Jurnal Inter Stress Akademik During Pandemic PDF
Jurnal Inter Stress Akademik During Pandemic PDF
Jurnal Inter Stress Akademik During Pandemic PDF
https://www.emerald.com/insight/2046-3162.htm
Introduction
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) [1] is a health crisis that has completely changed the
lives and perspectives of all people. The COVID-19 was first identified in December 2019 in
Wuhan, the capital of China’s Hubei province. Since then, it has spread globally resulting in
the ongoing 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic (Hui et al., 2020, p. 264) (as seen in Ilmiyah and
Setiawan, 2020). The government around the world has closed all the educational institutions,
to control the spread of disease, considering the safety of students, educators and all
associated people. There is a severe short-term disruption that has been felt by families across
the globe. Home education has brought a lot of shocks not only to students but also to their Asian Education and Development
Studies
parents’ productivity (Burges and Sievertsen, 2020). As now teaching has moved from © Emerald Publishing Limited
2046-3162
physical to virtual classrooms at “untested and unprecedented” level (Burges and Sievertsen, DOI 10.1108/AEDS-05-2020-0097
AEDS 2020), parents have to spend more time monitoring their children and motivating them to
continue education. Across the globe, this closure is impacting more than 90% of the world’s
student population, of which India itself is observing 34,337,594 affected learners (this
number only includes learners enrolled in tertiary education in Indian universities, as on May
03, 2020) [2].
Globally over 1.2bn children are affected due to COVID-19 and are currently taking
education remotely using digital platforms. To help institutions overcome this unexpected
crisis, UNESCO is working with ministries of education across nations to ensure continued
learning of students using different alternative channels and supporting them in various
ways by technical assistance, selection of digital learning tools, arranging webinars and
creation of national learning platforms [3]. A report by the World Economic Forum (Li and
Lalani, 2020) observed that online learning in today’s time has increased students’ retention
and grasping information at a faster pace. Many educational institutions, government
organizations and technology-led start-ups have introduced online courses (many of which
are free and some have a very minimal fee) which is helping students and educators to
temporarily cope with stress which is evolving due to lockdown and shutdown of all
workspaces. One such is Byju’s, a Bangalore, India–based digital educational platform
founded and started by ByjuRaveendran, who has announced to give free access to children
from its learning app (Lewis, 2020) [4].
Researchers, educators across the globe are trying their best to come up with more
enhanced learning techniques based on the current situation, one of its types is designed by
Ilmiyah and Setiawan (2020) which is a “student worksheet”, to guide distance learning based
on scientific literacy indicators in the COVID-19 topic. Researchers in the past have also
employed self-efficacy instruments in various academic and technology-related courses and
observed that it has a positive influence on students’ achievement and persistence in specific
tasks (Puzziferro, 2008, p. 73). A report by Bullen (1990) quoted that Utopian possibilities of
classroom instructions using technology-based instruction have further observed distance
learning’s practical implications as a supplement to enhance learning (p. 30) (seen in Phipps
and Merisotis, 1999). Some have even observed that academic leaders report that their
faculties “accept the value and legitimacy of online education” (Allen and Seaman, 2016).
Imparting education using online mode has started with the advent of the Internet since
the 1990s. Initially, the aim was to test the acquisition of transferable skills in communication
and information technology (using computer-aided learning) (Volery and Lord, 2000).
E-learning, online learning, web-based learning, internet-based learning or computer-assisted
learning are terms that are interchangeably used for this type of learning ways (Ruiz et al.,
2006). The rapid expansion and use of the Internet and easily available platforms have made
educational institutions reaching out and delivering education to students spread
geographically. Online learning, distance education and remote learning is nothing new to
us. The only difference is now it has taken the only source of education due to the social
distancing and nationwide lockdown amidst COVID-19 pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic is accompanied with strictly following isolation measures that
have led learners and educators to confine at their homes; a disturbing social life and learning
at isolation has made it stressful for students and educators. The mere essence of group
learning, group classroom activities are being missed by both educators and students. All this
has led to an experience of stress by both students and educators. Low physical activity and
spending all time at home are creating its negative impact, which all of us are trying to
overcome using a lot of other activities to cope with this condition.
