A study carried out earlier this year by researchers at NUI Galway's School of Education has found that children are more anxious and learn less when schooling at home.
The report, ‘Schooling at Home in Ireland during COVID-19: Perspectives and Experiences of Primary and Second-level Students and their Parents’, was conducted between June and August of this year and carried out in collaboration with the National Parents’ Council Primary.
Responses were obtained from 2,733 parents, 896 primary school students and 293 second-level students.
“A priority of the research was to capture the voices of children and young people in relation to their lived experiences of schooling at home during the period of the school building closures," said Dr Niamh Flynn, lead researcher on the study and lecturer with NUI Galway’s School of Education. "Taking advantage of a time-point that allowed for reflection on the entire period of school building closures, the study illuminates students’ perceptions of learning less, becoming less motivated over time, and being more stressed and anxious in the schooling at home context relative to the traditional school context.”
Key findings from the study include the perceptions of poorer learning progress at home than at school. A small majority of primary school participants (52 per cent ) and a large majority of second-level participants (73 per cent ) felt that they had learned less at home than at school.
The study also found that interest in learning declined over time at home. Both parents and students were clear that interest and engagement in schooling at home had decreased significantly over the relevant time period (82 per cent of primary parents, 71 per cent of second-level parents, and 67 per cent of second-level students ).
Some homes also had inadequate technology to support schooling at home. Approximately 27 per cent of both primary and second-level parents reported that they did not have enough devices to support schooling at home, while 8.3 per cent of primary parents and 12.2 per cent of second-level parents reported that they had inadequate internet connection.
Many students and parents reported experiencing increased levels of stress and anxiety. Students greatly missed their friends and the social interaction of school life. Parents worried about their children’s academic progress, social-emotional development, and mental health. A small number of parents felt that their children benefited from individual support, more family time, and freedom to learn new or different things.
Working parents and/or parents with several children found juggling multiple work-home-children responsibilities exhausting and unsustainable, particularly in the absence of childcare. A prominent theme in parent responses was the need for children to return to school full-time for academic, social, and mental health reasons. In general, students were positive about returning to school.
Some parents and students emphasised the need for more live teaching and feedback on completed work if schooling at home were to resume. They also expressed a strong desire for more consistency and direction from the Department of Education and Skills in relation to remote learning provision by schools.
Dr Elaine Keane, co-researcher of the study and senior lecturer with NUI Galway’s School of Education, said: “The study speaks to the unsustainability for working parents and/or parents with several children, with no childcare, of juggling support for schooling at home across multiple learning levels with work-home-childcare responsibilities during a period of school closures.”
Professor Gerry MacRuairc, co-researcher and head of the School of Education at NUI Galway, said: “Appropriate support and training is needed for all principals and teachers in developing good practice for remote and blended teaching and learning. It would seem timely to focus now on ensuring a more integrated model of learning that draws on the more explicit integration of online platforms and teaching and learning strategies into future pedagogy as a matter of course.”
The full report and executive summary of the study findings is available at tinyurl.com/Schoolingathome
