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Children and COVID-19 Research Library

UNICEF Innocenti's curated library of COVID-19 + Children research

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61 - 75 of 122
Education and Covid-19: recovering from the shock created by the pandemic and building back better

AUTHOR(S)
Fernando M. Reimers

Institution: UNESCO, International Academy of Education
Published: August 2021

This booklet draws on research-based knowledge generated during the Covid-19 crisis and on previous research on germane topics, to suggest a framework that supports the development of contextually relevant educational strategies to teach during and after the pandemic. The booklet is addressed to education administrators at the school and system level. It was written with the acknowledgment that the pandemic is still ongoing in much of the world, and that interruptions to education in many parts of the world are likely to continue through 2022, and perhaps beyond.  The booklet focuses entirely on education. It does not address health or other policy responses to the pandemic—although obviously the pandemic is, at the root, a public health crisis that has triggered many economic, social, and educational consequences. An appropriate government response should be coherent and multisectoral, so that there is good coordination among various sectoral components of the response.

Enabling readiness of a school to reopen during a pandemic : a field experience

AUTHOR(S)
TB Pritish Baskaran; Pankaja Raghav; Naveen K. H. (et al.)

Published: August 2021   Journal: Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness
Modelling studies indicate that closure of schools during the COVID-19 pandemic may not be well grounded for the SARS-CoV-2 infection, as evidences indicate that children are less affected by this virus and the clinical attack rates in the 0-19 age group are low. Experts also opine that school closure might have negative effects on the scholastic abilities of a child and also an adverse impact on the economy and healthcare system, considering the responsibilities conferred upon the parents. Also, in a developing country like India, it is difficult for the rural population to afford distance online learning, which brings into importance the reopening of schools in a safe environment to avoid adversities such as increased drop-outs in the upcoming academic year, loss of in-person benefits such as mid-day meal scheme. This study highlights a field experience in relation to readiness assessment of a rural school in the Jodhpur district of Rajasthan, India, for a safe reopening to accept students in a safe and conducive atmosphere, which shall help prevent transmission of the virus in the schools among the children. In this regard, an indigenous readiness checklist has been developed to achieve the purpose, which assesses the readiness in three domains, viz, (i) Procedural readiness, (ii) Supplies, sanitation and infrastructure-related, (iii) Education and Training.
Caminito de la escuela: consulta a niñas, niños y adolescentes
Institution: Comisión de Derechos Humanos de la Ciudad de México
Published: August 2021

Consultation #CaminitodelaEscuela of the Mexico City Human Rights Commission is a second exercise of participation aimed at knowing the opinion of children and adolescents in the context of the SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic. Specifically, this consultation is aimed at knowing your opinion on the return to school in person. #CaminitodelaEscuela consisted, on the one hand, of a brief questionnaire to know if the girls, boys and adolescents want to return to face-to-face classes, as well as which
they consider it to be the main fear related to it. The questionnaire was disseminated online


Physical activity for children with autism spectrum disorder during COVID-19 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Shahnaz Shahrbanian; Meysam Yavari Kateb; Patricia K. Doyle-Baker (et al.)

Published: August 2021   Journal: International Journal of Developmental Disabilities
In December 2019, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) emerged in Wuhan, China that culminated in a serious pandemic condition. Physical distancing restrictions were a significant component of the public health emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic. For children and youth, these restrictions included safety measures that impacted daily activities related to physical activity (PA) participation worldwide. Preliminary evidence suggests that in children with special needs such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), COVID-19 restrictions may have disproportionally led to reduced levels of PA. The aim of this study was to review the benefits of PA for children with ASD and suggest Home PA Program examples for Children with ASD during COVID-19 pandemic and the quarantine time.
Let them do PE! The becoming of Swedish physical education in the age of COVID-19

AUTHOR(S)
Seguya Kamoga; Valeria Varea

Published: August 2021   Journal: European Physical Education Review
Sweden received worldwide attention for its approach to managing the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, throughout the pandemic, Sweden was one of the few countries that did not implement any lockdown measures. This meant that primary schools remained open and classes proceeded as usual, including the delivery of physical education (PE). This paper explores PE teachers’ perceptions of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Swedish PE. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with seven PE teachers. Results suggest that teaching PE during COVID-19 has led to disparate challenges and changes for teachers, including modifications in context, content, roles and responsibilities, as well as the handling of issues concerning physical contact and proximity among students and teachers. The conclusions of this study reveal that in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the parameters of PE in Sweden are changing more rapidly now than ever before. Understanding how the pandemic has impacted the subject of PE and its delivery might create opportunities for further discussions, possible solutions and subsequent necessary adjustments in dealing with the ongoing COVID-19 situation.
Chinese adolescents’ rebellion during the COVID-19 pandemic: discipline and resistance in online compulsory education

