Re-imagining teaching, learning, and well-being amidst the COVID-pandemic: challenges, opportunities, and recommendations

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented as one of the largest educational disruptions in recent times. It has wrought significant challenges to not only teaching and learning but also well-being. Students have experienced significant learning loss during the pandemic (Engzell et al., 2021; Skar et al., 2021; Storey & Zhang, 2021) and a decline in well-being among some student, teacher, and parent populations (Golberstein et al., 2020; Rajkumar, 2020). School closures have been enforced in almost every country creating immense change to the learning and teaching experiences of more than 1.7 billion students and their families spread over 188 countries (Schleicher, 2020). The impact of COVID-19 has been felt across all school and educational settings, including higher education, necessitating students, teachers, and educational practitioners to re-imagine education.

In this special issue, we invited contributors to discuss the challenges and possibilities that students, teachers, and parents faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, identify the opportunities for adapting to the long-term challenges of the pandemic, and propose recommendations for educational systems grappling with the consequences of the pandemic for a world where COVID is endemic. This SI is global in scope and focuses on the nexus of teaching, learning, and well-being. It not only covers work done in Western developed countries such as the US and the UK but also highlights research in other parts of the world including Bangladesh, Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong SAR, India, the Philippines, Singapore, Turkey, and Vietnam.

The articles are organized into two broad parts: teaching and learning (Part 1) and well-being (Part 2). The first four papers focus on issues of teaching and learning (Easterbrook et al., 2022; Foreman-Brown et al., 2022; Roy et al., 2022; Spiteri et al., 2022). They highlight the challenges faced by students and teachers during the shift to online teaching and learning and proffer some solutions to address these challenges. The second section concentrates on well-being related to students, teachers, and parents. The papers in this section provide potential solutions to maintain or increase well-being during uncertain times such as COVID-19 (Akdeniz & Gültekin Ahçı, 2022; Galanza et al., 2022; Harrison et al., 2022; Pham & Phan, 2022; Saw et al., 2022; Shenoi et al., 2022; Tan et al., 2022; Tiwari et al., 2022; Wang et al., 2022).

Part 1: teaching and learning

The first paper by Spiteri et al. (2022) was a rapid review of the literature that aimed to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s learning. The studies reviewed indicated that there was a significant disruption in children’s education as a result of school closures, leading to learning losses. The authors concluded with emphasising the need to train teachers for online teaching and learning to maximize students’ learning gains and minimize inequalities. They also highlighted the need for children to have access to technology. Finally, they made insightful recommendations to policymakers, researchers, and educators.

Whereas the first paper focused on students, the second paper by Foreman-Brown et al. (2022) shifted the focus to teachers. They conducted a narrative review to explore how emergency remote teaching affected teacher identity and relationality. They found that the pandemic helped teachers overcome their bias against online teaching, which resulted in increased innovation and led to positive experiences. The review highlighted that teachers who already engaged in student-centred approaches, relational pedagogies, and reflective practice, as well as those who tapped digital technologies and harnessed community networks managed the transition to remote teaching more effectively. Their review highlighted the need to provide professional development opportunities for teachers to engage in effective online education which includes key elements such as how to design and deliver online lessons, how to collaborate, how to make relational connections, and how to access resources.

The third paper by Easterbrook et al. (2022) investigated gender and socioeconomic inequalities in students’ home learning. They conducted an online survey among parents in the UK. They found that boys, students who were eligible for free school meals, those from families that were financially struggling, and those whose parents had not graduated from university were less engaged and spent less time in home learning. In particular, students whose parents had not graduated from university found home learning particularly challenging because they did not have someone in their home supervise their learning progress. Students who were eligible for free school meals and from financially struggling families were challenged because of noise, lack of space, lack of technology, and insufficient internet in their homes. However, the quality of educational resources provided by schools positively predicted engagement and learning for all students. The results of their study identified the mechanisms by which disadvantaged students benefited less from home learning. They suggested potential intervention targets for improving the home learning of those most disadvantaged students.

The fourth paper by Roy et al. (2022) focused on the response of Bangladeshi higher education institutions to the sudden shift to online teaching and learning. They interviewed teachers and students and found that institutions varied in their responses. Some were able to make an immediate response, others were late, and still others did not have any action on how to continue educational delivery during the pandemic. They highlighted the major challenges faced by higher education institutions including the lack of appropriate technology, knowledge of technology use, lack of teacher skills in terms of operating online platforms and motivating students, poor internet facilities, high internet costs, and the absence of a conducive environment in students’ homes. They emphasised the need for workshops for teacher development, improvement of technology and facilities, subsidies for internet use, reimagining of higher education and emergency education policies, and assistance from other professionals and institutions.

