An evaluation of a teacher coaching program during the Covid-19 pandemic

Marta Pellegrini, University of Cagliari (Italy)

MyTeachingPartner is a coaching program delivered online that aims to support teachers in improving classroom instruction, student engagement and performance. The program targets classroom practice dimensions of “Classroom Assessment Scoring System-CLASS,” an observation measure widely used to collect data on classroom interactions.

A recent evaluation assessed the effectiveness of MyTeachingPartner-Secondary – targeting middle and high schools – with a sample of 87 public school teachers for two years. This version of the program included an initial 2-hour teacher training and six to ten coaching cycles per year. Teachers were randomly assigned to the experimental group (n=44) or the control group (n=43). Teacher outcomes and student achievement were the outcomes measured in the study.

The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted implementation of the program, and only four of the six original districts participated in the study’s second year. This resulted in a final sample of 39 teachers. After two years, results showed a non-significant negative impact on the quality of classroom interactions (overall CLASS ES = -0.23) and a significant positive impact on teacher enthusiasm (ES = +0.77). Impact on student outcomes was only measured after one year, showing non-significant small effect sizes in English Language Arts (end-of-grade test ES = +0.04; end-of-course test ES = +0.05) and non-significant negative effects in Math (end-of-grade test ES = -0.01; end-of-course test ES = -0.09). The authors concluded that results need to be interpreted with caution because of the consequences of the pandemic.

Lessons for Covid recovery from other health emergencies and natural disasters

By Claire Shin, Johns Hopkins University

Many studies have attempted to understand the learning loss resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic by studying the learning loss students typically experience during summer vacations. A new study, however, contends that more accurate lessons can be drawn from studies of unexpected and extended learning disruption due to other health emergencies like SARS or natural disasters.  This systematic review of the literature analyzed 15 studies, many of which were qualitative, focusing on the aftermath of crises that interrupted school learning. Several key themes arose. The most consistent was regarding the critical need for school leadership to center student and staff mental health with both a gentle return to normalcy and also flexibility. Curricula that offer students a chance to understand the event, process their experiences, and express themselves at their own pace can be helpful. Support for teachers can entail resisting the temptation for immediate changes following the crisis in favor of reducing additional sources of potential stress. Additionally, school leaders’ specific knowledge of the community can be essential in recovering from unexpected crisis-inspired school closures, suggesting that schools should be granted discretion in managing their budgets and spending. The authors urge that the conversation about pandemic learning loss should not crowd out these findings from the literature on previous emergency-related extended school closures.

New teachers struggled to learn as the pandemic interrupted in-person teaching rehearsals

By Claire Shin, Johns Hopkins University

Instructors of an undergraduate course teaching instructional methods to future secondary science teachers conducted a qualitative study analyzing the experience of suddenly switching teaching rehearsals to an online format. Half of the fifteen preservice teachers in the course were able to practice being teachers in in-person rehearsals with peers before the course switched to a virtual format in March 2020. The other half were only able to practice in rehearsals online.

Little consensus exists on how best to teach pedagogical methods for rigorous and equitable teaching. Macroteaching is a format that entails 11-12 hours of practice teaching to peers as if teaching a full unit to a class of secondary students. These extended opportunities for rehearsal, feedback, and collaborative reflection are intended to build preservice teachers’ pedagogical skills and instructional vision, making it more likely that new teachers will attempt techniques for rigorous and responsive teaching in the first few years of their careers.

The preservice teachers in the course struggled to foster class discourse, critical science thinking, and build relational connections during online macroteaching. Noticing student thinking, bringing it to the attention of the greater group, and guiding students to elaborate on others’ ideas were particularly difficult in the online platform. The authors suggested that future attempts to conduct teaching rehearsals and preservice teacher training online plan ahead for these potential challenges.

The first meta-analysis of global learning loss

By Chenchen Shi, Johns Hopkins University

Almost three years since the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a growing number of studies examining the learning loss of school-aged children during the pandemic. The first meta-analysis of global learning loss has been published in Nature Human Behavior, and reviews the existing evidence on the extent to which learning progress has slowed down since the onset of the pandemic, and how it varies across different groups of students, subject domains and country contexts.

To be eligible for inclusion, studies had to: (1) measure learning progress using test scores that could be standardized across studies using Cohen’s d, (2) base their estimates on empirical data collected since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, rather than making projections based on pre-COVID-19 data, and (3) be written in English, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Norwegian, Spanish or Swedish.

A total of 42 studies (including 291 estimates) across 15 countries met these inclusion criteria, conducted from the start of the pandemic in 2020 through March 2022. This meta-analysis revealed that: (1) Overall, a substantial learning loss (Cohen’d = -0.14) was found, meaning that students lost out on 35% of a school years’ worth of learning; (2) On average, learning loss arose early in the pandemic and persisted over time; (3) Learning loss was particularly large among students from low socio-economic backgrounds; (4) Learning loss was larger in math than in reading, and (5) Learning loss was larger in poorer countries.

Authors made suggestions for future research, including how the pandemic affected gender inequality and examining effectiveness of interventions for recovering learning loss. They further recommended that policy initiatives to compensate learning loss need to: (1) prioritize support for students from low socio-economic backgrounds, (2) prioritize support in math and other science subjects, and (3) identify and realize opportunities to complement and expand on regular school-based learning.