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Research is often communicated in ways that fail to reach young people. This participatory study explored young people's recommendations for making COVID-19 research communication accessible, engaging, and relevant for young people in Australia. We held eight online Zoom workshops with nine young people (18-21 years). Participants recommended researchers share their findings on platforms young people already use, particularly social media. Young people were more likely to engage with research communicated by trusted sources, particularly medical professionals. To keep young people engaged, researchers needed to clearly communicate one main message and simplify evidence using audio-visual formats. To make research communication more relevant, young people recommended sharing findings that related to their experiences throughout the pandemic and providing young people with opportunities to shape research communication and provide feedback. Findings suggest there are opportunities to make COVID-19 research communication more accessible, engaging, and relevant for young people by incorporating their ideas.

Background: At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools closed across the United States. Given the impact of virtual learning and lost access to school resources, schools eventually reopened with COVID-19 mitigation protocols in place. This qualitative study sought to understand parental perceptions of school-based COVID-19 mitigation strategies. Methods: Using a phenomenology approach, nine focus groups were completed with 40 parents of children in grades K-8 representing eight Maryland counties. Based on acceptance of masking policies (as indicated on a survey), parents were sorted into 2 groups--lower and higher masking acceptance. A thematic analysis was conducted for each group and themes were compared between the 2 groups. Results: The main themes were related to parents' general sentiments regarding COVID-19, compliance, pandemic-related changes over time, changes in personal opinions, and in-person learning. Both groups described challenges related to inconsistent COVID-19 mitigation policies and practices, the challenges of rapid and frequent changes in guidelines during the pandemic, and the benefits of in-person learning. Conclusions: Parents of elementary and middle school children, regardless of general acceptance of masking policies, shared concerns about implementation and guidance regarding school-based mitigation strategies.

BACKGROUND: The emergence of COVID-19 resulted in a substantial loss of education because of global school closures. Face masks are a potential measure to restrain the COVID-19 spread; therefore, this paper evaluated the effectiveness of face masks in reducing COVID-19 incidence in school settings. METHODS: A systematic review was conducted by searching the literature in the Cochrane COVID-19 Study Register and the World Health Organization COVID-19 global literature. Data were summarized in tabular forms, and the findings were presented as narrative synthesis. RESULTS: A total of 15,709 records were retrieved. The screening and selection led to the inclusion of 12 observational and 2 quasi-experimental studies. Nine studies were conducted in different states, counties, or districts of the United States, and the remaining 5 were reported from Germany, Finland, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The results of 10 out of 14 studies favored mask use in reducing school COVID-19 incidence. Three studies found no link between mask use and COVID-19 incidences, whereas 1 quasi-experimental study noted a higher COVID-19 incidence with mask use in students aged 6-11 years than no use of mask among preschool children aged 3-5 years. CONCLUSION: Mask mandates may lessen the incidence of respiratory infectious diseases in school settings during a pandemic; more well-designed studies are warranted to clarify further the evidence regarding mask use in school settings.

Aims: To determine the associations between COVID-19 school closures and school readiness skills for Chinese kindergarteners. Design: We utilized the natural experimental condition created by local COVID-19 outbreaks in 2022 (Study 1) to compare school readiness skills of children whose kindergartens were closed for 5 months (Group 1) with children whose kindergartens stayed open (Group 2). We further compared the school readiness skills of one pre-COVID-19 cohort (Cohort 2019) with one COVID-19 cohort (Cohort 2021) from a fifth kindergarten (Study 2). Samples: For Study 1, Group 1 included 445 children and Group 2 included 584 children aged 4-6 years. For Study 2, Cohort 2019 included 156 children and Cohort 2021 included 228 children aged 3-6 years. Measures: For both studies, survey data on four school readiness skills were collected from parents. Additionally, Study 1 collected parental locus of control data from parents. Results: Controlling for covariates, Study 1 revealed that Group 1 and Group 2 did not differ in terms of language and emergent literacy or approaches to learning. However, Group 1 scored lower than Group 2 on health and well-being and arts and imagination. Study 2 revealed that Cohort 2021 scored higher than Cohort 2019 on language and emergent literacy but lower on the other three skills. Conclusions: The associations of COVID-19 school closures with Chinese children's school readiness skills were not uniform, with a positive relation with language and emergent literacy and negative associations with health and well-being, approaches to learning, as well as arts and imagination.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which emerged during 2020, had a wide-ranging impact on all forms of social engagement in England until February 2022, when all COVID restrictions were lifted. Schools were widely affected during this time in both tangible and tacet interactions. The impact of COVID restrictions on curricula for 11-14-year-olds in the Key Stage 3 secondary music classroom in schools has been among the more hidden educational impacts, and research in this area has been limited. This article discusses research conducted between November 2020 and June 2021, which took the form of an online survey with 59 classroom music teachers and semi-structured interviews with 12 music teacher participants. Adopting a methodology of descriptive coding and thematic analysis for interviews and open-response survey questions, the findings reveal 10 unintended consequences of COVID-19 safety measures for curriculum music teaching in schools. The article concludes by developing the concept of the 'funnelling' of music teaching during this time and explores the lasting impacts of such treatment, tracing the implications for the future of music curriculum in school and policy contexts.

