On May 12 and 13, 2022, CIDREE members from 4 European countries (Netherlands, Serbia, Hungary, Luxembourg) participated in an expert meeting on “Strategies to cope with learning losses due to Covid-19” in Luxembourg.
Due to the pandemic, the long-lasting notion that school should provide “the same thing for every student at the same time” has been challenged further; which, in turn, opens up ways to rethink school. This idea was the starting point of the discussions.
The meeting allowed participants to discuss the different approaches and in-situ measures taken in the respective countries. Quickly, it became clear that the term “learning losses” might be too short-sighted. As education is about more than the acquisition and development of cognitive capabilities, the discussion of impacts and potential losses due to Covid-19 also considered a variety of other dimensions: learning performance, psychological load, physical inactivity, and life skills. The discussions highlighted that learning performance encompasses more than the “trinity” of mathematical, scientific-technical, and linguistic competences.
During the very fruitful exchanges on the measures and their implications, participants discovered similarities as well as differences with regard to the decisions taken. The role of digital technologies and their sound pedagogical use (e.g. data literacy) were considered to be crucial to build resilient educational systems. At the same time, having to work “digitally” meant added stress for teachers, students and parents alike, and the impact on all these stakeholders’ well-being and mental health have to be monitored. A key take-away for participants therefore was an overview of digital strategies and measures to cope with distance learning, comprising both technological and pedagogical insights.
Curriculum also plays a major role in coping with and/or preventing multidimensional impacts of pandemics: a unilateral focus on subject matter expertise is challenged by the concept of transversal competences and life skills. Socio-emotional learning as well as developing learning strategies and habits are further emerging topics when it comes to creating resilient educational systems. In this respect, the extensive exchange on curriculum in times of pandemics led to a common understanding of the challenges lying ahead to build resilient educational systems. Participative approaches that take into consideration the voices of all stakeholders were considered a promising road to follow for future developments in educational systems.
The interventions from the UNICEF Luxembourg and the National Observatory for School Quality were much appreciated by the participants, offering practical insights into qualitative and quantitative methods to assess multidimensional impacts of Covid-19.
