The worldwide pandemic and national crisis at hand has forced schools all across the country to completely transition over to remote learning. Considering this has been going on for 8 months now, and it doesn’t seem like there is any clear end, or switch back to relative normalcy, in sight, it is an environment students and teachers everywhere are learning to adapt to more every day.
The journal article entitled “Learning math by hand: The neural effects of gesture-based instruction in 8 year old children” looks at the effect of producing gesture and how that facilitates learning in young children. Wakefield et al examined the effectiveness of motor-based learning by comparing active speech and gesture learning method to a passive speech-alone method. fMRI was used to measure neural patterns between the two groups of children, and they ultimately discovered children that employed speech and gesture method showed increased activation in several more neural areas than speech-alone. Multiple previous literature supports the hypothesis that activation in motor areas by some stimulus show increased effects in learning and memory than passive forms of learning.
Given these findings, I wondered how this would translate towards today’s world, and the current state of national education, mainly, remote learning. A NPR article published on October 9, 2020, takes a look at the massive drop in public school enrollment, particularly in kindergarten and pre-k classes. A sample taken resulted in a 16% drop from the previous year. Less well off areas already get less funding from their property taxes so when their main source of income, state aid on a per-student basis, is being reduced, this may hold severe consequences for an already-inequitable system. With public school enrollment dropping, it begs the question, where are these children going and why are they dropping?
NPR takes a look at Jessica Diaz in Tampa, Florida and how her family is dealing. "I don't think [virtual school] is a sustainable option for our family at this point," she told NPR. "For all of the burden of constant emailing, changes in schedules, assignments and submissions, etc., we feel the content of the education that is being delivered is far below our girls' capabilities and not worth the trouble at this point." She went on to say she plans to pull her kids out and start homeschooling instead.
All things considered, it can be reasonably concluded that children are insufficiently getting the education through a screen compared to in person classes. If enrollment continues to drop, and parents look to other means of education instead, it could hold major implications for the public school system.
Kamenetz, Anya, et al. “Enrollment Is Dropping In Public Schools Around the Country.” NPR, NPR, 9 Oct. 2020, www.npr.org/2020/10/09/920316481/enrollment-is-dropping-in-public-schools-around-the-country.
Wakefield, Elizabeth M., et al. “Learning Math by Hand: The Neural Effects of Gesture-Based Instruction in 8-Year-Old Children.” Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics. The Psychonomic Society, Inc, 2019.
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