Study finds ‘higher levels of anxiety, behavioral disorders’ in students during pandemic

* Photo: Ministry of National Education

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The Education and Science Laborers' Union (Eğitim-Sen) has shared the results of its study regarding the learning losses suffered by students during distance education amid the pandemic.

The study shows that students suffered significant losses in their cognitive, emotional, social and psychomotor development during the distance education period from March 2020 to September 6, 2021.

The study has been conducted with the participation of 2,708 teachers between December 28, 2021 and January 14, 2022. While 829 teachers work in the Marmara region, 471 work in the Aegean region, 304 in the Mediterranean region, 183 in the Southeast Anatolian region, 208 in the Black Sea region and 306 teachers work in the Central Anatolian region.

Increase in anxiety levels

When they were asked, "Do you think that there has been an increase in students' levels of anxiety when compared to the pre-pandemic period", 79 percent of 2,142 teachers answered in the affirmative while 21 percent said that there has been no such increase.

The participants of the survey were also asked, "Do you think that students suffered from learning losses as a result of distance education?" While 2,558 teachers said, "Yes", 104 teachers answered, "No". 46 participants of the survey did not answer this question.

96 percent of the teachers think that students suffered from learning losses during the indicated time period. It has been noted that the losses are incomparable to the ones during the in-class education.

As the major reasons for the learning losses, there have been references to the inability to access distance education and the failure to prepare course content and materials suitable for distance learning.

The study has underlined that the inequalities faced by child workers, children with disabilities, children with different mother languages and refugee children have been aggravated further under the pandemic conditions and they have played a role in the learning losses.

Deterioration in social development

As part of the study, the teachers were also asked, "Do you think that there has been a deterioration in students' skills of communication and social development?". 93 percent of the respondents (2,509 teachers) answered in the affirmative while 180 teachers said, "No". 19 participants of the survey did not answer this question.

When they were asked whether they think the students suffered from any losses of motivation during their education, 2,528 teachers (94 percent) said, "Yes" and 166 teachers (6 percent) said, "No".

Moreover, a vast majority of teachers expressed their observations of behavioral disorders in students. To the question "Do you think that there has been an increase in students' behavioral problems", 2,542 teachers (94 percent) said, "Yes" while 153 (6 percent) said, "No". 13 participants of the survey left this question unanswered.

"Considering the age group developmental characteristics, do you think that there has been a deterioration in students' bodily development," the teachers were also asked. 1,460 (54 percent) answered in the affirmative while 1,226 (46 percent) said "No" and 22 people did not answer. (RT/SD)