Predicting how a disrupted semester during the COVID-19 pandemic impacted student learning

Kaitlin Riegel; Tanya Evans

doi:10.3934/steme.2022010

Article Contents

2022, Volume 2, Issue 2: 140-156. Doi: 10.3934/steme.2022010 open access

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Research article

Predicting how a disrupted semester during the COVID-19 pandemic impacted student learning

Kaitlin Riegel^1, , and
Tanya Evans^2,

1.
Department of Mathematics, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
2.
Department of Mathematics, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand; t.evans@auckland.ac.nz

* Correspondence: Email: krie235@aucklanduni.ac.nz
* Correspondence: Email: krie235@aucklanduni.ac.nz

Academic Editor: Santoso Wibowo
Raw data is available at https://doi.org/10.17608/k6.auckland.19587217

Received: April 2022

Accepted: May 2022

Published: June 2022

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Abstract

Tertiary education faced unprecedented disruption resulting from COVID-19 driven lockdowns around the world, leaving educators with little understanding of how the pandemic and consequential shift to online environments would impact students′ learning. Utilising the theoretical framework of a student′s affective field, this study aimed to investigate how student achievement, achievement-related affect, and self-perceived well-being contributed to predicting how their learning was impacted. Questionnaire responses and academic achievement measures from students (N = 208) in a New Zealand second-year, tertiary mathematics course were analysed. Despite a return to in-person teaching after eliminating community-transmission of the virus, students reported larger impacts of the disruption to semester on both their learning and well-being at the end of the term than during the lockdown. Hierarchical multiple regression revealed that gender, prior achievement, performance on low-stakes assessment, as well as exam-related self-efficacy and hope, made significant, independent contributions to explaining students′ perceived learning impact. Even when controlling for achievement and achievement-related affect, students′ perceived impact to their well-being made a significant and substantial contribution to the impact on their learning. The findings provide motivation to further investigate whether attempts to address student achievement-related affect can help mitigate the effects of major life disruptions on studying. We suggest that frequent, low-stakes assessment can identify students who are more likely to report greater negative impacts to their learning. We finally conclude that student well-being is paramount to how students perceive their own learning, even when controlling for actual measures of and about their achievement.

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Table 1. T-tests for changes in learning impact, well-being impact, and performance

	Mid-semester		End of semester		95% CI for mean difference	t	p	d
	M	SD	M	SD	95% CI for mean difference	t	p	d
Learning	5.46	2.63	6.09	2.45	-0.95, -0.32	-3.97	.000	0.28
Wellbeing	5.25	2.59	5.69	2.47	-0.72, -0.17	-3.16	.002	0.22
Performance	74.47	20.29	59.56	29.06	11.80, 18.02	9.44	.000	0.66
Note. N = 208.

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Table 2. Descriptive statistics and correlations of latent factors in the hierarchical regression

	M	SD	α	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1. Learning impact	6.09	2.45	-
2. Gender	1.44	0.50	-	-.14*
3. Prior achievement	6.54	2.12	-	-.17*	-.05
4. Test	74.47	20.29	-	-.17*	-.11	.59**
5. Exam	59.56	29.06	-	-.20**	-.08	.56**	.63**
6. Quizzes	88.19	16.98	-	-.28**	-.04	.54**	.56**	.57**
7. Self-efficacy	59.31	19.53	.94	-.26**	.04	.35**	.42**	.44**	.35**
8. Hope	3.03	0.69	-	-.26**	-.07	.26**	.34**	.35**	.28**	.60**
9. Stress-is-enhancing	3.04	0.79	.78	.06	-.03	.10	.18*	.10	.04	.11	.10
10. Stress-is-debilitating	3.22	0.73	.75	-.04	.03	-.17*	-.18**	-.15*	-.14*	-.12*	-.11	-.55**
11. Well-being impact	5.69	2.47	-	.79**	-.11	-.16*	-.12*	-.08	-.19**	-.24**	-.19**	.04	.02
Note. *Correlation is significant at the 0.005 level; Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level; Gender (Male = 1, Female = 2); N = 208.

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Table 3. Hierarchical regression coefficients for perceived learning impact at the end of semester

	β for student perception of learning impact
Variable	Step 1	Step 2	Step 3	Step 4	Step 5	Step 6	Step 7	Step 8	Step 9
Gender	-.14*	-.15*	-.16*	-.16*	-.16*	-.14*	-.16*	-.16*	-.07
Prior achievement		-.18*	-.11	-.07	-.02	.00	-.01	-.01	.06
Test			-.12	-.06	.00	.04	.05	.03	.03
Exam				-.14	-.07	-.03	-.01	-.01	-.12*
Quizzes					-.25*	-.23*	-.23*	-.23*	-.12*
Self-efficacy						-.17*	-.07	-.08	.05
Hope							-.18*	-.18*	-.12*
Stress-is-enhancing								.05	-.01
Stress-is-debilitating								-.06	-.08
Well-being impact									.75**
$ {R}_{adj}^{2} $	.02*	.04**	.05**	.05**	.09**	.10**	.12**	.12**	.65**
$ {\mathrm{\Delta }R}_{adj}^{2} $		.03*	.01	.01	.03*	.02*	.02*	.00	.53**
Note. *p < .005; p < .05; N = 208.

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