Abstract
The spring phase of the pandemic made the education of adolescents with specific learning difficulties (SpLD) challenging. In the present study, which included 122 adolescents with SpLD (50% from Slovenia, 50% from Germany), we investigated how Slovenian and German adolescents with SpLD perceived and solved some of the challenges of distance learning. The study data were collected with two online questionnaires (in Slovenian and German, respectively). Slovenian adolescents were statistically significantly more likely than German adolescents to mention problems with attention, the importance of multisensory learning, and the importance of being able to choose the time to learn, as well as psychosomatic problems. Slovenian adolescents had more experiences with praise from teachers during the pandemic and they also mentioned more issues with the transition to distance learning and the use of information and communication technology. Younger adolescents had more parental help. Male adolescents were more likely to report that they did not have the right spatial conditions for learning. German adolescents spent more time chatting on social media and experienced less support for learning. Female adolescents were more likely to express fear of the pandemic and a lack of learning support, while male adolescents across the sample missed their peers more. Most of the respondents came from families in which the pandemic did not cause serious material and spatial problems, but German adolescents were statistically significantly less likely to feel these consequences. According to the respondents, the spatial and material conditions were similar in both countries.
Highlights
The transition of education from the classroom to the home environment during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 brought many changes that we could not even have imagined in the past (Bubb et al, 2020)
Adolescents with specific learning difficulties (SpLD) belong to the at-risk group of adolescents who might have more pronounced problems in distance learning and social integration compared to their peers
We wanted to investigate the opinions of Slovenian and German adolescents about how they perceive themselves and their educational needs, how they perceive the consequences of distance learning in the educational and socio-emotional domain, and what material and spatial conditions they had at the time of the pandemic
Summary
The transition of education from the classroom to the home environment during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 brought many changes that we could not even have imagined in the past (Bubb et al, 2020). In Germany, distance learning was a significant challenge for students, teachers and parents, as attempts to continue distance learning as smoothly as possible with digital tools failed (Blume, 2020). 90% of German adolescents own a smartphone (the proportion of younger adolescents with a smartphone ranges from 25% to 67%), this does not mean that they are proficient in ICT for distance learning, as they mainly used technology for leisure activities before the pandemic (Feierabend et al, 2018 cited in Blume, 2020). 20% of teachers were very well trained for distance learning (Kuralt, 2020)
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