AUTHOR(S)
Jindong Liu; Biying Wu; Jiayu Qu

Published: August 2021   Journal: Education and Information Technologies
To tackle the debate surrounding the tension between knowledge and power in online education for adolescents and between freedom and control at large, this study examines how disciplinary power was exercised and resisted in a Chinese setting of online compulsory education during the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020. Overall, 60 participants, including students (from Grade 7 to 12), their parents, and teachers joined in our focus groups or individual interviews in a secondary school in Xi’an, China. By following Foucault’s concepts of three techniques of disciplinary power: hierarchical observation, normalizing judgement and examination, this study identified four themes based on the data: (1) diminished discipline with the dissolving boundary, (2) reconfigured disciplinary power by teachers, (3) self-discipline as a vital skill, and (4) online compulsory education as a future trend. Interpretations from the Foucauldian perspective were presented, suggesting that most adolescents depend upon more external disciplines from schools and teachers, while only a few may achieve autonomy through self-discipline.
A mixed-methods study of early childhood education and care in South Korea: policies and practices during COVID-19

AUTHOR(S)
Hae Min Yu; Yu Jin Cho; Hyun Jeong Kim (et al.)

Published: August 2021   Journal: Early Childhood Education Journal
This study of South Korea's response to COVID-19 has three purposes. First, it uses document analysis to examine policies, strategies, and resources offered by the South Korean government and public organizations to support young children and families during the first 6 months of the pandemic. Next, it uses open-ended surveys with 30 directors of early childhood institutions to explore institutional-level supports and needs during the pandemic. Finally, it looks at the discrepancies between stated policies outlining the South Korea’s response to COVID-19 and the lived experiences of early childhood educators as a route to arriving at recommendations for education policymakers and other stakeholders.
COVID-19 learning losses: early grade reading in South Africa

AUTHOR(S)
Cally Ardington; Gabrielle Wills; Janeli Kotze

Published: August 2021   Journal: International Journal of Educational Development
Using three different studies on early grade reading from no-fee schools across in South Africa, this paper establishes short-term learning losses in reading for grade 2 and 4 students from under-resourced school contexts. This study found that in 2020 grade 2 students lost between 57 % and 70 % of a year of learning relative to their pre-pandemic peers. Among a grade 4 sample, learning losses are estimated at between 62 % and 81 % of a year of learning. Considering that in 2020 students in the samples lost between 56 %–60 % of contact teaching days due to school closures and rotational timetabling schedules compared to a pre-pandemic year, this implies learning to schooling loss ratios in the region of 1–1.4. There is some evidence from the grade 4 sample that the reading trajectories of children benefiting more from attending school pre-pandemic – namely girls and children with stronger initial reading proficiency - are more negatively impacted.
School closures and regional policies to mitigate learning loss due to COVID-19: a focus on the Asia-Pacific
Institution: UNESCO - Institute of Statistics
Published: July 2021

Global school closures as a result of COVID-19 have caused learning losses for millions of children despite efforts to deploy remote learning options. Greater economic insecurity among families may also affect school enrolment as many struggle to pay school fees, or require children to work to supplement family income. Ultimately, this will lead to rising dropout rates, estimated to be as much as 4% in a region where 128 million children and young people were already out of school before COVID-19. The largest number of learners at risk reside in South and West Asia. Together, the education and economic fallout from the pandemic threaten progress toward the Sustainable Development Goal for education (SDG 4). Even prior to the COVID-19 disruptions, progress towards SDG 4 was lagging in many countries in the Asia-Pacific and without significant contributions to education finance, the pandemic threatens to push the region even further behind. This report breaks down the effects of school closures. It considers, for example, how many schools were closed, and when, across the Asia-Pacific, and the effects on different levels of education from early childhood education, through to primary and secondary school. The report analyses country efforts to implement remote learning, and strategies to mitigate learning losses as the proportion of students expected to fall below minimum proficiency levels is expected to rise.

Feeling a bit like a tsunami wave: an exploratory study of early childhood professionals’ experiences during the COVID-19 crisis in the USA

AUTHOR(S)
Minsun Shin; Victoria I. Puig

Published: July 2021   Journal: Education 3-13
The COVID-19 crisis highlights how vital childcare is and demonstrates the importance of the often undervalued work of early childhood educators. This mixed methods exploratory study presents how early childhood professionals (n = 75) navigated alternate remote teaching formats and served young children and their families during the COVID-19 crisis in the U.S. Key findings include the personal and professional challenges participants experienced supporting their students’ social-emotional development and serving children with disabilities. Participants also shared reflections on the resilience and adaptability of children, families, and themselves. Recommendations for interdisciplinary research, professional development that builds technological proficiency, and practice that supports children and families through inclusive early childhood models are discussed.
Trainee Teachers’ Perceptions of Online Teaching During Field Experience with Young Children

