The educational effects of emergency remote teaching practices—The case of covid-19 school closure in Italy

Abstract

The disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic generated an unprecedented situation, in which digital learning, in the form of Emergency Remote Teaching, was the only possible form of schooling. Italy soon decided to close schools as a measure to counter the spread of the virus. Although the Ministry of Education suggested general guidelines, school principals and teachers were autonomous in deciding how to best organise their educational activities. The first objective of our study is to identify subgroups of teachers, based on the use of digital tools during the Covid-19 emergency. Secondly, we explore how subgroups differ in terms of teachers’ satisfaction and students’ performance. To this end, we integrate information from an ad hoc survey completed by 1,407 primary and lower secondary teachers in Italy, with the students’ standardised test scores provided by INVALSI. Data have been analysed through a 3-step latent class analysis. The findings reveal that one third of the teachers showed resistance to the use of digital technologies and focused mainly on asynchronous teaching. Teachers that used a broader set of digital instruments, instead, were more satisfied with their teaching practices. A more articulated use of technology for teaching activities was also positively associated with higher students’ performance in 2021.