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The younger, the greater the need for distance learning support: Primary school children in Switzerland
Photo: Elia Bianchi / picture alliance / dpa / KEYSTONE
Big problems for the little ones, but only small problems for the older ones: This is the formula that can be used to sum up the consequences of school closings in spring for the learning performance of the pupils.
This is the result of a new study by the Institute for Educational Evaluation at the University of Zurich.
According to this, primary school children continued to make progress in digital distance learning, but they were only half as big as in face-to-face teaching.
Pupils in secondary schools, on the other hand, showed no break-ins with regard to the subject matter taught when the school closed.
"The results suggest that school closings again would threaten the learning success and educational equality of the children, while the adolescents by and large would probably get through the pandemic unscathed," predict the researchers.
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For the study, changes in learning progress on the one hand and the heterogeneity of learning processes on the other - i.e. the question of whether there were changes in the learning pace due to the lockdown and how the individual's learning changed compared to their peers.
"Apparently young people who are more independent from family influences due to their maturity got along well with the situation and were able to organize themselves more independently," says education researcher Martin Tomasik, one of the authors.
Performance measurement without certificate grades
The scientists compared the learning performance of 30,000 children and young people in Switzerland in the eight weeks before the school closed with the progress made during the eight-week corona lockdown.
For this purpose, the results of a computer-aided learning system were used, in which the students worked on tasks in German and mathematics.
If you perform well, the system automatically increases the difficulty of the tasks.
On the other hand, grades or self-reports by the children and adolescents played no role in the study.
According to the report, this ensures that performance is assessed independently of the teachers.
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The results of the data analysis, says Martin Tomasik, are "convincing evidence that schools can effectively reduce social inequalities in learning success" - at least among primary school children.
Because the school manages to align learning progress and learning processes up to the fourth grade in classroom lessons and to keep them constant.
Poverty as a Risk
However, this effect will break away with the switch to digital distance learning.
There are many reasons for this, but they are all related to the increasing importance of the family environment.
The causes are therefore differences
in the ability for self-regulated learning,
with support from parents and the environment, for example with task processing,
when equipping with a computer and Internet access;
this may also include individual family processes such as concern for the parents' health or job
and finally also the digital teaching competence of the teacher and the didactic quality of distance learning.
If many of these aspects come together, the gap between the children will widen, according to the authors.
From previous research it is known that many of these mechanisms are "distributed along the socio-economic status of students and their families."
In plain language: Those who are poor have a significantly higher risk of being left behind in digital lessons.
And the younger the children are, the more likely they are to be susceptible to stress and the strains of the pandemic.
Targeted support for primary school students
For the further strategy in dealing with the coronavirus, the best solution is therefore not to close the schools again.
If at all, school closings are only justifiable for secondary schools.
In this case, the researchers are calling for a flexible redistribution in the education system: "The resources that are then released, for example with regard to space or transport capacities, should primarily benefit the primary schools."
This also applies to the deployment of staff: If the closure of primary schools cannot be avoided, it is urgently necessary »to focus on the weaker and disadvantaged students and to provide targeted support where the risks are greatest that children will be left behind or get lost completely. "
The evaluation of the data also allows a hopeful look into the future: Primary school children can learn successfully in distance learning, "only they need more support from school if they don't get it at home."
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