Writing and reading fiction behind the lines: Creative learning on the home front

The purpose of this paper is to investigate writing and reading that would engage postsecondary students under crisis conditions in which face-to-face peer and teachers' support might not be available. In this project, I am looking at how students can use writing and reading fiction to understand their own experiences in being locked down during the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting with a one-paragraph short story to a fully developed narrative with plot, characterization, theme, and narrative voice, writing assignments lead to a growing realization of how reflection and writing emerge from the body, the mind, and the imagination. Reading a novel, Deafening (2003), by Frances Itani, shows students how a writer links battle scenes from World War I to the flu epidemic on the home front. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021. All rights reserved.

Household curricula during the COVID‐19 pandemic: A collective biography

Households with school‐aged children worldwide were affected by school closures caused by COVID‐19. Using a sociomaterial orientation and collective biography methodology, this study examined the household curricula of diverse families in Ontario, Canada with children in pre‐school through Grade 12. It found two distinct curricular phases to the pandemic, each with its own networked constituents, movements, and effects. Phase I involved learning at home during the lockdown in Spring and Summer 2020;Phase II involved online and face‐to‐face learning in the Fall of 2020. The constituents involved in curriculum making in Phase I were expansive and unexpected. Multiple timescales, modes, languages, and knowledge disciplines assembled to (re)configure households as learning spaces that produced novel opportunities for children's knowing, doing, and being. The makeup and movements of the Phase II assemblages were more of a return to the normalized boundaries of implemented school curricula that demarcated subject areas, languages, learning/play, learning/assessment, and body/mind. Concerned with questions of equity in/through curriculum, this study suggests a curriculum paradigm that foregrounds learners' and teachers' engagement with sociomaterial lifeworlds and their ethical relationship building with the more‐than‐human and the world. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Curriculum Journal is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

An overview of working mothers with children with online schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic in Riau Province

Objective: COVID-19 means Crown in Latin, COVID-19 is a type of virus that first spread in the city of Wuhan, China, and has spread throughout the world. This virus has an impact on all sectors namely the Economy, Health, and Education. This study aimed to determine the effect of school from home on working mothers during COVID-19 pandemia in Riau Province, Indonesia. Methods: This study used a cross-sectional design involving 132 working mothers who had schoolchildren in Pekanbaru City, Riau Province, Indonesia. The sampling technique uses purposive sampling with inclusion criteria for working mothers with schoolchildren who are willing to be respondents. The measuring instrument used to determine the psychosocial impact uses Self Reporting Questionnaire 29 (SRQ 29). Data were analyzed using univariate descriptive tests. Results: The results showed that more than half of them, namely 87 (65.9 %) working mothers experienced Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Conclusion: There is a needs to implement policies and curriculum changes in schools, for example, don't give too many assignments, shorten study time, and need communication between school authorities and parents of students. © 2023 Academia Nacional de Medicina. All rights reserved.

Family literacies during the COVID-19 lockdown: Semiotic assemblages and meaning making at home

When home became the primary place for children's learning during the COVID-19 lockdown, a dominant rhetoric emerged about a literacy-skills crisis, especially involving learners from low-income and culturally and linguistically diverse families. By documenting the literacies practiced and the literacy-learning opportunities created in and among households during the lockdown in the spring and summer of 2020, this study turns this deficit-oriented rhetoric on its head. Conducted by parents with their children (aged 2-15), this collective biography found that during the lockdown households were forced into spaces that were physically constrained yet replete with a wide range of semiotic resources. Parents and children used these resources, which included multiple modes, media, and languages, to produce expansive literacies and literacy-learning opportunities. The present study offers suggestions about how to recognize and build on learners' linguistic, cultural, and semiotic repertoires in the creation of literacy curricula. © 2023 Elsevier Inc.

Curriculum Innovation in Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Thinking-Based Instruction Theory and Its Application.

