Category Archives: Learning Models

Academic Support for Post-Pandemic Learning Gaps

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My library’s Homework Center closed at the beginning of pandemic shut-downs in March 2020. Along with the rest of our in-person public programming, it remains inactive nearly a year later. Given current health guidelines and the vaccination timeline, it will remain closed for the rest of the 2020-21 school year. 

The educational community has had concerns about “summer slide” for many years, and research is supporting fears that pandemic-related school interruptions will be significantly greater, and impact underprivileged students more strongly (Doepke & Zilibotti, 2020). Homework Center attendance has fluctuated over the last few years, leaving it potentially vulnerable to not being a top library priority to return to active status. I would like to offer good research to support reopening it alongside our other in-person programs when that is possible. That may involve offering some specific, topic-oriented programs (such as multiplication, fractions, or tricky spelling words) to get kids and parents in the door to overcome some inevitable academic gaps of the last year, or we may continue with our free, drop-in tutoring provided by experienced volunteers.  

My key question: What methods are most effective for helping K-12 students (with an emphasis on grades 3-8, our top attendees) to gain or master missing academic knowledge and topics resulting from nearly-universal remote learning?

Search Method

I began with the Auraria catalog, with the search terms “recovering academic gaps pandemic” and “recovering pandemic academic slide,” which turned out to be overly broad and returned mostly sources unrelated to the education system, exploring other inequalities laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic. I next tried “academic gaps at-risk students” and “targeted learning academic gaps.” The results from those searches came closer, with plenty of information about the education system and inherent inequalities experienced by students. There was still minimal information about methods and systems to improve the situation  

At this point, I realized I still had not refined my search enough, and used the search string ”programs improve math skills pandemic gap” in my preferred search engine, DuckDuckGo. I use DuckDuckGo for its emphasis on web privacy and practice of not collecting search history or curating search results through algorithms that would use that history to affect them. I find this less-filtered list of resources valuable to maintain a broader search. (“Welcome to DuckDuckGo,” 2021) Search results included articles and blogs from sources such as Scientific American and Psychology Today, popular national magazines with established credibility. These results included sources to use in my further exploration of the topic, and helped me narrow my next search on the Auraria catalog to “effective mathematics tutoring k-12.” The vast majority of our students come for help with math, and anecdotal evidence suggests it as the subject more parents and caretakers struggle to support in the at-home learning, so our efforts will likely be most focused on how to help with those topics.   

Resources

Articles References: 

Burch, P., Good, A., & Heinrich, C. (2016). Improving access to, quality, and the effectiveness of digital tutoring in k–12 education. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 38(1), 65-87. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44984528 

An article originally written to explore the efficacy of digital tutoring for students in a variety of school districts. Having worked remotely for the style of for-profit tutoring company they were analyzing, I was particularly interested in their results. The authors were careful to note that their study is merely an exploration of the topic, and should not be taken as the final word on such efforts to improve scholastic achievement. They note wide variation in the models they observed, but came to the conclusion that in-person tutoring still seems to have the most positive effects, especially for English-language learners, students with special needs, and other marginalized groups. Many surrounding libraries subscribe to an online tutoring service, but with our dedicated volunteer corps, it seems likely that our model holds certain advantages for students. 

Doepke, M., & Zilibotti, F. (2020, April 01). COVID-19 and children’s education. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/love-money-and-parenting/202004/covid-19-and-children-s-education 

This is a blog post from early in the pandemic shutdown. The authors explain concerns about school-age children losing academic knowledge as well as not advancing their learning during remote learning. It suggests massive, school-based summer programs, focused especially at students from marginalized backgrounds, to recapture that learning. It is clear that the authors did not expect us to still be navigating high levels of at-home education nearly a year later. While the library will not be able to recreate the comprehensive type of programming they suggest, we can stand ready in the next school year to help students, recognizing that skills may not be at customary mastery levels.

Oreopoulos, P. (2020, November 24). Scale up tutoring to combat COVID learning loss for disadvantaged students. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scale-up-tutoring-to-combat-covid-learning-loss-for-disadvantaged-students/  

This blog post touts research supporting tutoring in various formats to help lessen academic achievement gaps as an important step for schools to be pursuing for students falling behind. It states that tutoring can help struggling students make significant progress, and even states that it is one of the most effective interventions available. It also makes the claim that in-person tutoring is most effective, another factor in favor of our program, once that is possible again. I have many volunteer tutors, most with years of experience in the program, eager to provide in-person homework assistance again. It suggests online tutoring as a good stop-gap, though we are unlikely to provide that at the moment, due to administrative concerns.