Academic stress emerges out from experiencing stress due to factors such as scholarship
requirements, family-related pressures, competition in the class and course-related stress and
financial burdens, (Misra and Castillo, 2004, p. 133) experienced by students. For some
students, it can also be due to migrating at different places, learning different cultural values
and language in addition to getting adjusted to academic requirements (Mori, 2000; Online
Essandoh, 1995). Students always live under the pressure to perform better than their peers. education
They are continuously compared with siblings and other children/kids of their age by their
parents, teachers, friends, etc. This always leads to a situation making these children
during
confused and under constant pressure to perform better, achieve better grades, excel well in COVID-19
extracurricular activities, take up hobby classes and what not. Many times, it has been
observed that parents put these undue pressures to satisfy their unmet needs which they
were not able to fulfill due to personal reasons. Teens nowadays experience peer pressure of
involving themselves in many activities apart from academic involvement, so that their peers
can welcome them in their groups. As students experience a high level of stress arising from
unprecedented academic pressure, most of them report experiencing low self-esteem, a poor
concentration that has its impact on their academic performance. The perception of academic
stress is creating a very negative impact on their well-being, their decision to choose career
options, sleeping difficulties, psychosomatic complaints, worrying about future, comorbid
conditions like anxiety and depression, inability to manage course workload, etc. (Bedewy
and Gabriel, 2015; Acharya, 2003; Iqbal et al., 2015). The perception of the academic stress
scale used in this study was developed on 100 students (men and women) with the age range
of 19–26 yrs, pursuing the third year in educational psychology at Tanta University, Egypt.
This scale overall observed students’ confidence in their academic performance and their
ability to succeed academically.
Emotional intelligence is an emerging topic for educational, psychological and
management studies. The concept is rooted in the understanding of emotions of self,
helping oneself to direct the emotional reactions and labeling the experiences of different
emotions and helping others to understand and help people to channelize their emotions
(Bliss, 2005). It also refers to tackling emotional upsets, adapting ways and capacity to avoid
emotional exhaustion such as stress, emotional self-control, burnout and learning to avoid the
negativity of emotions and handling egoism (Sala, 2002; Chandra and Mathur, 2016, p. 231).
The emotional intelligence scale used in this study was developed by Hyde et al. (2002), first
administered on a sample of 200 Indian executives. The scale originally had 106 items, but
after statistical analysis, only 34 items were included in the final version. The scores assess
individuals on “above average emotionally intelligent”, “below average emotionally
intelligent” and “average emotionally intelligent” (Suleman et al., 2019; Hyde et al., 2002).
During their elementary years of education, students were given a lot of exercises which helps
them to understand and become aware of their own emotions and practical applications
which help them to channelize their emotions in more constructive ways. Students are
observed to practice self-awareness, indulging in value-driven activities, empathy and
assertive and altruistic work behavior. A lot of academic activities like group projects, team
activities, role plays, etc. help them to develop all these along with their academic
achievement.
Methodology
Sample, procedure, and data collection
Using a purposive sampling technique (Kothari, 2009), the researcher approached a large
number of a heterogeneous group of students pursuing graduation and post-graduation from
different management schools in India. An email explaining the objective of the study was
sent to each prospective applicant; after seeking their willingness to participate, the online
questionnaire was shared with them. However, after repeated follow-ups, 94 students have
responded with their filled responses and were included in the study. A telephonic discussion
was also carried out by researchers with respondents to discuss various ways adopted by
them to cope with academic stress. The data were collected during the lockdown in India
(April–May 2020).
Results
This section depicts the results of the statistical analysis carried out on the collected data.