The focus of this research was to investigate how school administrators in Turkey managed the crises caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, which was a deadly threat for humanity worldwide. The research questions guiding this study are: (1) Did schools have a crisis plan? (2) If yes, how was the plan implemented in a crisis situation?; (3) What kind of changes were made in the plans?; (4) What should administrators do in such crisis situations?; and (5) What was done in the COVID-19 outbreak? The research was conducted as a qualitative case study which involved 105 school administrators. Due to the pandemic conditions that hindered direct face-to-face interviews and interactions, data collection was carried out online via a Google drive form with open-ended questions. The findings demonstrated that there were two main headings as the basis for the research problems. The first was the existence of crisis planning by school administrators; the other was the status of implementation of these plans. Finally, how school administrators handled crisis management was pointed out.

Public education requires all stakeholders to collaborate as a community and focus on the essential factors that create a path for student progress, growth, and maturity. The result nurtures students from kindergarten to graduation and beyond and affords them opportunities to become efficacious members of their communities. Schools are a business operating on the premise of the service industry, working collectively with and for the communities they serve. Their operational parameters are to work with all stakeholders to successfully facilitate excellence in education for all students regardless of gender, race, or socioeconomic status. Recent COVID-19 school closures have opened dialogues concerning the ramifications of continued school closures, the slow reopening of schools, and the current chronic educational gap for minorities and students living at the poverty or "extreme poverty" levels. This literature review examines peer-reviewed articles, policy papers, editorials, and global research that examines how the COVID-19 school closures and slow reopening processes affect the equitable global education of minorities and children living in poverty or extreme poverty.

The landscape of public education has felt a severe impact from the COVID-19 global pandemic. As schools and educators move into this new normal, educators and students will have to come together to reverse the damage caused over the past 3 or 4 years. To complete this goal, educators must understand the perception of students regarding building and maintaining relationships, and vice versa. The purpose of my multiple-methods grounded theory study is to explore and explain how emphasizing student-teacher relationships (STR) can support rebuilding school community in self-contained settings following the COVID-19 global pandemic through focusing on the perspectives and perceptions of the stakeholders in the learning environment. I conducted this study in a small self-contained high school during the 2022-2023 school year with nine students identified with special education needs, mainly with emotional and behavioral disabilities (EBD), and ten educator participants. Results for my study are currently in the preliminary stages, however, early analysis shows a consensus from participant interviews that emphasizing STR shows a moderate to high positive impact on student-teacher relationships, student engagement, academic success, social-emotional growth, decrease of teacher burnout, and more positive teacher attitudes about their students and schools. Key contributors to this shift include, but are not limited to, mutual respect, humanness, humor, relatability, support, and communications as major aspects of the building and maintaining the quality of student-teacher relationships.

Objective: This study addressed a COVID-19 outbreak in a nursing home, where the residents were vaccinated with two doses of Comirnaty® and thirty of them had previously had the infection. Outbreaks in closed communities are opportunities to study the entire clinical spectrum of the disease and, as in this case, the effect of hybrid immunity on transmission, infection progression and viral load., Methods: A descriptive and retrospective cohort study in the resident population was carried out. Attack rates were calculated for one of four stages of the disease: infection, symptomatic infection, hospitalization, and death. Relative risks (RR) were then estimated using simple and multivariate Poisson regression for each of these stages., Results: The attack rate was 59% (56/95). The clinical spectrum was the same in both sexes. There was a notable protective effect of hybrid immunity against transmission (67%). In terms of progression, those with hybrid immunity had a lower risk of symptomatic infection. Nasopharyngeal viral load was significantly lower in individuals with hybrid immunity and asymptomatic individuals, supporting the idea of lower transmissibility in this group. Age was identified as a risk factor for disease progression. Molecular analysis identified the Delta B.1.617.2 variant in the patients and an air sample, supporting aerosol transmission in closed, poorly ventilated environments., Conclusions: This study provides a comprehensive view of an outbreak in a vaccinated nursing home, highlighting the importance of hybrid immunity. The results support the individual consideration of previous infection history when assessing the risk of COVID-19, contributing to the understanding of the evolution of the pandemic in the future.

