Learning Interrupted: Lessons from Lockdown

Photo by Josefa nDiaz on Unsplash

As the 2021 academic year began, I sat down with Christopher Ruel at Wiley Educational Publishing to talk about unfinished learning and some of the other impacts of the pandemic move to remote learning.

When we think about teachers and students in the last year or so, there are things that have exacerbated the negative impact of the pandemic on education. For example, the stress of having to care for people at home, lack of access to devices and Internet, and differing degrees of psychological safety, to name just a few.

So, I think it makes sense that students aren't all learning what they’re supposed to.

Our brains have finite capacity, and if we're spending all or some of our cognitive effort trying to figure out how to cope in a chaotic world where we’re feeling lonely, stressed, and scared, then we don't have a lot of room left for learning.

Chris and I also talked about ways faculty and students can approach teaching and learning in the upcoming year and help heal some of the wounds from the past year or so.

You can read more of our conversation here.