Emotional Well-Being, Cognitive Load and Academic Attainment

A study on the blended learning effects on students majoring in preschool education in the post-pandemic era: An example of a research-method course in a Chinese university

The world has gradually entered the post-pandemic era. Although the pandemic has been slowing down, it still has a strong impact on the education scene. Thus, how to provide students with an effective and flexible learning style is currently an important educational issue. This study focused on the implementation of effective teaching to improve the learning effects based on these special circumstances. To ensure a realistic teaching situation, an experiment of blended learning was conducted in a university in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China for a short-term study, based on the consideration of pandemic supervision and control. In this experiment, a single-group quasi-experimental design method, using the extended O-PIRTATD/S model, was adopted in a research-method course designed for students majoring in preschool education. This research-method course was an 8-week flipped course, where the first 4 weeks were online teaching and the last 4 weeks were taught offline, thus combining as a blended learning course. A total of 115 active participants were recruited for this study. Based on the theoretical framework of the belief-action-outcome (BAO) model, five research hypotheses were proposed with the aim of constructing a learning behavior pattern based on cognitive beliefs which could be verified by structural equation modeling. The results of the study were concluded as follows: 1. Academic self-efficacy had a positive impact on learning engagement, but had a negative impact on cognitive load; 2. Cognitive load did not have a significant impact on learning engagement; 3. Learning engagement had a positive impact on the enhancement of academic self-confidence; and 4. Cognitive load had a negative impact on the enhancement of academic self-confidence.

Negative emotions, cognitive load, acceptance, and self-perceived learning outcome in emergency remote education during COVID-19

Learning related emotions (LREs) are determinant for students' achievement both in face-to-face and online education. Research has also shown that LREs tend to affect technology acceptance which in turn affects learning outcomes as well. Today though, the negative psychological impact of the COVID-19 crisis and the sudden transmission to obligatory remote education might yield different functions of emotions and acceptance on learning outcomes. In this context, the current study seeks to model the relations between students' negative emotions, acceptance of (emergency) remote education, and self-perceived knowledge improvement. The suggested model was examined and validated on 116 university students that attended fully remote courses in Greece during the COVID-19 crisis. The results suggested that negative emotions of boredom and cognitive load are significant predictors of students' acceptance of remote learning components: i) online attending a lecture, ii) online communicating with professor, and iii) online collaborating with peers. Anxiety directly affected perceived knowledge improvement, boredom, and cognitive load; Boredom was also affected by cognitive load. In addition, acceptance of remote learning components indirectly affected perceived knowledge improvement mediated by learnability. Boredom was the strongest predictor of online attending a lecture and online collaborating with peers, while online communication with professor was the strongest predictor of learnability. The contribution of this study and the structural findings are further discussed in the paper.

Reimagining medical education for primary care in the time of COVID-19: a world view

This article sets out to highlight the challenges and opportunities for medical education in primary care realised during the COVID-19 pandemic and now being enacted globally. The themes were originally presented during a webinar involving educationalists from around the world and are subsequently discussed by members of the WONCA working party for education. The article recognises the importance of utilising diversity, addressing inequity and responding to the priority health needs of the community through socially accountable practice. The well-being of educators and learners is identified as priority in response to the ongoing global pandemic. Finally, we imagine a new era for medical education drawing on global connection and shared resources to create a strong community of practice.