Home Learning in Times of COVID: Experiences of Parents

Abstract

<jats:p>&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;em&gt;The widespread prevalence of COVID-19 pandemic has affected academia and parents alike. Due to the sudden closure of schools, students are missing social interaction which is vital for better learning and grooming while most schools have started online classes. This has become a tough routine for the parents working online at home since they have to ensure their children’s education. The study presented was designed to explore the experiences of home learning in times of COVID-19. A descriptive qualitative study was planned to explore the experiences of parents about home learning and management during COVID-19 to get an insight into real-life experiences. Purposive sampling technique was used for data collection. Data were collected from 19 parents falling in the inclusion criteria. Considering the lockdown problem, the data were collected via Google docs form with open-ended questions related to COVID-19 and home learning. Three major themes emerged after the data analysis: impact of COVID on children learning; support given by schools; and strategies used by caregivers at home to support learning. It was analyzed that the entire nation and academicians around the world have come forward to support learning at home offering a wide range of free online avenues to support parents to facilitate home-learning. Furthermore, parents too have adapted quickly to address the learning gap that have emerged in their children’s learning in these challenging times. Measures should be adopted to provide essential learning skills to children at home. Centralized data dashboards and educational technology may be used to keep the students, parents and schools updated.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</jats:p>

Keeping Kids Busy: Family Factors Associated with Hands-on Play and Screen Time During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Canadian families reported supervising just over 13 hours of screen time a week, compared to over 16 hours in our sample (ParticipACTION, 2018). These increases may be in part due to families spending more time at home remote-learning and working (Bhamani et al, 2020).…”

Parenting Under Pressure: A Mixed-Methods Investigation of the Impact of COVID-19 on Family Life

“…As some researchers have suggested that digital technologies may help to bridge social distance during the pandemic 70 , the data from this study suggests that online relationships are a compliment, but not a substitute for in-person social interactions in youth. Beyond social interactions, numerous studies have suggested that online schooling may place undue pressure on families who do not have the necessary resources (e.g., technology, time) to make it a success 10,11 . While school reopenings across the globe have met with varying levels of success [71][72][73][74][75] , it is clear that sustained attention and resources dedicated to establishing evidence-based strategies for safe and sustainable school reopening could go a long way in supporting the health and wellbeing of both children and parents.…”

“…Parents rated the impact COVID-19 was having on their lives in the following domains: how concerned they were about the virus (5-point scale, 'not at all' to 'extremely' concerned), whether they had made changes to their lifestyle (no, yes), how often they were getting outside of their house (5 point-scale, multiple times a day, to less than once per week), whether they had lost work as a result of COVID-19 (no, partially, completely), and whether they had lost income as a result of COVID-19 (no, partially, completely). Each affirmative response was given a point and those points were summed to create a COVID-19 Impact score (range [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17].…”

“…School closures paired with restrictions on children's social activities, as well as an unusually strong emphasis on hygiene, may have unique impacts on young people, occurring at a particularly plastic stage of their brain and social development. In preliminary studies, children have reported experiencing elevated academic difficulties as a result of online schooling during COVID-19 10 , with those who are economically disadvantaged being at greatest risk 11 . There is also evidence for an increase in both anxiety and depressive symptoms in children and adolescents during COVID-19 [12][13][14] .…”

Parenting Under Pressure: A Mixed-Methods Investigation of the Impact of COVID-19 on Family Life

“…As some researchers have suggested that digital technologies may help to bridge social distance during the pandemic 70 , the data from this study suggests that online relationships are a compliment, but not a substitute for in-person social interactions in youth. Beyond social interactions, numerous studies have suggested that online schooling may place undue pressure on families who do not have the necessary resources (e.g., technology, time) to make it a success 10,11 . While school reopenings across the globe have met with varying levels of success [71][72][73][74][75] , it is clear that sustained attention and resources dedicated to establishing evidence-based strategies for safe and sustainable school reopening could go a long way in supporting the health and wellbeing of both children and parents.…”