At the beginning of 2020, to stop the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to the campus, the Ministry of Education of China launched a policy "Suspension of classes without suspending schooling" for the spring semester of 2020. However, the drawbacks of online teaching (e.g., students' inadequate autonomous learning, the lack of effective online instruction) forced us to modify teaching strategies during this special period, especially developing courses that are suitable for student learning at home and improving their key competencies. In order to solve these problems, this study introduces some theoretical exploration and practical work of curriculum design under the guidance of thinking-based instruction theory (TBIT) during the pandemic. We firstly introduce TBIT, and elaborate on the curriculum design under the TBIT theoretical frame. Then we describe a series of TBIT-based micro-courses with the pandemic as background. A descriptive study is reported to illustrate the effects of three micro-courses. Results showed that, compared to national curricula, the TBIT-based micro-courses not only improved the course quality but also enhanced students' motivation and facilitated their online learning behavior (such as interactive communication) for the online courses. The current study has important implications for how to design effective and interesting online courses suitable under pandemic and capable of improving students' thinking abilities and key competencies.

The Effectiveness of Online Learning during the Covid-19 Pandemic in Malaysia

The Movement Control Order (MCO) was implemented in Malaysia on 18 March 2020. The MCO has changed people's lifestyle to some extent because they have been advised to work from home. Due to this situation, the Malaysian Ministry of Education (MOE) implemented online learning methods throughout the MCO period to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus. Therefore, all schools have implemented online teaching and learning with the instructions of the MOE as a new norm to ensure that learning sessions are not delayed. The purpose of this study was to determine the level and factors of effectiveness of online learning for secondary school students studying economics subjects during the Covid-19 pandemic. This study used a quantitative research design employing a questionnaire as data collection instrument. The results show that the effectiveness of online learning for economics students is at a high level. The results of the survey illustrate that most students use mobile phones and laptops to attend classes that take place online. Furthermore, the study found that teacher factors are the main factors that influence the effectiveness of online learning among students. This research has implications for educators to apply online learning methods as a new normative teaching method to ensure compliance with the National Education Philosophy and the objectives of the Malaysia Education Development Plan 2013–2025. © 2023 Society for Research and Knowledge Management. All rights reserved.

Art Play with Daddy: Father-Child Play with Art Materials at Home.

Paternal involvement in household and childcare has increased over the past century, but global studies show that most mothers still remain responsible for a significantly higher proportion of total household care and childcare. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has further negatively impacted mothers, who take on the majority of childcare responsibilities. However, scholars agree that a father's devotion to playing with the child fosters the child's cognitive, linguistic, and socio-emotional development. Acknowledging and approaching art as a dynamic and integrated play, this qualitative case study investigates five South Korean father-child dyads and their interactions while playing with art materials. The participants engaged in three thematic art sessions designed by the author. Data collection involved audio and video recordings of each session, surveys of adult participants, and photos of finished artworks. The study found that fathers' varied educational backgrounds and perceptions of their abilities to facilitate arts learning influenced their confidence in teaching the arts at home. Furthermore, having a theme and prompting questions assisted the fathers to facilitate more focused art play. The art play also provided the father-child dyads with arts learning opportunities, including learning and distinguishing colors and recognizing stereotypes associated with colors. Moreover, one-on-one interaction between the dyads helped them build a more intimate bond. This study presents specific examples of art activities and participants' responses, which might offer insights and educational implications for paternal involvement in child play and thematic art play at home.

PhotoVoice (PV) as an educational research method - considering the possibilities of online work in the fourth grade of primary school. Challenges and solutions

The aim of this article is to find an answer to the question of whether the PhotoVoice method can be used in online educational research conducted with children aged 10-11. The author describes the aims and methodology of PhotoVoice. The paper also presents the ethical and organisational challenges faced by researchers wishing to use PhotoVoice in educational settings. The conducted pilot study did not provide an unequivocal answer to the research question, but indicated the directions in which further research should be conducted. It showed how the PV procedure should be changed, while maintaining the main objectives of the method, enabling its implementation in work with children in the fourth grade of primary school. The changes should include greater involvement and empowerment of students, conducting a mini-project preceding the actual project, and limiting the role of the teacher to participation in the final stage, i.e. the presentation of photographic work to decision-makers. At the same time the pilot project made it possible to conclude that the involvement of students in the project, in-depth reflection on photo-graphs and discussions and motivation to propose changes in the immediate educational environment pose additional challenges if the project is conducted online.