Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Teachers’ Health: Lessons for Improving Distance Education

Authors

  • Iryna Mosiakova Children and youth creativity center "Shevchenkivets"
  • Olena Shcherbakova Institute of Children and Adolescents Health Care of the Academy of Medical Sciences
  • Sergiy Gurov Bogdan Khmelnitsky Melitopol state pedagogical university
  • Heorgii Danylenko Institute of Children and Adolescents Health Care of the Academy of Medical Sciences
  • Svitlana Podplota Bogdan Khmelnitsky Melitopol State Pedagogical University
  • Lyudmyla Moskalyova Bogdan Khmelnitsky Melitopol state pedagogical university

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18662/po/13.4/508

Keywords:

COVID-19, pandemic, anxiety, risk, teachers, students

Abstract

The transition to distance education has led to deterioration in the health of teachers and students. The purpose of the study was to identify controlled factors of the educational environment, the impact of which in an emergency situation due to a pandemic on infectious disease can be influenced by the administration of general secondary education institutions. Material and methods: 339 teachers and 828 parents of general secondary schools of Mykolaiv region (Ukraine) took part in research from May to June 2021. The research tool was a self-administered survey questionnaire.The study found that social networks were the leading source of information on the COVID-19 pandemic situation for educators. The vast majority of educators indicated that they follow certain rules of conduct in order not to get sick. Most respondents admitted that they experienced weakness, mood swings, depressed thoughts, anxiety and tension due to the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic. Mostly more fatigue, hypodynamics and impaired vision were considered by teachers as manifestations of deteriorating physical condition. Manifestations of psychological deterioration, according to teachers, were greater aggression, agitation, signs of depression and emotional instability. The key factors in preventing the deterioration of teachers’ health in the event of an infectious disease pandemic, which can be influenced by the administration of general secondary education institutions, include: reducing the workload of teachers during distance education; conducting professionally oriented education of teachers in the field of health technologies; increasing the level of information competence of teachers; improving the technological base of schools for distance learning.

Author Biographies

Iryna Mosiakova, Children and youth creativity center "Shevchenkivets"

PhD (Pedagogy)

Olena Shcherbakova, Institute of Children and Adolescents Health Care of the Academy of Medical Sciences

Doctor of Psychological Sciences

Sergiy Gurov, Bogdan Khmelnitsky Melitopol state pedagogical university

Ph.D (Pedagogy), Associate Professor

Heorgii Danylenko, Institute of Children and Adolescents Health Care of the Academy of Medical Sciences

Doctor of Medicine, Professor

Lyudmyla Moskalyova, Bogdan Khmelnitsky Melitopol state pedagogical university

Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor 

References

Alasoluyi, O.E. (2021). Teachers’ Awareness and Competence in the Switch from Classroom-Based to Online Teaching During COVID-19 Pandemic in Lagos, Nigeria. Interdisciplinary Journal of Education Research, 3(2), 23-31. https://doi.org/10.51986/ijer-2021.vol3.02.03

Belousova, N.A., Dolgov, V.I., & Maltsev, V.P. (2019). Neurodynamic Features of Elderly Teachers as Indicators of Professional Performance. Advances in Health Sciences Research. International Conference on Health and Well-Being in Modern Society, 16, 65-68. https://dx.doi.org/10.2991/ichw-19.2019.16

Bozkurt, A., & Sharma, R.C. (2020). Emergency Remote Teaching in a Time of Global Crisis Due to CoronaVirus Pandemic. Asian Journal of Distance Education, 15(1).

Carrillo, C., & Flores, M.A. (2020). COVID-19 and teacher education: a literature review of online teaching and learning practices. European Journal of Teacher Education, 43(4), 466-487. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2020.1821184

Chotirmall, S.H., Leither, L.M., Coruh, B., et al. (2021). Update in COVID-19 2020. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 203, 12-15. https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.202102-0415UP

COVID-19 Vaccines for Teachers, School Staff, and Childcare Workers. 2021. Accessed 21 July 2021. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/recommendations/specific-groups/teachers-childcare.html

Dolgova, V.I., & Mamylina, N.V. (2018). Psychophysiological Monitoring of the State of the Organism in Elderly Female Teachers. Adv Gerontol, 8, 250–255. https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079057018030049

Högberg, B. (2021). Educational stressors and secular trends in school stress and mental health problems in adolescents. Social Science & Medicine, 270, 113616. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113616

Jerrim, J., & Sims, S. (2021). When is high workload bad for teacher wellbeing? Accounting for the non-linear contribution of specific teaching tasks. Teaching and Teacher Education, 105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2021.103395

Junker, R., Donker, M.H., & Mainhard, T. (2021). Potential classroom stressors of teachers: An audiovisual and physiological approach. Learning and Instruction, 75, 101495. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2021.101495

Katz, R., Jung, J., & Callorda, F. (2020). Can digitization mitigate the economic damage of a pandemic? Evidence from SARS. Telecommunications Policy, 44(10), 102044. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2020.102044

Killeen, G.F., & Kiware, S.S. (2020). Why lockdown? Why national unity? Why global solidarity? Simplified arithmetic tools for decision-makers, health professionals, journalists and the general public to explore containment options for the 2019 novel coronavirus. Infectious Disease Modelling, 5, 442-458. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.idm.2020.06.006

Löfstedt, P., García-Moya, I., Corell, M., et al. (2020). School satisfaction and school pressure in the WHO European region and north America: an analysis of time trends (2002-2018) and patterns of Co-occurrence in 32 countries. Journal of Adolescent Health, 66(6), 59-69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.03.007

Mofijur, M., Rizwanul Fattah, I.M., Asraful Alam Md, et al. (2021). Impact of COVID-19 on the social, economic, environmental and energy domains: Lessons learnt from a global pandemic. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 26, 343-359. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2020.10.016

Oduro, B., & Magagula, V.M. (2021). COVID-19 intervention models: An initial aggressive treatment strategy for controlling the infection. Infectious Disease Modelling, 6, 351-361. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.idm.2021.01.007

Prem, K., Liu, Y., Russell, T.W., et al. (2020). The effect of control strategies to reduce social mixing on outcomes of the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan, China: a modelling study. Lancet Public Health, 5(5), E261-E270. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30073-6

Sarai Racey, C., Donken, R., Porter, I. et al. (2021). Intentions of public school teachers in British Columbia, Canada to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Vaccine, X8, 100106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvacx.2021.100106

Shipton, D., McCartney, G. & McMaster, R. (2021). Population health post-pandemic: critiquing the economic approach to recovery. Public Health in Practice, 2, 100098. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhip.2021.100098

Torliński, T., Rakasz, L., Wysota, B., Czyż, M., & Snelson, C. (2020). An interdisciplinary approach to the management of critically ill patients during covid-19 pandemic; an experience of a university hospital in England. Wiadomosci lekarskie, 73(7), 1576–1579.

Usherwood, T., LaJoie, Z., & Srivastava, V. (2021). A model and predictions for COVID-19 considering population behavior and vaccination. Sci Rep, 11, 12051. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-91514-7

Yang, R., You, X., Zhang, Y., Lian, L. & Feng, W. (2019). Teachers’ mental health becoming worse: The case of China. International Journal of Educational Development, 70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2019.102077

Downloads

Published

2022-11-29

How to Cite

Mosiakova, I., Shcherbakova, O., Gurov, S., Danylenko, H. ., Podplota, S., & Moskalyova, L. (2022). Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Teachers’ Health: Lessons for Improving Distance Education. Postmodern Openings, 13(4), 101-112. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/13.4/508

Issue

Section

Network Society