Pandemic Literacy: The Art of Learning
by: Jaerah Mae Lacsa Altamia
In this blog, I aim to discuss how the current pandemic affected our learning progression in terms of learning gains and learning loss.
Philippines’ Education through the lens of Pandemic
A number of studies show that the pandemic has brought more learning loss to students than learning gains, and it’s visible with how everyone is reacting to the situation of the learning system right now and also by the data provided by the Department of Education of the Philippines. But you may ask, what is learning loss? What is a learning gain?
The term learning loss refers to “any specific or general loss of knowledge and skills or to reversals in academic progress, most commonly due to extended gaps or discontinuities in a student’s education.” while, the term learning gains is referring to “the measure of academic growth a student showed from one year to the next,” (The Glossary of Education Reform, 2013)
In your own opinion, do you think we gained more learning? Or did we lose more than we expected?
On January 30, 2020, our life has drastically changed ever since the first case of COVID-19 infections in our country, the Philippines, was confirmed. We were placed in different levels of community quarantine, ECQ, GCQ, MECQ, and MGCQ, for almost two (2) years now. Not only did COVID-19 affect the lives and businesses, work and source of living, of all the Filipinos, but also everyone from all around the world. Some countries closed up their borders to avoid the increase of positive cases of the virus. Taking our country as an example almost every establishment is closed up until now including, different shops, eateries, companies, and schools.
THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2020-2021 – The Gains and Losses
DepEd and several universities announced the starting of classes last year for the academic year 2020-2021. Together with this news, public and private schools then reopened and announced the use of printed modules and synchronous meetings for discussions and submissions and so we continue to live by our new normal.
The Philippines is one of the five countries in the world that have not started in-person classes since the pandemic began.
UNICEF Philippines (2021)
According to Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, at least 2.3 million children have not enrolled for the 2020-2021 academic year as schools adapt to online learning classes. It’s a 9% decrease compared to the number of enrolled students for 2019-2020 when we were still doing traditional or face-to-face learning and online learning or the new normal was yet to exist. The PSA data showed that 50% of OSYs or out-of-school youths belong to families whose income falls within the bottom 30 percent of the population based on their per capita income, or in short, those that are facing financial concerns and crisis. It brings worries and alarms to everyone as these OSYs could end up missing even more time out of school by not enrolling or dropping out.
Shown above is the comparison of total numbers of enrollees for A.Y 2020-2021 and 2019-2020, according to DepEd (Department of Education)
The 2.3 million children who have not enrolled in school are one of the major recipients of the pandemic learning loss. Most students that stopped or dropped out of school are because of financial problems and personal difficulties that they are experiencing. These children will miss more time out compared to those who enrolled and took classes for this year. Missing more time means missed and delayed education.
In some schools, they are requiring their students to write their answers on their modules, some are required to put their answers in a different sheet of paper, and some need to be submitted online, may it be images or videos. And because online distance learning was approved in most schools, students were required to have a working mobile learning device and internet or data connection, one of the main reasons why most students stopped or dropped out of school.
45% of Filipino citizens (46 million) and 74% (34,500) of public schools do not have access to the internet.
(Jones, 2019)
From the data collected by Nikkei ASIA, about 53% of students were not sure whether they could learn the competencies set by DepEd under distance learning, and only 7 in 10 were confident of finishing the school year.
UNICEF/UNI358483/Hogsholt
“The government is essentially forcing these families to choose between putting food on the table and ensuring their children’s education as they reel from the various effects of a bungled pandemic handling,”
Raymond Basilio, secretary-general of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers.
More widely recognized learning loss during this pandemic:
- School absence
- Ineffective teaching
What are the gains?
(An International based research)
According to a study, “Students in online conditions performed modestly better, on average, than those learning the same material through traditional face-to-face instruction.” Of course, each student’s learning style, preferences, and needs, as well as the manner in which the online education is delivered, will influence the final results. Some students may perform better in actual classrooms. While others prefer the convenience of online education – which allows them to maximize their own time.
Students retain 25-60% more material of what they learned with online set-up instead of 8-10% by students in conventional set-ups.
Aside from this, the virtual classroom set-up also gives students the benefits of learning safely from home, immense flexibility, and skipping, or accelerating through concepts as they choose.
Student’s independence were also enhanced, as well as giving and providing positive coping strategies for themselves and other people. According to a survey conducted by Rachel August, students are continuously exploring such positive models of adaptation to navigate the pandemic such as learning to be grateful, focusing on what matters, and new clarity about the future.
The graph above visually represents the findings of Rachel August’s study on students’ positive navigation through the pandemic
WHAT IS MY TAKE?