Table 1 represents the demographic profile of respondents in proportion to male (n 5 56)
(56.4%) and female (n 5 44) (43.6%) with age ranging from 18 to 24 years (mean 5 21 years);
pursuing undergraduation (n 5 79) (84%), postgraduation (n 5 15) (16%) and were
representing different Indian regions as eastern (n 5 4) (4.3%), western (n 5 71) (75.5%),
northern (n 5 18) (19.1%) and southern (n 5 1) (1.1%) regions. The students were asked
about other variables, such as (1) history of their academic failure, wherein 85.1% of students
responded with “never”, while 14.9% responded with experience of failing academically more
than once. While the response on (2) satisfaction with the current online learning
environment, it was observed that 58.5% of students have responded with their
dissatisfaction and 41.5% of students have responded with their satisfaction with the
current online learning environment. Furthermore, when asked about their satisfaction with
the current home environment, 85.1% of students responded with their satisfaction, while Online
14.9% responded with dissatisfaction with the current home environment. education
Table 2 represents the descriptive analysis on both the scales, for the analysis of PAS it was
observed that the values for mean 5 58.2, median 5 57.0, SD 5 6.88, skewness 5 0.036112
during
and kurtosis value was observed to be 0.111184. For the EIS scale, the calculated values were COVID-19
mean 5 113.43, median 5 113, SD 5 11.76, skewness 5 0.180648, and kurtosis value was
observed to be 0.138646.
Table 3 represents the chi-square value to find out the effect and the differences of history
of academic failure (never failed or failed more than once) on male and female students. It
was observed that overall male students have reported a high score (107.3) for the factor
“failed in the past more than once” compared with female students (135.2), whereas for the
factor “never failed”, female students were observed to scored higher (23.1) compared with
their counterparts (19.0). The calculated chi-square value was observed to be X2
(1, N 5 94) 5 285.53, p 5 0.00001 (Sig. p < 0.5), whereas the chi-square statistic with
Yates correction was observed to be X2 (1, N 5 94) 5 284.79, p 5 0.00001 (Sig. p < 0.5).
Table 4 represents the chi-square analysis of the factor “satisfaction with the current
online learning environment” on male and female students. It was observed that overall male
Frequency count 94 94
Mean 3.276 3.904
Standard deviation (SD) 1.120 0.855
Standard error 0.061 0.232 Table 2.
Skewness 0.71 0.582 Analysis of descriptive
Kurtosis 2.960 3.153 statistics (N 5 94)
Table 6.
Chi-square analyses on Criterion groups Category 1 undergraduate Category 2 post-graduate Marginal row totals
PAS scale for the
factors, gender and Group 1 (male) 2462 (2469.5) [0.02] 482 (474.5) [0.12] 2944
pursuing Group 2 (female) 2113 (2105.5) [0.03] 397 (404.5) [0.14] 2510
education (N 5 94) Marginal column totals 4575 879 5454 (Grand Total)
Discussions of the analyzed data Online
The current lives of all students, educators and families have observed a complete disruption education
due to nationwide lockdown and social distancing as a preventive precautionary measure
taken for COVID-19. This has made everyone stay away from the place where they used to
during
spend a maximum of their time (viz. schools, colleges, workplaces). Students are terribly COVID-19
missing their schools, college campuses, their friends, visiting the library, working in
laboratories, working in group assignments projects, etc. Though in earlier times, these would
have sounded nothing special, today (with the current situation) this reminds students of their
good old times. Some researchers concluded that distance education was observed as better
than campus-based education and came across as positive student–faculty attitudes (Bullen,
1990, p. 112). While some scholars have observed that “students always experience academic
pressure as the biggest stress in their lives” (China Youth Social Service Center, 2008) and
most of them experience stress related to pressure from transitional examinations, study
workload (Liu and Tein, 2005; Zhang et al., 2001; Li and Zhang, 2008; as seen in Truc et al.,
2015, para. 2, p. 3), not able to achieve better in exams and not able to live up to parents and
teachers’ expectations. And all these lead to experiencing feelings of stress and burnout
among students.
As a precautionary and only source of measure to break the chain of COVID-19 pandemic,
the government had to implement sudden lockdown and compulsory social distancing
among people. This has led to another scenario wherein authorities are required to take
immediate action to continue educating and evaluating students using virtual or online mode,
taking special care that all this should not have any adverse impact on their studies. Many
countries are trying to quickly provide access to digital learning content using multiple
sources [5], however, the challenges emerging out of this new arrangement (and the only
source as of now) has led educators to come up with more impactful online education. The
classes now are being conducted using digital platforms, some have canceled exams, some
have postponed and many institutions have adopted other alternate ways to evaluate
students. Some students’ careers might benefit from this disruption, but many bright and
deserving students are finding it difficult to miss an opportunity to showcase their
knowledge and score better grades through their performance in exams. All this has also
presented us with a newer and alternate perception of our education system. But this also
comes with a challenge that how the switch off from digital learning to traditional classroom
learning will take place once the lives will get back as earlier. This will have a tremendous
impact on all of us. Teachers, educators have more challenges; they need to switch playing a
role from educator to intellect-on-stage mentor.