Background: Social media has become a vital tool for health care providers to quickly share information. However, its lack of content curation and expertise poses risks of misinformation and premature dissemination of unvalidated data, potentially leading to widespread harmful effects due to the rapid and large-scale spread of incorrect information., Objective: We aim to determine whether social media had an undue association with the prescribing behavior of hydroxychloroquine, using the COVID-19 pandemic as the setting., Methods: In this retrospective study, we gathered the use of hydroxychloroquine in 48 hospitals in the United States between January and December 2020. Social media data from X/Twitter was collected using Brandwatch, a commercial aggregator with access to X/Twitter's data, and focused on mentions of "hydroxychloroquine" and "Plaquenil." Tweets were categorized by sentiment (positive, negative, or neutral) using Brandwatch's sentiment analysis tool, with results classified by date. Hydroxychloroquine prescription data from the National COVID Cohort Collaborative for 2020 was used. Granger causality and linear regression models were used to examine relationships between X/Twitter mentions and prescription trends, using optimum time lags determined via vector auto-regression., Results: A total of 581,748 patients with confirmed COVID-19 were identified. The median daily number of positive COVID-19 cases was 1318.5 (IQR 1005.75-1940.3). Before the first confirmed COVID-19 case, hydroxychloroquine was prescribed at a median rate of 559 (IQR 339.25-728.25) new prescriptions per day. A day-of-the-week effect was noted in both prescriptions and case counts. During the pandemic in 2020, hydroxychloroquine prescriptions increased significantly, with a median of 685.5 (IQR 459.75-897.25) per day, representing a 22.6% rise from baseline. The peak occurred on April 2, 2020, with 3411 prescriptions, a 397.6% increase. Hydroxychloroquine mentions on X/Twitter peaked at 254,770 per day on April 5, 2020, compared to a baseline of 9124 mentions per day before January 21, 2020. During this study's period, 3,823,595 total tweets were recorded, with 10.09% (n=386,115) positive, 37.87% (n=1,448,030) negative, and 52.03% (n=1,989,450) neutral sentiments. A 1-day lag was identified as the optimal time for causal association between tweets and hydroxychloroquine prescriptions. Univariate analysis showed significant associations across all sentiment types, with the largest impact from positive tweets. Multivariate analysis revealed only neutral and negative tweets significantly affected next-day prescription rates., Conclusions: During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a significant association between X/Twitter mentions and the number of prescriptions of hydroxychloroquine. This study showed that X/Twitter has an association with the prescribing behavior of hydroxychloroquine. Clinicians need to be vigilant about their potential unconscious exposure to social media as a source of medical knowledge, and health systems and organizations need to be more diligent in identifying expertise, source, and quality of evidence when shared on social media platforms., (©Scott A Helgeson, Rohan M Mudgalkar, Keith A Jacobs, Augustine S Lee, Devang Sanghavi, Pablo Moreno Franco, Ian S Brooks, National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C). Originally published in JMIR Infodemiology (https://infodemiology.jmir.org), 18.11.2024.)

Pre-exposure prophylaxis for COVID-19 with Tixagevimab/Cilgavimab in immunocompromised patients has reduced the risk of breakthrough infection, disease, hospitalization, and COVID-19 related mortality. However, the advent of the Kraken variant (XBB.1.5) has limited the use of this monoclonal antibody, based on poor efficacy in in vitro studies The objective of the study was to evaluate the risk of breakthrough infection, symptomatic disease, hospitalization, intensive care admission, and COVID-19 related death in kidney transplant recipients receiving pre-exposure prophylaxis with Tixagevimab/Cilgavimab for COVID-19 in the era of the Kraken variant (XBB.1.5). In a prospective, observational study, we enrolled kidney transplant patients undergoing pre-exposure prophylaxis for COVID-19 with Tixagevimab/Cilgavimab at the Division of Infectious Diseases of Federico II University of Naples from February 2023 to August 2023. Each patient subsequently underwent a six-month follow-up with symptom monitoring and surveillance nasopharyngeal swab for SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection every 30 days, regardless of symptoms. Thirty-four kidney transplant patients were enrolled, and in the follow-up period only one tested positive for the nasopharyngeal swab for SARSCoV-2 research with asymptomatic infection and virological recovery on the eighth day after diagnosis of infection. Therefore, no patient developed disease, no patient needed hospitalization, and no death occurred. No adverse drug reaction to Tixagevimab/Cilgavimab occurred. Our data, although derived from a limited and uncontrolled sample, show the potential of Tixagevimab/Cilgavimab as a valid and viable therapeutic strategy in pre-exposure prophylaxis for immunocompromised patients. These findings highlight the importance of conducting clinical studies on this topic.

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), silicone breast implants (SBI), Coronavirus-19 infectious disease (COVID), COVID-19 vaccination (post-COVIDvac-syndrome), Long-COVID syndrome (PCS), sick-building syndrome (SBS), post-orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (PoTS), and autoimmune/ inflammatory syndrome induced by adjuvants (ASIA) are a cluster of poorly understood medical conditions that have in common a group of ill-defined symptoms and dysautonomic features. Most of the clinical findings of this group of diseases are unspecific, such as fatigue, diffuse pain, cognitive impairment, paresthesia, tachycardia, anxiety, and depression. Hearing disturbances and vertigo have also been described in this context, the underlying pathophysiologic process for these conditions might rely on autonomic autoimmune dysbalance. The authors procced a literature review regarding to hearing and labyrinthic disturbances in CSF, FM, SBI, COVID, post-COVIDvac-syndrome, PCS, SBS, POTS, and ASIA. The PRISMA guidelines were followed, and the literature reviewed encompassed papers from January 1990 to January 2024. After the initial evaluation of the articles found in the search through Pubmed, Scielo and Embase, a total of 172 articles were read and included in this review. The prevalence of hearing loss, dizziness, vertigo and tinnitus was described and correlated with the diseases investigated in this study. There are great variability in the frequencies of symptoms found, but cochlear complaints are the most frequent in most studies. Vestibular symptoms are less reported. The main pathophysiological mechanisms are discussed. Direct effects of the virus in the inner ear or nervous pathways, impaired vascular perfusion, cross-reaction or autoimmune immunoreactivity, oxidative stress, DNA methylation, epigenetic modifications and gene activation were implicated in the generation of the investigated symptoms. In clinical practice, all patients with these autoimmune conditions who have any audiological complaint an ENT consultation followed by an audiometry are needed., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

In 2020 the world suffered from covid-19. Fundação Oswaldo Cruz faced itself again with a challenging task. One of its strategies while battling the disease was building a hospital. It was not the first time the institution would build such a healthcare facility. The first hospital, which nowadays needs preservation measures, opened in 1918 intending to study and treat tropical diseases. The second, built in 2021, was a field hospital designed to treat the new epidemic victims. This article aims to reflect upon both hospitals' construction contexts, as well as contribute to studies on the history of science and health.

