Main Content
Session Information
05 SES 15 A, Preventing and Reducing Educational Risks during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Symposium
Contribution
Internationally, summer schools have been organized and studied as a means to prevent and remediate learning deficits in school-age children (e.g., Cooper, Charlton, Valentine & Muhlenbruck, 2000; Kim & Quinn, 2013). Their focus on academic learning puts summer schools among other types of out-of-school-time programs (e.g. after-school tutoring) that are meant to provide students with additional opportunities to reach academic goals. As children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and children who are not proficient in the language of instruction are especially at risk of developing learning deficits, they have been frequently targeted by summer school initiatives (Lauer et al., 2006). In Flanders, as in many other countries around the world, the COVID-19 outbreak has had severe consequences for the organization of schooling, as schools were forced to rapidly switch to forms of distance education. Despite the efforts of many teachers and school principals, concerns have been formulated about the quality of the distance education offered and about the impact on students’ learning and achievement (Maldonado & De Witte, 2020). Acting upon these concerns, the Flemish Ministry of Education and Training has stimulated and supported the organization of summer schools as a means to remediate learning deficits grown during the period of COVID-related school closures. According to the Ministry’s guidelines, summer schools had to align their approach with known characteristics of effective summer schools, such as small group size and strong instructional focus. Using a mixed-method approach, we studied the characteristics of all 138 summer schools that were set up in Flanders during the summer of 2020. Digital questionnaires were administered from summer school coordinators and teachers, as well as from the attending pupils and their parents. Additionally, 11 summer schools were studied in depth, by means of classroom observations and interviews with key stakeholders. Results indicated that Flemish summer schools tended to be successful in attracting at-risk students. Considerable differences between summer schools were found, however, as to how they have managed to gather information on children’s learning needs and were able to tailor their program to these needs. Also, instructional focus in summer schools seemed lower than intended by the government. Although generally stakeholders assessed Flemish summer schools as successful, these findings rise doubts on how effective Flemish summer schools have been in actually remediating COVID-related learning deficits.
References
Cooper, H., Charlton, K., Valentine, J. C., & Muhlenbruck, L. (2000). Making the most of summer school: A meta-analytic and narrative review. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 65(1, Serial No. 260). Kim, J. S., & Quinn, D. M. (2013). The effects of summer reading on low-income children’s literacy achievement from kindergarten to grade 8: A meta-analysis of classroom and home interventions. Review of Educational Research, 83(3), 386-431. Lauer, P. A., Akiba, M., Wilkerson, S. B., Apthorp, H. S., Snow, D., & Martin-Glenn, M. L. (2006). Out-of-school-time programs: A meta-analysis of effects for at-risk students. Review of Educational Research, 76(2), 275-313. Maldonado, J. E., & DeWitte, K. (2020). The Effect of School Closures on Standardized Student Test Outcomes. Leuven, Belgium: University of Leuven.
Programme by Networks, ECER 2021
00. Central Events (Keynotes, EERA-Panel, EERJ Round Table, Invited Sessions)
Network 1. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations
Network 2. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)
Network 3. Curriculum Innovation
Network 4. Inclusive Education
Network 5. Children and Youth at Risk and Urban Education
Network 6. Open Learning: Media, Environments and Cultures
Network 7. Social Justice and Intercultural Education
Network 8. Research on Health Education
Network 9. Assessment, Evaluation, Testing and Measurement
Network 10. Teacher Education Research
Network 11. Educational Effectiveness and Quality Assurance
Network 12. LISnet - Library and Information Science Network
Network 13. Philosophy of Education
Network 14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research
Network 15. Research Partnerships in Education
Network 16. ICT in Education and Training
Network 17. Histories of Education
Network 18. Research in Sport Pedagogy
Network 19. Ethnography
Network 20. Research in Innovative Intercultural Learning Environments
Network 22. Research in Higher Education
Network 23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education
Network 24. Mathematics Education Research
Network 25. Research on Children's Rights in Education
Network 26. Educational Leadership
Network 27. Didactics – Learning and Teaching
Network 28. Sociologies of Education
Network 29. Reserach on Arts Education
Network 30. Research on Environmental und Sustainability Education
Network 31. Research on Language and Education (LEd)
Network 32. Organizational Education
The programme is updated regularly (each day in the morning)
Marginal Content
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.