What were the effects of DAD on learning of students during the pandemic? An international study has tried to answer this question, which all parents ask themselves, which confirmed that school-age children all over the world have suffered significant setbacks in their learning progress.
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Analyzed the performance of students from 15 different countries
The researchers reviewed and analyzed data from 42 studies on learning progress during the pandemic in 15 different countries, including Italy. Experts conducted initial research in April 2021 and further studies in February and August 2022. The results were published in the scientific journal Nature Human Behavior.
EEffects of DAD on learning: the results of the study
The study results argue that students have lost about 35% of the learning of a normal school year. The learning progress of schoolchildren has slowed significantly during the pandemic. So, on average, children lost about a third of what they would usually have learned in a normal school year. These learning deficits emerged quite early in the pandemic.
EEffects of DAD on learning: “poor” students penalized even more
Children have not yet recovered the learning they lost at the start of the pandemic. Furthermore, inequality in education among children from different socioeconomic backgrounds has seen an increase during the pandemic. So the learning crisis is a crisis of equality. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds faced even greater difficulties during school closures. It is important to note that most of the existing research comes from high- and middle-income countries, while there are some studies from low-income countries.
Difficult to recover this gap
Students, on average, are far behind what they should have known without the pandemic, and this reduction in learning has highlighted much higher levels for groups of students who were already more likely to struggle in school. In October, results from the 2022 US National Assessment of Educational Progress exams showed that elementary school students underperformed in reading and had the largest drop ever in math in the United States. It was the first national assessment of student achievement in three years since Covid-19 emerged and revealed the pandemic’s devastating effect on learning.
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