Welcome to duckduckgo. (n.d.) DuckDuckGo. Retrieved February, 13, 2021, from https://duckduckgo.com/about. 

Further information about DuckDuckGo, its philosophies, and business practices. 

Books References:

Hattie, J., Fisher, D., Frey, N., Gojak, L. M., Moore, S. D., & Mellman, W. (2016). Visible learning for mathematics, grades k-12 : What works best to optimize student learning. SAGE Publications. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/cudenver/detail.action?docID=6261965

This book discusses ways to make mathematics topics more visible, resulting in better learning. It stresses the importance of making mathematical thinking meaningful and less procedural. Chapter 3 particularly focuses on types of tasks and dialogues that make mathematical learning more relevant and enhance student understanding. I will likely refer to this book in a re-training session for our volunteers before we open the Homework Center again.

McCombs, J., Pane, J., Augustine, C., Schwartz, H., Martorell, P., & Zakaras, L. (2014). Ready for fall? Near-term effects of voluntary summer learning programs on low-income students’ learning opportunities and outcomes. RAND Corporation. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7249/j.ctt15zc6t0

Cited in the  Psychology Today article, this book explored various school-based summer programming, how to make it most effective, and how students are affected by socio-economic status, particularly during summer recesses. Its final chapter particularly caught my attention, highlighting specific strategies and best practices for programming to offset learning loss.

Takeaway

When I start a research exploration, it is not uncommon for my first couple of searches to bring up results that do not answer the question I want to answer. This was an excellent demonstration of the need to be flexible and creative in approaching answers. The initial search terms I used probably made sense to the average human living in this time and understanding my context. However, they had too much overlap with other disciplines and needed further refinement to get to results that supplied answers to the question I was really asking. In the library, we call this a reference interview. In learning design, it is a needs assessment. In both fields, it is an important first step, as it is frequently not useful to answer an unasked question, or try to solve a nonexistent problem. Openness to a change in approach and active listening are vital components of seeking solutions.

What sets connectivism apart?

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A pile of turtles sunbathing on a log

In the maelstrom of seemingly unlimited learning theories, evaluating the defining characteristics of particular theories can help to determine the one most applicable to a given situation, or which have the broadest application to learning in general. As I considered the various readings on connectivism this week, one of the most striking assertions I saw was George Siemens’ statement that “In a networked world, the very manner of information that we acquire is worth exploring. The need to evaluate the worthiness of learning something is a meta-skill that is applied before learning itself begins.” (Siemens, 2005) In most previous learning models, increasing internally-held knowledge has typically been seen as the end goal of any learning activity. Connectivism counters that in today’s world, where people will encounter a never-ending progression of new situations and increased available knowledge, a lot of knowledge does not need to be internalized, merely accessible. The theory holds that being able to find relevant knowledge and ignore unhelpful input is likely to be a more useful skill set than memorizing new processes or facts that are likely to change frequently, or be pertinent only rarely. The theory doesn’t preclude the possibility that people can and will internalize certain learning that remains stable and germane to their life or work. It merely highlights the prevalence of tools that can store and retrieve facts that used to rely on individuals’ retaining them. Very few people remember a long list of phone numbers anymore. Instead, they usually have them programmed into phones and other devices. Simple cooking tasks like how to boil eggs, calculate measurement conversions, or substitute ingredients are quick and easy to find online, so many people look them up each time they need to do the task rather than devoting memory to the process.

In a workplace, last week’s procedures for a particular situation may have been updated as outside factors changed. In this case, remembering the older process too well may in fact interfere with using the new one correctly. Many organizations maintain an internal wiki or blog to store the most recent information. Users can check it to make sure they know the most current version. Learning then involves being able to find and correctly interpret the desired knowledge. Searchable email systems make that another viable system to disseminate information. When in doubt, a person can easily search for keywords about the topic, then use the time stamps to be sure they are using the correct version. In this case, a good subject line, and the ability to choose fruitful search keywords are far more important than memorizing new procedures. When seeking a novel solution to a problem, a good learner will pinpoint applicable information in the sea of facts and opinions available across a spectrum of fields that initially may or may not seem related to the subject at hand. With the assembled data, they can create a resolution for the current need and still remain ready to update anew when situation changes.  

Resources:

Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. International Journal of Instructional Technology & Distance Learning, 2(1). Retrieved from: https://jotamac.typepad.com/jotamacs_weblog/files/Connectivism.pdf.