The COVID-19 pandemic faced the public health sector with unprecedented challenges. While the immediate impact on society seems to diminish, reports of long-term health consequences persist. Among the most frequently reported symptoms are neurological complaints such as persistent fatigue and cognitive impairments. Scientific understanding is evolving rapidly, and first therapeutic approaches are emerging. However, many questions still remain unanswered., Competing Interests: Erklärung zu finanziellen Interessen Forschungsförderung erhalten: ja, von einem/den Sponsor(en) dieser Fortbildungseinheit; Honorar/geldwerten Vorteil für Referententätigkeit erhalten: ja, von einer anderen Institution (Pharma- oder Medizintechnikfirma usw.); Bezahlter Berater/interner Schulungsreferent/Gehaltsempfänger: nein; Patent/Geschäftsanteile/Aktien (Autor/Partner, Ehepartner, Kinder) an im Bereich der Medizin aktiven Firma: nein; Patent/Geschäftsanteile/Aktien (Autor/Partner, Ehepartner, Kinder) an zu Sponsoren dieser Fortbildung bzw. durch die Fortbildung in ihren Geschäftsinteressen berührten Firma: nein Erklärung zu nichtfinanziellen Interessen Christiana Franke ist Mitglied des Präsidiums der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurologie (DGN)., (Thieme. All rights reserved.)

Limited research suggests that certain viruses reactivate in severe-acute-respiratory-syndrome-coronavirus 2 infection, contributing to the development of postacute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC). We examined 1083 infected individuals from a population-based cohort, and assessed differences in plasma immunoglobulin (Ig)G and immunoglobulin A levels against Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), cytomegalovirus, varicella zoster virus (VZV), BK polyomavirus, KI polyomavirus, WU polyomavirus (WUPyV), respiratory syncytial virus, and Adv-36 according to the severity of previous COVID-19 and PASC history. Individuals who had experienced severe COVID-19 had higher antibody responses to latent viruses. Ever PASC, active persistent PASC, and PASC with neuropsychiatric symptoms were associated with higher immnoglobulin G to EBV early antigen-diffuse, VZV, and WUPyV even among individuals without previous severe COVID-19., (© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Medical Virology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

In light of the devastating effects of COVID-19 on early childhood care and education (ECCE), with this study we aimed at illuminating the self-efficacy and well-being of ECCE teacher educators, from the perspective of 9 participants in 7 higher education institutions (HEIs) across 5 South African provinces. The study, conducted by 2 ECCE teacher educators, was informed by the feminist ethics of care, combined with Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory, to understand self-efficacy, and Seligman's PERMA (positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishments) theory of well-being. Semi-structured, online interviews using Microsoft Teams was used to produce the data. The findings reveal aspects that compromised self-efficacy and well-being, as well as aspects that energised them. All the participants reported that their institutions were under-prepared for the pandemic. They recognised that they lacked work-life balance and were at risk of burnout. Despite this, their resilience enabled them to develop a deeper interest and stronger commitment to their work, largely because of the support they had received from their colleagues. From the findings of the study we recognise that strong self-efficacy sustained teacher educators' professional practice despite the pandemic affecting their well-being in a negative way. In the context of building forward better and differently, this study points to the importance of developing responsive well-being programmes for staff in higher education institutions and communities of practice that are responsive to the needs of female teacher educators.

This study examines how inequality manifested during the emergency remote COVID-19 transition in higher education. We use 35 in-depth interviews with college students, conducted virtually, in real-time, during spring 2020 lockdowns, to examine how the transition impacted their lives. Students in the sample from lower-income backgrounds reported significant basic needs insecurity, financial instability, and academic struggles. Latino and Black students in the sample, in particular, reported financial instability, mental health crises, and academic struggles. Meanwhile, affluent white students and affluent Asian students in the study tended to face only minor setbacks or even flourish during this time. University and government policies exacerbated the negative experiences of marginalized students, often due to faulty assumptions that all college students have families who provide for their needs. While the particulars of this crisis were unusual, and this study took place at one institution of higher education, these findings suggest that higher education administrators must consider the implications of policies on the most disadvantaged students.

The article deals with the results of mathematics examinations at the University of Finance and Administration in Prague before, during, and immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions. The first objective is to evaluate whether the non-standard forms of testing (correspondence and online), used on an emergency basis during the pandemic, were adequate compared to the standard form (face-to-face) applied before the pandemic. The second objective is to assess whether and to what extent the results of the examinations have changed after the return of teaching and testing methods to normal. It turns out that the use of non-standard forms, although more challenging for teachers to control, did not lead to better results -- the results in the correspondence form were similar to the standard form and even worse in the online form. The results of examinations administered in the standard form after the return to normal teaching were significantly better than in any of the periods studied, including the standard form of examination before the pandemic. Possible reasons for the results are analysed in the paper.