AUTHOR(S)
Laila Mohebi; Lawrence Meda

Published: July 2021   Journal: Early Childhood Education Journal
The global pandemic of COVID-19 forced trainee teachers from the United Arab Emirates to have virtual field experiences in the field of early childhood education. The various stakeholders, young children, families, preservice teachers, and university faculty hold different perceptions of online teaching formats. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of trainee teachers and faculty supervisors about online field experiences with young children. The study was done using a qualitative case study within an interpretivist paradigm. Twelve internship students and five supervisors were purposively selected to complete open-ended questionnaires about virtual field experiences.
Students’ experiences with remote learning during the COVID-19 school closure: implications for mathematics education

AUTHOR(S)
Angel Mukuka; Overson Shumba; Henry M. Mulenga

Published: July 2021   Journal: Heliyon
This paper reports the findings of a descriptive survey research that explored secondary school students' experiences with mathematics remote learning during the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) school closure. The study involved 367 students of ages 13 to 21 selected from six secondary schools in Kitwe district of Zambia using the cluster random sampling method. Using a mixed-methods research approach, quantitative and qualitative data were merged to provide a comprehensive analysis of the main findings in the context of the existing literature, the government's response to COVID-19 school closure, and the challenges associated with remote learning during that time.
Social network-based cohorting to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in secondary schools: a simulation study in classrooms of four European countries

AUTHOR(S)
Anna Karoline Kaiser; David Kretschmer; Lars Leszczensky

Published: July 2021   Journal: The Lancet Regional Health - Europe
Operating schools safely under pandemic conditions is a widespread policy goal. This study analyses the effectiveness of classroom cohorting, i.e., the decomposition of classrooms into smaller isolated units, in inhibiting the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in European secondary schools and compare different cohorting strategies. Using real-world network data on 12,291 adolescents collected in classrooms in England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden in 2010/2011, it applys agent-based simulations to compare the effect of forming cohorts randomly to network-based cohorting. Network-based cohorting attempts to allocate out-of-school contacts to the same cohort to prevent cross-cohort infection more effectively.
Social learning from media: the need for a culturally diachronic developmental psychology

AUTHOR(S)
Mark Nielsen; Frankie T. K. Fong; Andrew Whiten

Published: July 2021   Journal: Advances in Child Development and Behavior

Since the proliferation of television sets into households began over half a century ago there has been widespread interest in the impact that viewing has on young children's development. Such interest has grown with the increasing availability of smart phones and tablets. This review examines the literature documenting human social learning and how this learning is impacted when the instructing agent appears on a screen instead of face-to-face. It then explores the shifting nature of screen-based media, with a focus on the increasingly socio-normative manner information is portrayed. It discusses how the changing nature of screen technology might be altering how children interpret what they see, and raise the possibility that this may render prevailing evidence as historical documentation, rather than setting out established developmental milestones that transcend the period in which they were documented.

Continuing learning for the most vulnerable during COVID-19: Lessons from Let Us Learn in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Liberia, Madagascar and Nepal

AUTHOR(S)
Cirenia Chávez; Marco Valenza; Annika Rigole; Thomas Dreesen

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted every aspect of society. In mid-April 2020, 192 countries had closed their schools, putting 9 out of 10 enrolled children out of school.

These closures disproportionately affected marginalized children, worsening existing inequities across education systems worldwide.

This brief draws on the experience of five UNICEF education country programmes supported by the Let Us Learn (LUL) initiative, to document tangible lessons in adapting education programmes to support the most marginalized children during school and learning centre closures.

The evidence in this brief stems from a series of semi-structured interviews with Education and Child Protection specialists, as well as a document review of available COVID-19 response studies, in the five LUL-supported UNICEF Country Offices.

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UNICEF Innocenti's Children and COVID-19 Library is a database collecting research from around the world on COVID-19 and its impacts on children and adolescents.

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Check our quarterly thematic digests on children and COVID-19

Each quarterly thematic digest features the latest evidence drawn from the Children and COVID-19 Research Library on a particular topic of interest.
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COVID-19 & Children: Rapid Research Response

UNICEF Innocenti is mobilizing a rapid research response in line with UNICEF’s global response to the COVID-19 crisis. The initiatives we’ve begun will provide the broad range of evidence needed to inform our work to scale up rapid assessment, develop urgent mitigating strategies in programming and advocacy, and preparation of interventions to respond to the medium and longer-term consequences of the COVID-19 crisis. The research projects cover a rapid review of evidence, education analysis, and social and economic policies.