Global Trends in Early Childhood Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic
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A study on Global trends in the research on early childhood education during the COVID-19 pandemic was published on May 9, 2022, in Education Sciences journal.
The study, a bibliometric analysis carried out by Jiahong Su and Davy Tsz Kit Ng (University of Hong Kong), Weipeng Yang (The Education University of Hong Kong), and Hui Li (Shanghai Institute of Early Childhood Education), presents an overview of the state of early childhood education (ECE) during the COVID-19 pandemic by examining 507 global empirical articles on ECE during COVID-19 published between 2020 and March 2022.
The study’s aim was to gauge the global trends in research on ECE during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly considering the need for a swift response to the impact of the pandemic. The bibliometric approach involved identifying the countries of most-cited publications, most-cited categories of studies, and research methodologies used in the eligible studies. The study found, “Analysis reveals that technology integration in ECE has grown fast to timely facilitate online teaching and resolve varied challenges such as parental stress, a lack of resources, and the quality of education in this field. Based on the bibliometric approach, we highlighted research focusing on key themes such as online learning and teaching, physical activity, stress and mental health, and families in early childhood.”
The top four represented critical themes identified in the research were:
Online Learning and Teaching in ECE during the COVID-19 Pandemic:
“ECE educators have faced various challenges during the pandemic, including internet accessibility, lack of teacher training to transit to distance learning, technological challenges for distance teaching and communication with caregivers, resources to learning materials, and quality of early childhood programs.” A study surveying 1,434 teachers “proposed five limitations of online learning: (1) difficulties supporting children’s learning and concerns, (2) difficulties with parental involvement, (3) technology issues, (4) social isolation and feeling of being disconnected, and (5) barriers with resources and preparation for online learning.”
“Furthermore, in ECE, it is necessary to take additional care of children’s development. Psychologists had pointed out that the development of behavioral self-regulation was between the ages of 3 and 7 years, and considerable motivation stability was around 5 years old.”
“Due to the challenges of online learning, parents prefer traditional learning and have a negative belief in the benefits of online learning in early childhood.” A study by Dong et al, polling 3,275 Chinese parents about their beliefs and attitudes towards their children’s online learning during the pandemic, “showed that the parents prefer traditional learning in early childhood settings due to three major reasons: shortcomings in online learning, insufficient self-regulation ability of young children, and a lack of time and expertise to support children’s online learning.”
Physical Activity in ECE during the COVID-19 Pandemic:
“Due to COVID-19-induced school and park closures, as well as cancellations of children’s sports and activity classes, many children did not meet the recommended levels of physical activity. A study conducted in the United States found a decrease in children’s level of physical activity during the pandemic relative to before the pandemic. Another study also found that the pandemic has reduced time spent on physical activity, increased time spent on entertainment screens, and decreased sleeping quality among children. Similarly, Guan et al.’s study demonstrates that children’s physical activity decreased across countries (e.g. Australia, South Africa, China, Canada, and South Korea). Mitra et al surveyed 1,503 children and showed that most children had a longer sedentary screen time, a shorter duration of physical activity, and lower healthy exercise levels during the pandemic.”
Stress and Mental Health in Early Childhood during the COVID-19 Pandemic:
“Family backgrounds seem to moderate the COVID-19 effect on child well-being. According to Mochida et al.’s study with 1,030 caregivers, the children whose mothers have lower education levels undergo a significantly higher level of psychological stress than children with higher maternal education levels. Furthermore, children who cannot attend kindergarten or daycare due to the pandemic have higher levels of psychological stress than those who attend kindergarten or daycare daily.”
“Imran et al. discovered that children are subjected to various stressful events, including fear, uncertainty, major changes in daily life, physical and social isolation, and high levels of parental stress, which have negative consequences on their mental health. The authors provide some practical advice: First, turn off news channels when children are present. Second, speak less about COVID-related situations in the presence of other adults. Third, play games with the child (hide and seek, running around, and riding a tricycle).”
Families in Early Childhood Research during the COVID-19 Pandemic:
“Researchers identified that parents are more engaged in their children’s schooling and schoolwork during the COVID-19 pandemic. Active parental involvement could reduce children’s negative learning behaviors such as inattention, procrastination, and hyperactivity…The Guttman Scale questionnaire was used as the research instrument in Hapsari et al.’s study, which shows that parental involvement in ECE during the pandemic is accomplished through the following strategies: nurturing, two-way communication, home learning strategies, and decision making.”
“Challenges in the pandemic were worsening the inequalities in ECE access and opportunities by other factors such as race, culture, language, technical literacy, family background, and economic status, which would widen the gaps in learning outcomes between privileged and underprivileged children. For example, online learning requires consistent internet connectivity even in rural areas, and underprivileged children may lack technical devices.”
Additional pressures arise when “families may meet various challenges such as emotional concerns, loss of jobs, economic difficulties, dual job problems, and pregnancy in difficult times. In addition, the pandemic has disrupted parenting practices and family routines and thus affected children’s health and development. Therefore, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has proposed a list of strategies to support families throughout childhood, such as offering additional services (e.g. in-home support, psychosocial assistance, basic material needs, health screenings), financial resources to reduce their burdens, and digital tools to enhance family functioning service delivery…. However, it remains to be studied how preschools or other social organizations can provide offline activities to support disadvantaged families in facilitating children’s home-schooling during the pandemic.”
The study recommends further research “to determine whether gender and socioeconomic status (SES) and gender affect young children’s learning and development in the pandemic” as “compared to men, women cared for children much more during the pandemic”. Another potential research direction is “in teachers’ IT skills required for online instruction”, and “limited research has been conducted to compare the quality of online education in developed countries with that in developing countries during COVID-19”. In relation to physical activity, the study found that most studies combine physical activity, sleep, and screen time to conduct research. “Given the benefits of exercise to children’s health, physical activity is ultimately classified as a developing research topic. This topic is also closely related to outdoor learning among young children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides, children’s physical health, more attention should be paid to children’s mental health and moral development such as anti-bias education in the early years.”