Secondary Education in COVID Lockdown: More Anxious and Less Creative-Maybe Not?

Area of Science:

• Education
• Psychology
• Sociology

Background:

• COVID-19 significantly disrupted secondary education globally, shifting learning to remote modalities.
• Students experienced a lack of social interaction and direct teacher engagement typical of traditional classrooms.
• This study investigates student responses to pandemic-induced educational disruptions in two distinct school settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the composite attitudinal profiles of senior secondary students (Years 10-12) in response to COVID-19 educational disruptions.
• To explore the relationship between perceived difficulty, anxiety, self-efficacy, enjoyability, subject relevance, and creativity.
• To understand how student attitudes buffered the impacts of remote learning and supported creative resilience.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the School Attitudes Survey administered to 834 senior secondary students across two schools.
• Assessed student perceptions of difficulty, anxiety, self-efficacy, enjoyability, subject relevance, and creativity for school subjects.
• Analyzed composite attitudinal profiles to understand student responses to pandemic-related learning changes.

Main Results:

• Findings challenged the expectation that increased difficulty and anxiety would reduce perceived creativity.
• Students across both schools reported generally positive attitudes toward their learning.
• Opportunities for creativity were strongly associated with enjoyability, subject relevance, and self-efficacy.

Conclusions:

• Student-formed associations between creativity and positive learning constructs appear to have buffered the negative impacts of educational disruption.
• These associations may have played a role in supporting students' creative resilience during the pandemic.
• The study highlights the complex interplay of student attitudes in navigating educational challenges.