Ongoing effects of pandemic-imposed learning disruption on student attitudes

TL;DR

This study examines how pandemic-related remote learning impacted Finnish first-year physics students' attitudes towards physics, revealing a decline during remote learning and partial recovery after contact teaching resumed.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence of the negative effects of pandemic-imposed remote learning on student attitudes towards physics and tracks their partial recovery post-pandemic.

Findings

Remote learning during the pandemic lowered students' expert-like attitudes.

Attitudes showed moderate improvement after resumption of contact teaching.

Pre-pandemic remote learning experience correlated with lower initial attitudes.

Abstract

We present a study on the development of Finnish first-year physics majors' attitudes towards physics, as measured by the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey, before, during and after the period of mandatory remote learning due to the coronavirus pandemic. We find that in the years before the pandemic, these attitudes did not change, but the period of extended remote learning due to the pandemic had a negative effect on the students' expert-like views. Similarly, the students who experienced the remote learning period in high school displayed a lower level of expert-like thinking as they entered university. As contact teaching resumed, moderate positive gains were seen, bridging some but not all of the gap in student attitudes left by the pandemic.