紐時賞析／新冠肺炎疫情影響 學生損失三分之一學年學習量

Third of School Year Lost, Study of Pandemic Finds

全球研究：疫情讓學生損失三分之一學年

Children experienced learning deficits during the COVID pandemic that amounted to about one-third of a school year’s worth of knowledge and skills, according to a new global analysis, and had not recovered from those losses more than two years later.

一項新的全球研究指出，新冠疫情期間，學童經歷學習損失，相當於大約三分之一學年的知識與技能，且兩年多後的現在，仍無法彌補這些損失。

Learning delays and regressions were most severe in developing countries and among students from low-income backgrounds, researchers said, worsening existing disparities and threatening to follow children into higher education and the workforce.

研究人員指，來自發展中國家與低收入家庭學生，面臨最嚴重學習落後與損失問題，導致現存社會不平等加劇，且恐持續影響這些學生至高等教育甚至職場階段。

The analysis, published in the journal Nature Human Behavior and drawing on data from 15 countries, provided the most comprehensive account to date of the academic hardships wrought by the pandemic. The findings suggest that the challenges of remote learning — coupled with other stressors that plagued children and families throughout the pandemic — were not rectified when school doors reopened.

這項分析研究刊登於「自然人類行為」科學期刊，依據15個國家的資料，為疫情造成的學習困境提供至今最全面的報告。研究顯示，遠距學習的挑戰，加上疫情期間孩子與家庭蒙受的其他壓力，導致的學習損失在校門重開之後也無法彌補。

“In order to recover what was lost, we have to be doing more than just getting back to normal,” said Bastian Betthäuser, a researcher at the Center for Research on Social Inequalities at Sciences Po in Paris, who was a co-author on the review. He urged officials worldwide to provide intensive summer programs and tutoring initiatives that target poorer students who fell furthest behind.

研究主要作者之一、法國「巴黎政治學院」社會不平等研究中心研究員貝特豪瑟說：「若要彌補損失，我們需做得比回歸正常更多。」他籲各國針對學習落後狀況最嚴重的貧窮學生提供暑期密集課程，制定輔導計畫。

In the United States, one study showed that the average public elementary or middle school student lost the equivalent of a half-year of learning in math, and 6% of students were in districts that lost more than a full year. Standardized math test scores in 2022, when compared with those in 2019, showed the largest drop ever recorded in the three decades since the exam was first administered.

在美國，一項研究顯示，一般的公立小學或中學學生在數學領域損失了約半年的學習量，而6%學生所處的學區讓他們損失超過一整年的學習量。學生在2022年的數學普考成績大幅低於2019年的成績，是該考試舉辦30年來的最大退步幅度。

The findings challenge the perceptions of many parents, almost half of whom said in 2022 surveys that they did not believe their children had suffered any achievement loss during the pandemic, and only 9% of whom expressed concern about whether their children would catch up.

這項發現顛覆了許多家長的認知，根據2022年民調，近半數受訪家長不認為孩子的學習因疫情受到損失，只有9%的家長擔心他們的小孩是否能趕上。

A separate review of test scores from 2.1 million students in the United States highlighted the impacts of economic disparity. Students at schools in communities with high poverty levels spent more of the 2020-21 school year learning remotely than those at schools in wealthier communities did, and students in poorer schools experienced steeper declines in performance when they were remote.

另一份研究針對210萬名美國學生的考試成績分析，發現了貧富不均造成的影響。2020至2021學年，在較高貧窮率社區的學校，學生比較富裕社區的學校接受了更長時間遠端授課，且較窮學校學生的學業表現在遠端授課期間也出現了更顯著的退步。

文／Emily Baumgaertner　譯／陳曉慈

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【張佑生】

要開學囉！新冠疫情飆升促成居家工作(WFH)，學習改為遠距(remote learning)，但效果有差而且還不小，最新的全球研究證實這點。

差距的英文最常見的是difference，片語make a (big) difference，不僅是有所不同，而且是（重大）正向改變。Inequality/disparity都是形容不平等的差異現象，前者指的是機會權勢財富差距造成的不平等，例如social/economic/racial/sexual inequality，介詞常用in或between，各地醫療品質有重大落差：There are great inequalities in health care across the country.

Disparity特別指不公平所導致的差異，介詞也是常用in或between，同工不同酬可以說：There is still a disparity in salaries among people doing the same job.

學習的延遲(delay)與退化(regression)所指程度不同，延遲是進度落後，像traffic delays；退化是走回頭路，不進反退，也是心理學上逃避性防衛機制的一種，當事人言行甚至回到孩提時期。