The numerous stressors and strains of the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to growing numbers of college students experiencing disabilities and needing support. This practice brief explores the challenges faced by disability resource professionals (DRPs) during the pandemic in reaching and supporting students potentially needing accommodations, but who had not formally disclosed a disability with the disability resource office (DRO). Findings highlight the challenges and areas for improvement to better engage students considered within the "pre-disclosure" status--students potentially needing accommodations and disability-based support who have yet to formally disclose to their institution's DRO. Study participants echoed previous findings that there are more students experiencing a disability who have yet to disclose.

This article contributes a novel perspective on the common vulnerabilities of the Indigenous and international student experiences at higher education institutions in Australia. Through a review of 88 publications in the leading journals we show that the majority of these articles focus on international students rather than Indigenous students. This literature treats Indigenous and international students as separate categories, although they share the campus and common vulnerabilities that have intensified in the post-COVID and post-AI university. While the vulnerabilities of each group in isolation may be considered minor, that serious challenges effect more than one group of students underscores the urgent changes required in the higher education system. We argue that understanding the commonalities of Indigenous and international student experiences could help universities develop more effective support strategies and programs. This research provides valuable insights about the assumptions of Western higher education that must be communicated to students to minimize the culture shock as they navigate the higher education space.

In this study, the interrelations between locus of control, perceived social support, career decision self-efficacy, and career outcome expectations among international students in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic was investigated through the lens of Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT). Based on structural equation modeling, data from 194 international students at a large Midwestern research institution in the United States revealed that career decision self-efficacy plays a significant mediating role in the relationships between age, locus of control, and career outcome expectations. These results provide valuable insights into the career development process of international students during a global pandemic. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are thoroughly discussed.

This quantitative study identified challenges undergraduates faced in Botswana and predicted their readiness for online learning during COVID-19. A descriptive and correlational survey research design was adopted using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). A questionnaire was constructed for data collection from a randomly sampled 75 agriculture undergraduates (n=75) at the Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources. A one-sample t-test demonstrated that undergraduates needed to prepare for online learning. They faced several significant challenges including slow personal laptops and devices, lack of interaction between students and teachers, lack of social interaction within a class, lack of immediate feedback and interruptions in lessons, disturbances during lessons, limited broadband data and frequent technology failures. A one-way ANOVA and independent t-test revealed no age, gender and study year differences among undergraduates for the readiness and challenges. Regression analysis determined lack of interaction in class, lack of suitable infrastructure and insufficient training to use the system are the challenges that predicted undergraduates' readiness for online learning. The preparation of undergraduates for online learning can be enhanced by improving the interaction during online lessons, developing the infrastructure required for online teaching and learning and offering training on the use of online teaching and learning systems.

It will be very useful for the E-Learning departments, dean's offices, and academic monitoring of the higher education institutions (HEI) of El Salvador to know the perception that students have regarding the academic support of the virtual learning environments (VLE) implemented or strengthened as a response to the events generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although this event is in the health area, it has had an impact on other areas, including education, leading HEIs to advance in the virtualization of content for the care of their students. This research allowed us to know the perception of students regarding virtual environments as facilitators of learning and guarantors of favorable social environments in the development of content. Opportunely, the topic is relevant during the social distancing due to the pandemic and, undoubtedly, provides new data to support other studies. In this descriptive study, with a quantitative approach, with a non-probabilistic sample, 279 students from several HEIs from El Salvador participated, to which an online survey was given to know their perception of VLE as learning facilitators. As a main result, it was obtained that such perception depends on your previous experience in VLE.

The COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted schooling, not only in South Africa, but globally. In the study reported on here we investigated the perceived psychosocial effects of the pandemic on the teaching realities of Foundation Phase (FP) educators in rural quintiles 1 to 3 schools in the North West province, South Africa. A qualitative, case study design was adopted with 10 educators purposively selected from 3 schools to participate through telephonic interviews. The findings reveal that as educators contended with the new rotational method of school attendance, challenges of limited teaching time, curriculum coverage, learner absenteeism and the lack of parental support that negatively affected their overall state of psychosocial well-being. This state of well-being was characterised by high stress levels, feelings of hopelessness, anxiety and a lack of accomplishment for educators. Despite these experiences, some educators demonstrated agency and resilience in ensuring that they carried out their core responsibility of teaching, but perceived themselves as requiring psychosocial support. The conclusion reached is that the available support structures provided by the Department of Basic Education appeared to be under-utilised and there was a critical need to introduce and advocate for mental health interventions to support educators emotionally.

This research purposed to test the accuracy of Machine Learning techniques for learner analytics based on SEEEM factors of secondary education students in Thailand's COVID-19. Research volunteer came from secondary education students in Thailand who invited by researcher. The research questionnaire adapted from Computational Thinking Assessment by Korkmaz et al. (2017), Science Process Skills by Pruekpramool (2014), Environmental Literacy Instrument for Adolescents by EPA (2018), Test of Economic Literacy by Walstad et al. (2013), and Technology and Engineering Literacy Student Questionnaire by NAEP (2018). This research employed the statistics in analysis of Mean and Standard Deviation, and Machine Learning Techniques such as Naïve Bay (NB), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Decision Tree (DT), Random Forest (RF), Logistics Regression (LR), Gradient Boosting (GB), Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGB), and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) with 80% for training and 20% for testing. The results of this research as it shown techniques used in data analytics in this paper may benefit to educators, teachers, or students in Thailand.

