A study documents how universities’ centres for teaching and learning are responding to helping faculty create quality online courses for all students.
The approach that schools take to addressing how to get students caught up in learning they missed due to COVID-19 school closures may have a lasting impact on this generation.
Motivating students, encouraging their self-regulation and maintaining home-school communication are ways parents have the potential to positively influence learning outcomes.
Teaching children digital literacy skills is essential to help them learn how to navigate and respond to misinformation. It also helps them grow into adults who can participate in digital democracy.
The turn to private funding of education reduces the responsibility of governments to adequately fund schools and to ensure all children have access to high-quality education programming.
Addressing children’s and youth’s needs requires the expertise and support of educational assistants, school psychologists and all workers who collaborate to build caring school communities.
Each year, parents consider when to start allowing their children to commute to school unsupervised. During the coronavirus pandemic, there are additional concerns.
Vague references don’t cut it. The public deserves to know exactly how Alberta is relying on science, realism and high-quality problem-solving in its back to school plans during COVID-19.
Before the pandemic, only a fraction of students made use of the wide range of curricular and extracurricular experiential learning opportunities, but through online engagement that can change.
Moving classes outside deserves serious consideration not only for better ventilation, but also to introduce more education devoted to learning on, from and with the land.
Children up to age five get a lot of cues from facial expressions. That makes teaching in a mask challenging, but teachers can learn from strategies developed by masked pediatric nurses.
In a world where students can attend any university from their living rooms, universities need a compelling answer to the question: “Why should students come here?”
Parents can help children feel optimistic by listening to and validating their worries, teaching them coping strategies, reviewing safety protocols and supporting them when they face difficulties.
Any decision that places a child’s physical and mental health at risk shouldn’t be taken lightly, so policy-makers and parents alike should listen to those most affected — the children themselves.
Put down the highlighter. Research about the brain and memory shows that leaving time between study sessions and testing yourself frequently are more efficient ways to learn.
The coronavirus pandemic isn’t the first time an illness has disrupted schooling. In 1937, Toronto schools delayed re-opening for six weeks in response to the polio epidemic.
Canada should invest robustly in students’ post-secondary education. Data about effects of the pandemic and how students balance classes and work show why we urgently need this investment.
Students won’t be allowed to participate in activities at St. Francis Xavier University this fall unless they sign a COVID-19 waiver. That’s forcing them to make a difficult and unfair choice.
Professor, Canada Research Chair in Determinants of Child Development, Owerko Centre at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary
Assistant professor, School of Psychology, Scientist, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
Assistant Professor, Educational Technology, Chair in Educational Leadership in the Innovative Pedagogical Practices in Digital Contexts - National Bank, Université Laval