Education during the COVID-19: Emergency Remote Education Ok! How About Students’ and Teachers’ Psychology?

The first of these is about the psycho-social development of students through education [1,2]. As it also affects behavior and personality development, this issue is important for the entire life of the individual. The second is related to the psychological foundations of learning. Most of the variables affecting learning are of psychological origin [3,4]. When psychological variables are ignored, it is not possible to achieve the intended results in education [5]. A teaching process that are not taken into students’ motivation characteristics, attitudes, anxieties, academic self, self-esteem, etc. account cannot succeed [6]. However, schools have abandoned the duty of educating children as a whole and in all aspects, and have become a means of production directed by the markets since the industrial revolution [7]. Instead of seeing it as a human being, this distorted point of view, which sees human as an economic creature, a resource, or a human capital, does not match up with the individuality of the human being, and it is far from giving people the value they deserve. This is the most important mistake in the emergence of many contradictions that are experienced today.
It is regretful to say that, for many schools, children’s individual characteristics and their development stages are important in providing clues to how much more information can be loaded on them. It is hard to say that it means more [7]. The school, which does not care enough about the responsibility of preparing students for life by developing them with their psycho-social aspects, is in an attitude as if it is very concerned about the psychological features that affect learning. This situation shows a great similarity with the viewpoints of neo-classical management theories, which consider the psychological aspects of humans as a motivational tool that only increases productivity and profitability with the classical management approach that cares about work, production, and costs instead of people.
It can be said that this distorted understanding of human education once again showed itself with the educational practices carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 which was first reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019 [8], and spread rapidly and affected the whole world in a short time, changed life habits due to the rate of transmission and its deadly effect, as well as significant changes in the functioning of all social institutions [9]. To prevent the spread of the epidemic and to minimize loss of life, the implementation of many restrictions, including the most basic human freedoms such as traveling and going out [10] has deeply affected all sectors [11], and educational institutions [12,13] as well as rules on working life.
Schools at all levels have been closed in many countries due to restrictive measures and educational practices have been moved to online environments [14] under the name of emergency remote education [15]. Considering the spreading rate of the epidemic and the number of patients, it is necessary to say that some countries adopt hybrid or blended education practices [16]. In this period, it is possible to say that educational activities took place through interaction in virtual environments, in the form of online lessons and online exams, using the internet and digital technologies [17]. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the situation, which is expressed as a distorted understanding of education that does not prioritize humans as a value, can be explained as follows. In this process, which developed suddenly and unexpectedly with the pandemic, the implementation of emergency remote education, of course, brought along many problems that need to be solved.
When examining the aspects of the reflections of COVID-19 on education, which are the most prominent variables in the researches in the literature, it is observed that the technical discussions on the subject constitute a very important intensity. When the most prominent variables in the researches in the literature on the aspects of the reflections of COVID-19 on education are analyzed, it is observed that the technical discussions on the topic constitute a very important plurality. Accessibility to technology and the internet in online education applications, connectivity, flexibility, and ability to create learning interaction [18], academic success during the pandemic period [19], technology infrastructure competencies of schools, effectiveness of online learning process [20], technological competencies of students, teachers, and school administrators [21,22], the way of having theoretical and applied lessons and exams [23], technology addiction, educational ergonomics, equality of opportunity in education [24], and teacher training during the pandemic [25] are among the topics most discussed. Based on these explanations, it can be said that the focus of the discussions during the pandemic period is the continuity of education without interruption.
It should also be noted that there are studies that address the problems teachers and students experience regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. The research focused on the cognitive [26,27], social, emotional [28], psychological [29-33], economic [34] impacts of the epidemic on students, teachers [35] and school administrators [36] could be given as examples for the aforementioned studies. Aside from the discussions about the problems caused by the pandemic, it can be said that the number of schools or countries develop solutions for the such problems arising is extremely limited. Great numbers of countries and schools only preferred to focus on teaching lessons during this difficult period by making their curriculum and instructional plans flexible instead of providing psychological support to students and teachers or contributing to their recovery.
Some issues such as teachers and students infected with the virus, the ones whose family members are sick, the experiences of teachers and students who lost their family members traumatically in this process are still unknown. The more thought-provoking aspect of the subject is that students have been tried to be educated by ignoring all these facts in this process where human psychology is massively negatively affected and anxiety of life comes to the fore, although the determining impact of psychology on learning is known clearly. In other words, pushing the psychological and emotional needs, anxieties, fears, and worries of teachers and students who have not experienced similar circumstances before into the background and considering continuing education without interruption as the most vital and prior issue in this difficult process is a dramatic situation.
It can be stated that the negative and unwilling behaviors of students, which are frequently observed in the online education process, are the most concrete reactions to educational practices in this period. Unlike the disciplinary control of the teacher in the school or classroom environment; students, who take control at their homes during the online education period, exhibited attitudes that ignore the school in response to the educational approach that did not care about themselves such as not turning on their cameras and microphones during the lesson, not participating, not taking part in the interactions, using other irrelevant applications, playing games or chatting with friends, watching videos or movies, being interested in other topics, etc. by taking advantage of their superiority over their teachers in using technology. As a result, it can be said that education continues uninterruptedly during the pandemic period. Considering the negative psychological conditions, they were in, could we say that the teachers succeed in teaching or the students were able to learn?

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