The COVID-19 pandemic, the Australian government's response, and longer-term influences within Australia's higher education sector, provided the background and rationale for this study in an Australian public university. From a context of how Antipodean University (AU) dealt with the revenue crisis, this paper describes how a sample of staff were affected through job loss or redeployment. It describes reported experiences of 77 AU staff, who either departed AU or who transferred to other jobs within AU, and who provided narratives describing their leaving/redeployment experiences. Respondents had been academic and professional staff, and most of those leaving did so in December 2020. An inductive reflexive thematic analysis of online survey responses revealed six themes: Relevant features of the external environment, AU's organisational culture and values, Parties involved with respondents' leaving experience, Leaving/redeployment processes encountered, Respondent's personal agency, and Past/present condition in/directly attributed to changed employment status, with 25 subthemes.

Mounting research has revealed how the labor of caregiving and parenting in the United States fell disproportionately to mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic, with negative impacts on mothers' personal and professional well-being. Here, we advance this growing body of work by examining how mothers' pandemic-related parenting and caregiving experiences differed across socioeconomic status. We ask the degree to which mothers' class-based parenting approaches persisted or dissipated in the wake of the pandemic. Drawing on in-depth interviews conducted with 130 mothers caring for children under eighteen in 2020-2021, we find that these parenting patterns largely continued into the pandemic, with mothers' socioeconomic and employment status shaping how they experienced and navigated this disruption and particularly how they managed competing paid and unpaid labor demands.

Segregation is often seen in terms of race. However, it can also be based on socioeconomic status. Public colleges and universities in the U.S. had highly divergent responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite operating under similar health and legal considerations, campuses at most elite institutions were treated as essential functions while the neighboring campuses of less elite institutions were often treated as non-essential functions. This was problematic during the pandemic, but the discrimination appears to be continuing after the emergency has passed. The policy of continued reduction of the role of the college campus is an attractive option for less exclusive institutions. While a campus is most valuable for the more marginalized students, it is their campuses that closed and remain limited. The community college campus is the foundation of higher education for many students. The purpose of this article was to explore the value of the campus experience.

Gender disparity persists in the personal caregiving of children and older adults, and in professional caregiving duties, with many workplace policies and cultures favoring the "ideal worker" and presenting significant and continuing barriers to female caregivers' professional success and well-being. The recent pandemic both highlighted and augmented this disparity as schools, daycares, and adult care facilities closed or implemented restrictions. This study interprets results from the July 2021 Canadian Natural Sciences & Engineering (NSE) Faculty Workplace Climate Survey by empirically assessing the impact on emotional exhaustion of the increased caregiving burden during the COVID-19 pandemic on female academics in the highly masculinized NSE fields. Results indicate that women were more likely to experience emotional exhaustion even when other factors were considered. Collegiality and inclusion were found to be protective factors, illustrating important implications for, and the retention and support of, success and well-being of female NSE academics.

Problem-posing has been recognized for enhancing students' engagement, problem-solving skills, and mathematical knowledge, which leads to higher mathematics achievement. This research is experimental research with a randomized comparison groups pre-test and post-test design, which aims to examine the effect of using online problem-posing to develop students' mathematics achievement during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand. Sixty electrical engineering students of Rajamangala University participated in this study. The research instruments included a mathematics problem-posing lesson plan and a mathematics achievement test. The participants were tested for mathematics achievement before and after attending the programs. The result indicated a statistically significant difference in the mathematics post-test mean scores between the experimental and control groups. The experimental group gained higher mathematics achievement than the control group. Therefore, it is recommended that the problem-posing be used in teaching mathematics to the students.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced a rapid shift from traditional teaching to online settings. This study explores the technological tools employed by university EFL-speaking teachers during this transition, investigating their continued relevance post-pandemic. With a focus on the experiences of seven university EFL-speaking teachers, this study probes the challenges they encountered, their attitudes toward the challenges, and the technological tools they favored to sustain effective instruction. The participants, chosen using purposive sampling and engaged in online interviews, provided rich insights that were thematically analyzed using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The findings revealed that the teachers' perceptions of Perceived Ease of Use (PEoU), Perceived Usefulness (PU), and the challenges they encountered were pivotal in shaping their attitudes towards the employed technological tools. Several challenges emerged, including students' limited participation, assessing and providing feedback, accessing resources, and the teachers' technology familiarity. Among these complexities, Google Meet and e-learning platforms became preferred tools. The teachers' rationale for these choices encompassed bridging the gaps created by the virtual environment, fostering meaningful tasks, and promoting communication efficiency. Their strategic alignment reflected the teachers' intent to address the challenges encountered during online teaching, and to continue these practices in the post-pandemic.

This paper focuses on the experiences of ten women in Canada with refugee backgrounds from the Horn of Africa as they helped their adolescent children (ages 12-18) navigate the challenges of at-home online learning during the global COVID-19 pandemic. We situate our analysis within specific aspects of Yosso's (2005) Community Cultural Wealth framework to demonstrate that, while the women's efforts were hampered by online learning technologies, they were able to harness aspirational and familial capital to keep their children engaged in schoolwork. The women felt deeply involved in their children's education, particularly in terms of following up on children's homework, monitoring their activities, and providing guidance.

