Greater objective numeracy protects COVID-19 pandemic grades but endangers academic interest.

Abstract

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic greatly affected educational experiences by forcing students and teachers to change their learning and instructional strategies and by disrupting life outside the classroom as well. To determine the impact of the pandemic on students varying in ability, we measured perceived pandemic disruption, objective numeracy (ONS), math interest, and other academic- and life-related outcomes in an introductory data analysis course (N = 399) that switched mid-semester from in-person to online instruction because of the pandemic. As in prior research, those higher in objective numeracy had better academic outcomes before and during the pandemic. Ability did not predict perceived disruption, but students with lower numeric self-efficacy, women, and Pell Grant recipients (indicating low socioeconomic status) experienced more pandemic disruption. Although we expected numeracy to protect academic outcomes from disruption, we observed this effect only for grades. Unexpectedly, numeracy predicted greater vulnerability to losing interest in math, such that greater perceived disruption reduced math interest for those higher in objective numeracy but not for those lower in objective numeracy. Similarly, we found a small indirect effect of objective numeracy and disruption on course enrollment via math interest. In practical terms, about 30% fewer high-objective numeracy students enrolled in the advanced statistics course when they were high rather than low in disruption. Thus, high-ability students may paradoxically perform better but feel worse when faced with unexpected hardships. Our findings highlight the importance of educators being mindful of their high-ability students’ struggles as their academic motivation may be less resilient than previously expected.

The Individual Differences of Indonesian High School Students’ Academic Interest in English as a Foreign Language

“…Based on the aforementioned previous studies, we conclude that the results in this paper could be due to these reasons. Fifth, differences might persist due to the hardships students encounter during learning, either online or offline (Svensson et al, 2022). It is essential for language teachers to identify the difficulties students have and support them to learn not for short-term goals but for long-term goals, e.g.…”

“…The Covid outbreak in 2019 resulted in changes to foreign language education (Kaluge, 2020;Svensson et al, 2022). Both students and teachers had to adjust their teaching and learning activities online (Moorhouse, 2020).…”

“…Both students and teachers had to adjust their teaching and learning activities online (Moorhouse, 2020). Indirectly, this transition affected student motivation (Svensson et al, 2022). Interest, as one of the motivational aspects of foreign language learning, significantly affects student academic performance and learning outcomes (Svensson et al, 2022).…”

“…Indirectly, this transition affected student motivation (Svensson et al, 2022). Interest, as one of the motivational aspects of foreign language learning, significantly affects student academic performance and learning outcomes (Svensson et al, 2022). Interest, as one of the motivational aspects of foreign language learning, significantly affects student academic performance and learning outcomes (Luo, Dang, & Xu, 2019;Mappadang et al, 2022).…”

“…Interest, as one of the motivational aspects of foreign language learning, significantly affects student academic performance and learning outcomes (Luo, Dang, & Xu, 2019;Mappadang et al, 2022). A study in America found that during the pandemic, students with high numeracy abilities experienced a decrease in their math interests (Svensson et al, 2022). However, very few studies have been related to the diversity of students' interest in foreign languages in Indonesia, especially during the pandemic.…”