Nottingham Trent University (NTU) Professor Clare Wood's thinking is featured in The Conversation, where she discusses the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on UK children's learning and development.

Clare looked at how children’s learning progress has slowed substantially during the pandemic, roughly equating to a loss of around 35% of the typical learning in a school year, according to a new study.

"The researchers found that the learning deficits were higher in maths than in reading. They appeared early in the pandemic and remained stable, neither worsening over time (as some had feared) nor significantly improving. So it appears that initiatives aimed at limiting the negative effects of school closures, such as online learning resources for home schooling, were successful in stabilising the initial impact of disruption to children’s formal education," commented Professor Wood.

Facilitating ongoing children's learning

Looking at how to facilitate ongoing children's learning, Clare suggested that "If we want to see children achieve, instead of discussions about “learning loss” and “falling behind”, we need to focus some of our efforts on teaching them that they can have confidence in their abilities. Teachers, and parents too, can do a lot to rebuild children’s wellbeing and motivation to learn by addressing their basic psychological needs."

Read the article in full. 

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