Going ahead, a further step was taken to understand the unique coping strategies adopted
by students; a telephonic conversation was carried out on randomly selected 15 respondents,
where they shared how they are coping with the academic stress emerging out of the current
scenario. Some respondents narrated that they are trying to get focus using other alternate
ways by engaging themselves to take up some online courses (to get more and diverse
technical skills), “my writing skills are improving, I am learning digital marketing and I know
this will be very helpful for my next academic section”, said one student who has planned to
take up admission for MBA in next academic year. “I am helping my father updating the
software on payments and finishing off the entry of pending vouchers, helping him
Table 7.
Criterion groups Category 1 undergraduate Category 2 post-graduate Marginal row totals Chi-square analyses on
emotional intelligence
Group 1 (male) 5031 (5102.8) [1.01] 1012 (940.2) [5.48] 6043 scale for the factors,
Group 2 (female) 3973 (3901.2) [1.32] 647 (718.8) [7.17] 4620 gender and pursuing
Marginal column totals 9004 1656 10663 (Grand total) education (N 5 94)
AEDS scheduling zoom calls with NGO regarding food donation drive upcoming for next week,”
said another student who was helping her father in his family business. Some have said they
are taking a lot of creative activities and started to learn new hobbies (like music, painting,
scripting, cooking, etc.), “my mother as happy as I am now helping her doing the household
chores and now she has less complaint about me”, said another student as she has started
helping her mother in household chores, teaching math to his younger sibling. Some have
even started a voluntary internship (working from home) with firms. “I improved my
listening and learning skills, I learned to patiently listen to my mentor and how the customer
problems are addressed. As the internship is online and not face to face, it takes time to
comprehend things. The internship starts at 10.00 am, but because there is no one to
supervise, I sometimes start late, but I am enjoying my work”, said another student. All these
activities (but not limited to)are giving them exposure to the world of work but also giving a
sense of achievement and being a part of an organization that in itself is motivating for many
students and is helping them increase their productivity. In another way, this can be referred
to as using their emotional intelligence and diverting boredom and depressive thoughts
students were trying to cope with the current pandemic situation. Some students even said
that they were not able to save themselves and got lured with the Internet and end up
spending most of their time on social media, e-connecting with others, which according to
them is another way to cope with academic stress.
Conclusion
Students all over the globe experience stress arising out of many academic as well as
nonacademic aspects such as environmental, socio-cultural and psychological factors. Stress
arises in a way to perform better than peers, to live up to the expectations of parents, teachers,
to score better grades which will help to get a dream job. All these put heavy pressure on
students leading to a feeling of burnout arising from academic stress, while emotional
development starts right from childhood and it affects children in many ways, developing ego
concept and his/her emotional and social development. Children also develop emotional
intelligence while observing their environment, teachers, peers, parents, siblings and
developing an attachment with them (Suess et al., 1992). But what is missing which probably
we have realized while going through the current situation, is that from now onwards, we
need to teach our children to develop their emotional intelligence following social distancing
and keeping away from each other physically, but not psychologically. With the
advancement in the field of information technology, this can be practiced. It was observed
that respondents were able to “reduce negative and unexpected emotional outbursts”
(Uzzaman and Karim, 2017) and were able to divert it into different activities knowingly or
unknowingly, which is one of the coping strategies adopted by students.
Limitations:
This study was conducted on a smaller sample of students pursuing an undergraduate and
post-graduate degree in management from two cities of India, using limited variables and
tools, and hence the results cannot be generalized to a larger population.
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Corresponding author
Yamini Chandra can be contacted at: yaminichandra23@gmail.com
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