementary School in Southeast Portland were notified that their staffing was being cut from 1.5 to 1.0 — a loss of the equivalent of one part-time teacher. PPS was requiring a full-time staff member to split their time between Kelly and Lent Elementary a little over a mile away, effectively reducing support at Kelly.
That staffing cut had a ripple effect that interrupted student learning. Staff said they were unable to provide specially designed instruction, required by students’ individualized education plans. According to a letter from Kelly staff shared with OPB, as a result of the staffing change, every student with an IEP was “missing core instruction,” and that some students were missing “teacher-led recess to receive instruction.”
The letter stated that some students are now in the school’s Learning Center for over two hours to meet their required IEP minutes, something Kelly Elementary teacher Rachael Hall called “not developmentally appropriate.”
District officials said the October staffing change was based on the number of students served. Hall is also the parent of a student with disabilities, a middle schooler at Kellogg, another school in Southeast Portland. Speaking generally, Hall said resources are going to students most in need — including students who may act out physically — but that leaves every student underserved.
“The reason this — attending to these kids with these behavioral needs — is so important is because they’re kind of like the canary in the coal mine,” Hall said. “If their needs are not being met, everybody else’s needs are going to start not being met because they are a high priority when someone’s like unsafe to themselves, unsafe to others.”
Research has shown that students need to be in an environment where they feel safe in order to learn.
Parent and school volunteer Jackie Dean sees firsthand the need for more support in her son Jack’s first grade classroom at Kelly.
“I’ll sit next to Jack and I’ll help him with his work … I help Jack, and I try to help the kids that sit around him,” Dean said. “Sometimes some of the other kids start calling, ‘Ms. Jackie!’”
Dean said Jack, who has autism, struggles with getting started on his school work. She remembered helping another student with math — and how the little extra support she was able to provide helped the student progress.
With the change in Kelly’s staffing, Dean said she feels like the connection with the teacher who now works part-time has changed.
“I know she’s stretched so thin,” Dean said.
Dean is concerned about the future of her son and his classmates, and all students who don’t get what they need. She thinks about her husband, who received special education services when he was in school. As an adolescent, he went to juvenile detention and remembers someone there telling him that students who needed special education support — but didn’t get it — ended up incarcerated.
She worries about Jack and his classmates.
“Jack was so successful last year at school,” Dean said, while acknowledging kindergarten wasn’t perfect. Her concerns are bigger now.
“This year, there’s so many problems — it’s just — my first grader, I’m worried he’s going to end up in jail someday.”
Makeup time required for some students — but not always happening, or wanted
A state emergency rule enacted in 2021 ordered school districts to review student plans to determine who was eligible for COVID-19 recovery services, to make up for time lost when students were at home during the pandemic.
That rule required schools to “consider” recovery services for students receiving special education support “based on the unique needs that arise from their disability due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.” But the state hasn’t been tracking how many of those 78,716 students were eligible or have received recovery services. One option for providing those services is putting it off until the summer.
Individual school districts haven’t been consistent in tracking how many students they’re providing support.
In Beaverton, “approximately 25{af0afab2a7197b4b77fcd3bf971aba285b2cb7aa14e17a071e3a1bf5ccadd6db}” of the district’s 4,638 students receiving special education services were eligible and offered recovery services, which range from summer programs and participating in the school’s extended school year program to additional services “during non-instructional times” in the school day.
More than 760 students in the Lake Oswego School District receive special education services. District officials said the number of students who qualified for recovery services varies, though they said 40 students accessed services during the summer.
Under state rules, Oregon districts have until the end of this school year to meet with families, develop recovery services if recommended and outline a plan for when those services will occur.
In Portland, 488 students received services in the summer. District officials estimate 50 students had small group instruction or tutoring outside of summer. That’s out of more than 7,300 students in PPS who receive special education services. District officials did not share how many students were eligible for the services.
Jey Buno, PPS’ interim director of student services, said only a small number of students’ education was “significantly impacted.”
“The focus is on trying to close some of the learning gaps that might have been created due to the pandemic impact,” Buno said.
“It may be additional reading instruction, it may be additional math instruction, it could be a social group-type activity, where you’re part of a club to get some specific instruction on social interactions.”
But it may be difficult for students in Portland and across the state to receive those services. District officials said they served as “many possible students as they could” last summer. A former PPS special education teacher who asked OPB for anonymity out of fear of repercussions said they are concerned about the logistics. The teacher was also worried that directing students into extra classes might feel like schools are “punishing” students.
Daralee Huntley, the parent of a Portland student with disabilities and a paraeducator in the district, agreed that more school — when other students are on summer break — can’t be the only solution, and wouldn’t work for students like her daughter.
“She needs to have that break from school,” Huntley said of recovery services offered for her daughter, Bella. “I didn’t want to put the stress of summer school … to me, that’s not going to help.”
This is the second story in a series on the state of special education. You can read the first story here. Our next story is about what it’s like to be a member of support staff working in special education classrooms.
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Thompson-Franklin is the electronic sources librarian at the University of Idaho Library.