Are we actually gaining knowledge with our New Normal?
I, myself, am experiencing online distance learning right now. And if I tell you that it’s easy and stress-less, it would not mirror how I actually feel. But to say that it’s stressful would be an understatement, it is not an exaggeration and just for attention, and maybe lots of students would agree with me on this one.
I’m studying as a scholar and the learning system we have is online distance learning or ODL, no printed modules and not one face-to-face interaction since last year’s A.Y. 2020-2021 up until now, 2021-2022. We have synchronous meetings every day and online handouts are given to us after every discussion. This new learning system taught me to distribute my time respectively to each responsibility, BUT it does come with stress and pressure.
For the first year of the ODL, we were all adjusting to the new system, and most of the time, we were chasing deadlines of submissions. There would be times that my assessments would be emailed to me with a 5/20 score result or low to almost zero scores to any subject. A lot of us were marked missing in terms of projects and assignments. Most of us were not able to attend meetings and discussions for the common reasons of limited internet connection or just lack of motivation.
You may ask, how is this a part of learning loss?
Students are not learning anything as a result of the reversals in academic progress. Most students are used to interacting with their teachers and classmates physically, some learn more efficiently when there’s a social interaction between them and those that are around them. Physical interaction between students and teachers’ vital for it provides the feeling of safeness, familiarity, and a sense of comfort and unity. Take Kinesthetic or tactile learner as an example, these are the type of people who learns by participating in physical activity and given by our current situation, it might not be the best option for them as there’s not much physical activity to do.
WHAT DO THEY THINK?
Students who’ve experienced and currently experiencing ODL and Modular classes.
POSITIVE or NEGATIVE
We may also consider how most of them said that they are able to answer a module or worksheet the same day they’re taught about that topic, but soon after they will forget about it as it was too much and too overwhelming considering the personal problems they have, as a part of learning loss.
Several students said that, our homes were intended for family and personal time and place only, a place of positive atmosphere. But, ever since online distance learning has started, it has also become our learning place. Most schools expect us to do school activities such as lab experiments and cooking tasks when we are supposed to do them in a school where proper equipment and tools are provided. This is only one of the reasons why some students fail their classes which then lead to a learning loss.
A considerable number of students also saw improvement in their marks. As they compare their report cards from last year, they can see the wide advancements in a lot of subjects such as Math, Science, and English. They also noticed a great development in different skills such as writing, digital drawing, and playing instruments. They mentioned that this was made possible because of the current setup that gives them more time for themselves.
Learning during a pandemic has both positive and negative impacts on students. It might have taught students to study on their own, manage their own time, and be able to positively cope up but Filipino learners acquired more learning loss starting from dropping out of school to stressing over their classes during the pandemic. Looking for new ways to improve our current new normal would help both students and teachers alike. Of course, it may not happen this year or two, but it’s always worth trying.
How has pandemic affected you?
GET IN TOUCH
Email: n2018068@dlszobel.edu.ph
To read more about the wide effect of the modular and online classes in the Philippines, read these reliable articles:
References:
August, R., & Dapkewicz, A. (2020). Benefit finding in the COVID-19 pandemic: College students’ positive coping strategies. Journal of Positive School Psychology, 5(2), 73–86. https://doi.org/10.47602/jpsp.v5i2.245
Edrada, E. M., Lopez, E. B., Villarama, J. B., Salva Villarama, E. P., Dagoc, B. F., Smith, C., Sayo, A. R., Verona, J. A., Trifalgar-Arches, J., Lazaro, J., Balinas, E., Telan, E., Roy, L., Galon, M., Florida, C., Ukawa, T., Villaneuva, A., Saito, N., Nepomuceno, J. R., Ariyoshi, K., … Solante, R. M. (2020). First COVID-19 infections in the Philippines: a case report. Tropical medicine and health, 48, 21. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41182-020-00203-0
https://www.deped.gov.ph/2021/01/28/on-claims-of-massive-dropout-in-basic-education/?fbclid=IwAR2Iv3ckofrufJT32wwrGNPHMEg9r6Q5ngkr14eagoHzFgGif8M20GW3SwEhttps://www.rappler.com/nation/gatchalian-says-millions-dropouts-schools-adapt-pandemic?fbclid=IwAR1wjNjg2FKAOEMfojFtdp3Gx0KxiG00dBepsxBnj2LqyjYbX09ZRGF8prohttps://www.philstar.com/headlines/2021/02/08/2076087/senators-alarmed-over-increasing-number-dropouts
Pandemic Literacy 