This quantitative-correlational study aimed to examine the relationship between online game addiction and mental well-being of high school students from Angeles City, in the Philippines, during the COVID-19 pandemic. To obtain data from the respondents, the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale--Short-Form and Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) were utilised. After obtaining data from purposively selected 162 high-school students, it was observed that there was a positive and significant relationship between online game addiction and mental well-being. The study highlighted that individuals who are highly dependent on online games are more likely to experience higher levels of depression, anxiety and stress. Based on the findings, implications for theory and practice, particularly in learning and development, are presented, along with recommendations for schools, teachers, students, and future research directions.

Although interest in blended learning for students has grown within elementary and secondary school contexts, limited research exists on the implementation of blended professional development (PD) for teachers. The current mixed-method action research study examined teacher participation in blended learning PD in a large California district, offered in response to the challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a survey and interviews, the authors examined teacher self-efficacy and the reported influence of the PD on their practice. Findings suggest that the blended PD provided participants with the perceived self-efficacy needed to implement new instructional practices. In addition, collaboration among teachers was essential, teachers were able to learn through different pathways and at different rates, and ongoing support from a qualified PD instructor was necessary. This study sheds light on the implementation of blended PD for K-12 teachers, shares insights on practical considerations for planning and application, and suggests areas for future research.

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to investigate students' perceptions of their personal and social responsibility skills during and following an eight-week physical activity (PA) afterschool program (ASP) focused on social-emotional learning (SEL) competencies. Specifically, student knowledge of SEL competencies and general PA attitudes were evaluated in a pre- and post-program design. Session specific focus groups after each session were also collected. Elementary students (N = 134; "Mage" = 9.87) from five elementary school programs participated in the study. Quantitative results showed that significant increases in students perceived personal and social responsibility skills increased. In addition, positive attitudes toward PA increased while negative attitudes decreased across the program. Qualitative findings revealed four general themes: (a) knowledge of skills preluded application; (b) self-consciousness of competencies increased; (c) COVID restrictions resulted in surface-level communication/relationships; and (d) peer relationships lacked depth. Student progress in their awareness and knowledge of SEL skills increased in the program. Additionally, evidence to slight decrease in survey responses is reflective of a phenomenon in that students have an inflated sense of SEL competencies at first, but following training they have a more honest and knowledgeable reflection of them. Awareness of SEL skills and abilities would found to happen before action in the authentic setting. It appears that frameworks like the Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) model can be effective in structure afterschool programs to improve awareness in short-term programming.

The present investigation examines the impact of Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL) on the enhancement of EFL learners' idiom learning through "WhatsApp" during the COVID-19 pandemic. Three complete classes with 60 intermediate female learners (20 per class) were selected and randomly assigned into two experimental and one control group in "WhatsApp." Data collection tools included Preliminary English Test (PET) and a researcher-designed idiom test used as pre-and post-tests. In the intervention, the first treatment group included contextualized MALL. In other words, the teachers provided the students with idiomatic expressions in context. The second treatment group included decontextualized MALL, idiomatic expressions merely with their meanings were presented to the students through "WhatsApp." In the control group, the researchers taught the idioms through translation. This procedure lasted for 20 sessions. The findings of a paired-samples t-test and one-way ANOVA indicated that the contextualized MALL group surpassed the rest in both immediate and delayed post-tests. The implications regarding the efficacy of MALL and online teaching in developing EFL learners' idiom learning, and retention are discussed.

As in other contexts, Iranian students encountered challenges in the closedown of schools due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. The present study investigated the attitudes of 108 high school EFL students, using an online questionnaire to find out whether students preferred either to receive distance e-learning or the traditional face-to-face methods of instruction at schools. To this end, the participants completed a 20-item questionnaire. Also, the study attempted to explore EFL students' perceptions of the use of distance learning using individual semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data and the major emergent themes were discussed. The results revealed that most of the students were not ready to adopt the ongoing distance e-learning system. They complained that the pandemic had negatively impacted their learning and found the distance e-learning system ineffective. The results suggested the need for further studies on empowering the learners and teachers to improve the effectiveness of instruction in critical situations.

The transition in learning trajectories, academic pressures and stressors associated with financial and societal pressure that South African postgraduate university students experience places them at risk of mental health difficulties. For these students, their mental well-being has been further threatened due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent switch to emergency remote teaching. This study aimed to explore the physical and psychological health, resilience and coping amongst two Psychology honours student cohorts at a South African university. Using a repeated cross-sectional design, a sample of 38 Psychology honours students enrolled in 2020 and 39 Psychology honours students enrolled in 2021 voluntarily participated in the study. Overall, students reported poor mental health, with elevated levels of anxiety and burnout and moderate post-traumatic stress symptoms. The 2021 cohort reported significantly lower levels of self-efficacy, increased post-traumatic stress symptoms and employed coping through self-blame more frequently. Students' feelings of isolation persisted as well as feelings of hopelessness with regard to the contextual challenges faced by the country and the pandemic. Over the course of the pandemic, students found that they had less anxiety about online learning, however, they noted that the mental health support provided by the university was not sufficient. These results highlight the important role university mental health services play in fostering student mental well-being and thus the need to prioritise making mental health services to students more accessible and efficient.

