COVID-19 has caused the closure of university campuses around the world and migration of all learning, teaching, and assessment into online domains. The impacts of this on the academic community as frontline providers of higher education are profound. In this article, we report the findings from a survey of n = 1148 academics working in universities in the United Kingdom (UK) and representing all the major disciplines and career hierarchy. Respondents report an abundance of what we call 'afflictions' exacted upon their role as educators and in far fewer yet no less visible ways 'affordances' derived from their rapid transition to online provision and early 'entry-level' use of digital pedagogies. Overall, they suggest that online migration is engendering significant dysfunctionality and disturbance to their pedagogical roles and their personal lives. They also signpost online migration as a major challenge for student recruitment, market sustainability, an academic labour-market, and local economies.
The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed "emergency remote teaching" across education globally, leading to the closure of institutions across a variety of settings, from early-years through to higher education. This paper looks specifically at the impact of these changes to those teaching the discipline of computer science in the UK. Drawing on the quantitative and qualitative findings from a largescale survey of the educational workforce (N=2,197) conducted in the immediate aftermath of institutional closures in March 2020 and the shift to online delivery, we report how those teaching computer science in various UK settings (n=214) show significantly more positive attitudes towards the move to online learning, teaching and assessment than those working in other disciplines; these perceptions were consistent across schools, colleges and higher education institutions. However, whilst practitioners noted the opportunities of these changes for their respective sector-especially a renewed focus on the importance of digital skills-they raised a number of generalisable concerns on the impact of this shift to online on their roles, their institutions and their sectors as a whole; for example, the impact on workload, effective pedagogy and job fragility. More specifically for computer science practitioners, curricula and qualifications, there were concerns raised regarding the ability to meaningfully deliver certain core topics such as mathematical foundations and programming, as well as the impact on various types of formal examinations and assessment. Based on the data obtained from this rapid response survey, we offer informed commentary, evaluation and recommendations for emerging learning and teaching policy and practice in the UK computer science community as we move into the 2020-2021 academic year and beyond.
Given that an estimated 5–10% of the worldwide population is said to have dyslexia, it is of great importance that teachers have an accurate understanding of what dyslexia is and how it effects their students. Using results from a large‐scale survey of teachers in England and in Wales (N ≈ 2,600), this paper demonstrates that teachers held a basic understanding of dyslexia, based on the behavioural issues that it is associated with. Teachers lacked the knowledge of the biological (i.e., neurological) and cognitive (i.e., processing) aspects of dyslexia. Moreover, a number of teachers mentioned visual factors in their description of dyslexia, despite there being inconclusive evidence to suggest a direct relationship between visual functioning and dyslexia. Further findings demonstrate the importance of good‐quality teacher training in increasing teachers' confidence working with those with dyslexia, while increasing their knowledge of the cognitive aspects of dyslexia. This paper argues that evidence‐based teacher training, which informs teachers of the up‐to‐date research on the biological, cognitive, and behavioural aspects of dyslexia, is essential to combat misconceptions and ensure that teachers have more nuanced and informed understandings of dyslexia.
Universities in the UK, and in other countries like Australia and the USA, have responded to the operational and financial challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic by prioritising institutional solvency and enforcing changes to the work-practices and profiles of their staff. For academics, an adjustment to institutional life under COVID-19 has been dramatic and resulted in the overwhelming majority making a transition to prolonged remote-working. Many have endured significant work-intensification; others have lost -or may soon lose -their jobs. The impact of the pandemic appears transformational and for the most part negative. This article reports the experiences of n=1,099 UK academics specific to the corporate response of institutional leadership to the COVID-19 crisis. We find articulated a story of universities in the grip of 'pandemia' and COVID-19 emboldening processes and protagonists of neoliberal governmentality and market-reform that pay little heed to considerations of human health and wellbeing.
The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected the university sector globally. This article reports on the Australian findings from a large-scale survey of academic staff and their experiences and predictions of the impact of the pandemic on their wellbeing. We report the perceptions of n = 370 Australian academics and accounts of their institutions' responses to COVID-19, analysed using self-determination theory. Respondents report work-related stress, digital fatigue, and a negative impact on work-life balance; as well as significant concerns over potential longer-term changes to academia as a result of the pandemic. Respondents also articulate their frustration with Australia's neoliberal policy architecture and the myopia of quasi-market reform, which has spawned an excessive reliance on international students as a pillar of income generation and therefore jeopardised institutional solvencyparticularly during the pandemic. Conversely, respondents identify a number of 'silver linings' which speak to the resilience of academics.
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