Part 2: well-being

The fifth paper by Wang et al. (2022) aimed to understand Chinese university students’ psychological adjustment using a person-centred approach. Students from Wuhan, the epicentre of the pandemic, were surveyed in February 2020. They were asked to answer an online questionnaire about their emotional adjustment, perceived social support, self-efficacy, and English anxiety. Results revealed three types of adjustment profiles: high, moderate, and low. Students with high adaptation possessed high self-efficacy beliefs and low anxiety. Those with low adaptation, possessed lower self-efficacy beliefs and higher levels of anxiety. Results suggested the critical importance of improving students’ self-efficacy beliefs and alleviating their anxiety, especially for vulnerable learners.

The sixth paper by Tan et al. (2022) delved into the sources of stress and the coping strategies that Singapore secondary students used to deal with the pandemic’s challenges. Semi-structured interviews revealed that many students were challenged by online learning and were particularly concerned about their examinations. Academic stress was more acute compared to social-related stress. The students coped in three ways: disengagement, taking active steps, and turning to others. Insights from this paper can provide insights to educators on how to better support students to manage their stress and cope adaptively with the pandemic disruptions.

The seventh paper by Akdeniz and Gültekin Ahçı (2022) explored the roles of loneliness, hope, and cognitive flexibility in understanding psychological adjustment during the pandemic. The authors found that individuals experiencing higher levels of loneliness felt less hopeful and had more psychological adjustment problems during the pandemic. However, for individuals high in cognitive flexibility, loneliness did not necessarily lead to lower levels of hope. These results suggest that cognitive flexibility can buffer individuals against the detrimental impact of loneliness and lack of hope in the midst of the pandemic. Hence, cognitive flexibility seems to be particularly important and is a promising intervention target.

The eighth paper by Harrison et al. (2022) examined parents’ perceptions of how school counsellors can support the well-being of children. Parents with children in international schools in Hong Kong were interviewed and the data were analysed thematically. The interviews highlighted the importance of strong pre-existing relationships, role clarity, and open communication between counsellors and parents during periods of school closure. However, it was also highlighted that these attributes were weak or absent. Findings from this study can inform schools on how to build a more integrative and responsive support system for students.

The ninth paper by Shenoi et al. (2022) contended with the issue of engaging in geriatric education in the midst of the pandemic. They narrated how medical students created the Recreation and Education Network for Elder Wellness (RENEW) programme to decrease the social isolation and loneliness felt by older adults who were residing in retirement communities. They found that participants were satisfied with the programme and showed decreased loneliness after participating in it. The student facilitators reported increased exposure on how to care for older adults and enhanced their confidence in communicating with this population. The RENEW programme provided a model of how students in the health profession can reach out and engage with older adults during the pandemic.

The tenth paper by Tiwari et al. (2022) investigated the impact of restrictions on psychological distress and health outcomes of children in India. They conducted interviews with mothers of children who acted as full-time caregivers during the lockdown associated with the COVID-19 outbreak. The mothers described a variety of psychological and health problems that their children encountered due to the extreme restrictions. Children showed uncertainty, apprehension, reduced positive engagement, and lowered social connection. The authors recommended the importance of family, media, school, and community-based interventions to cope with restrictions and lockdowns.

The eleventh paper by Pham and Phan (2022) studied the emotions of teachers during the pandemic using a post-structuralist lens. They found that the distinct features of online teaching presented unique challenges and aroused both positive and negative emotions among teachers. Teachers also reported different strategies they used to cope with the situation. The authors highlighted the need for institutional support as teachers navigate the “new normal”.

The twelfth paper by Galanza et al. (2022) examined the role of fear of COVID-19 and financial difficulties in understanding Filipino university students’ well-being. They conducted an online survey and found that financial difficulties predicted the negative aspects of well-being, including depression, anxiety, and stress. However, it did not predict the positive dimensions of well-being including life satisfaction and flourishing. Financial difficulties, on the other hand, were significantly predicted by all indicators of positive and negative well-being suggesting that concern with finances was more important than fear of infection itself in understanding Filipino students’ well-being. Their findings highlight that COVID-19 is not just a health problem but has important socio-economic ramifications.

The thirteenth paper by Saw et al. (2022) investigated gender differences in remote teaching readiness and mental health problems among university academic staff. They found that female academic staff reported more problems with remote teaching as well as higher mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. Furthermore, they found that faculty members who had higher remote teaching readiness were less likely to experience mental health problems. Their findings highlight the importance of taking gender into account especially in terms of supporting female academic staff and the need to equip staff with the necessary competencies to engage in remote teaching.

Conclusion

Taken together, the papers in this special issue provide a snapshot of how teaching, learning, and well-being were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The papers highlight how learning and teaching were disrupted and how well-being was undermined by the pandemic. However, the papers also acknowledge that there were also “silver linings” and showcased how students, teachers, and institutions capitalized on opportunities presented by the pandemic.

We began work on this special issue at the start of the pandemic. It is now almost three years from when the pandemic started. The world is now learning to live with COVID-19, which is becoming endemic. Many educational systems have resumed some form of face-to-face teaching and/or hybrid modes of teaching and learning. The recommendations drawn from the articles in this special issue remain relevant in the present time. However, they may also hold implications for the future given the increasingly volatile, complex, uncertain, and ambiguous (VUCA) nature of the “new normal”.