Abstract:

During the past year, the world-wide pandemic has laid bare a number of social, economic, and educational issues that have been laying just below the surface of our consciousness. One such issue is the social emotional well-being of our students. One of our teacher students wrote, “I am afraid that parents are angry with teachers and are saying that we are lazy, because we do not want to put the health of our families at risk.” Most of our MED students are teachers and all of our undergraduate students will be teachers. This study attempts to answer the research question: During the pandemic, how has forced online learning effected the social emotional growth of university students? The professors in this have attempted to engage students in positive ways in our online courses employing student-centered and multimedia techniques to create a positive and supportive environment for students. We have attempted to have students actively interact with the curriculum, the professor, and each other in every class and have attempted to minimize lecturing. The professors have also given positive feedback to students on a regular basis. In this action research study, professors have worked with students to keep them engaged in their learning. The professors collected data through the means of a student social emotional survey, classroom observations, and through recommendations from the students. The results from student discussions, Likert-scale surveys, recommendations, and professor observations have been very promising. Students have indicated that the process of completely changing their traditional classes to remote learning has had a negative impact on their social emotional growth and on their learning. Students have appreciated and been encouraged by the efforts of their instructors in this study who have made an effort to help students maintain a social aspect to their online classes. In these circumstances, it appears, more than ever, professors should actively engage their students in their learning to help them maintain a strong and positive social emotional frame.

Keywords:

social emotional growth, self-management, self-awareness, decision-making, social awareness, relationship building