This study examines differences in anxiety levels among university students. Of particular concern is COVID-19 anxiety and differences among enrollment levels. The study employed a cross-sectional survey research design and snowball sampling. The sample of 55 university students included 16 graduate students. Anxiety was measured by the Coronavirus anxiety scale (CAS) by Lee. The non-parametric analysis included Quade's ANCOVA. Results suggest that although there are differences in anxiety levels between genders, no significant differences were found among enrollment levels after controlling for beginning year anxiety. However, the higher levels of anxiety among seniors and females suggest that these groups need added attention during pandemics.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted academic labour, with women being disproportionately negatively affected. This scoping review provides an exploratory snapshot into the corpus of literature investigating the impact of the pandemic on academic labour. We used a set of criteria to first identify the 86 titles from which we selected 45 as the data set. We analyzed the data on characteristics of location, investigative methods, publication information, and discipline. The findings showed that most of the data were global in context; used primarily qualitative methodologies; published in a wide variety of journals; and spanned diverse disciplines, including science and health, education, business, sociology, and political sciences. We then analyzed the data thematically. The themes we identified were gender inequity, identities and intersectionality, performing work-home binaries, and invisible labour. We added a fifth theme, lived experiences, consisting of women academics' firsthand accounts. We consider this theme unique, despite its overlap with the other themes, because it is evidence of women academics telling their personal stories. We discuss how our findings show that pandemic conditions worsened existing inequities. The solutions most often cited in the data place emphasis and responsibility on the individual, but we argue that institutions should instead be responsible to redress inequities through improving workplace labour processes. Our research can aid future research on how policy theory can inform socially just policies and practices in the post-pandemic university.

Social distancing policies during the COVID-19 period have opened a space for interventions in the use of digital technology that was previously rejected by the public. Currently, most of the community activities have been carried out online, including those related to education, such as hosting virtual exhibitions with an educational purpose. Virtual exhibitions (VE) are online exhibitions that display information on specific topics. However, to the best of our knowledge, research on VE in the educational context is still lacking. This study aims to identify the variables that affect users' intentions to attend the virtual exhibition frequently. The channel expansion theory, flow theory, technology acceptance model, and expectation confirmation theory serve as the foundation for the research model that is constructed. The model was tested using data from 321 respondents who had visited VE, then analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with the aid of the SmartPLS application version 3.3.3. The findings show that 11 factors significantly influence the intention to continue using VE, while the other 2 factors have no significant influence. Thus, perceived usefulness has a significant effect on satisfaction and continued use intention to use VE, but not on perceived enjoyment. Furthermore, the perceived ease of use of VE has a significant impact on perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment. However, media richness does not significantly affect perceived enjoyment. It's just that media richness influences perceived ease of use significantly. Confirmation also has a significant impact on perceived enjoyment, perceived usefulness, and satisfaction. Perceived enjoyment has a significant effect on satisfaction and continued use intention, and satisfaction has a significant effect on continued use intention to use VE. The findings are useful for VE providers and developers in developing a transformation strategy to increase the intention to use VE in every educational exhibition. [The publication year on the PDF is incorrect. The correct year is 2024.]

Students in over 150 countries experienced school closures throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In the years following, a growing body of literature seeks to estimate the impacts of these education disruptions on a diverse set of outcomes, including student learning. This article adds to this research by examining causal evidence through a difference-in-differences framework (DID). Results suggest that school closures led to learning losses in math for high school seniors in public schools in the Federal District (DF) in Brazil. And while all racial groups experienced learning loss, White and Asian students experienced the most significant losses in 2020. We find no evidence of learning recovery from 2020 to 2021 for any racial groups, suggesting that learning losses persisted into school reopening. We do find, however, possible signs of recovery for female senior students compared to male students. Nevertheless, male and female performance differences are still prominent when analyzing data from 2016 to 2021. The utilization of critical policy analysis and the effectively maintained inequality frameworks can offer insights into significant learning disparities experienced by students.

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected the education process. A sudden shift to online learning changed the mechanism of the education system. As key stakeholders, parents have to undertake the responsibility of this process at home. This study aims to reveal the roles of parents in online learning during the pandemic. It was conducted with a phenomenological research design. The study group consists of 28 parents having children aged 7 to 13 years old. Data collected employing interviews and open-ended questionnaires were analyzed by the thematic analysis method. According to the findings, parents organize their daily lives at home according to online learning of their children. They explain the online learning process in the context of family circumstances, the challenges they experienced, the educational environment, household chores, job responsibilities, and relationships. It is challenging for parents to undertake the roles of reinforcer, supervisor, motivator, and controller in online learning at home. To overcome the challenges they take family or caregiver support, make partnerships, and use external sources like tutoring, web applications, etc. All these findings suggest that with the emergent shift to remote teaching, parents get much more involved in the education process by undertaking the responsibilities of the teachers.

The re-emergence of the COVID-19 virus has had a significant impact on the educational system. In order to maintain its high standard, education needs to evolve to reflect the new world order, and this is especially true of secondary education. As part of studying the English language, students should be taught how to comprehend the reading materials that are assigned to them. The flipped classroom model is gaining popularity in this pandemic era, but its efficacy in secondary education is being questioned because it is an entirely novel instructional approach, specifically in the teaching and learning of English in Islamic secondary schools. The objective of this study was to conduct a quantitative analysis of how flipping the classroom affected Indonesian senior high school students' reading comprehension levels. There were 56 students participating in this study. The study's findings demonstrated an increase in students' reading comprehension scores after the students were taught by using flipped reading classroom. The results suggested that the Flipped Reading Comprehension Classroom has a considerable impact on the accomplishment of Islamic secondary school students, and it is recommended that it be applied in ELT classes due to its numerous advantages.