Book Review: Handbook of Research on Lessons Learned from Transitioning to Virtual Classrooms During a Pandemic

This book review on the Handbook of Research on Lessons Learned from Transitioning to Virtual Classrooms During a Pandemic by editors Amy W. Thornburg, Robert J. Ceglie, and Dixie F. Abernathy, aims to highlight reflections on the aftermath of the shift to online learning as told by K-20 teachers, faculty, staff, and administrators in the wake of the nascent spread of COVID-19 around the world. This review summary[s]es and assesses the book with the intention of offering readership a selection that promises effective educational learning tools, strategies, recommendations, and policies that might prove beneficial for all students going forward. Based on first-person narratives from classroom teachers, college professors, and community leaders around the world, who were on the front lines of moving to online teaching platforms, this book review may prove worthwhile to their global counterparts, who are searching for a primer on how educators might help students recover learning losses after the pandemic. In addition, the faculty editors, who are based at Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina, present real-life accounts of the supplementary challenges the pandemic presented to students and teachers, including food insecurity, emergency remote teaching, and student motivation, primarily in North Carolina and such countries as Italy, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom. Thornburg et al.’s book is noteworthy to the global educational community as it presents stories from a compelling array of contributors whose captivating lived experiences will sound familiar to the audience; moreover, the authors validate their findings and unabashedly acknowledge their shortcomings.