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Quality Assurance in Education

ISSN : 0968-4883

Article publication date: 22 August 2022

Issue publication date: 28 February 2023

The study aims to review the existing theories and literature related to life skills education for adolescents to construct a model portraying the inter-relatedness between these variables. This study discerns the inferences from the studies conducted earlier to propose various aspects to be considered for future research and interventions targeting the effectiveness of life skills education for adolescents.

Design/methodology/approach

Prolific examination of numerous theoretical and empirical studies addressing these variables was carried out to formulate assertions and postulations. Deducing from the studies in varied streams of education, public health, psychology, economics and international development, this paper is an endeavor toward clarifying some pertinent issues related to life skills education.

Although there is abundant evidence to encourage and assist the development of life skills as a tool to achieve other outcomes of interest, it is also important to see life skills as providing both instrumental and ultimate value to adolescents. Quality life skills education needs to be intertwined with the curriculum through the primary and secondary education, in the same way as literacy and numeracy skills.

Originality/value

The present study has important implications for educators and policymakers for designing effective life skills education programs. Additionally, this paper provides a three-step model based on Lewin’s three step prototype for change, to impart life skills trainings to adolescents through drafting pertinent systems. This will help in imparting quality life skills education to adolescents and raising them to be psychologically mature adults.

• Life skills
• Adolescents
• Lewin’s three step model for change
• Life skills education
• Socio economic status
• Lewin’s force field theory

Bansal, M. and Kapur, S. (2023), "Facets of life skills education – a systematic review", Quality Assurance in Education , Vol. 31 No. 2, pp. 281-295. https://doi.org/10.1108/QAE-04-2022-0095

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Life Skills Education for Youth

Critical Perspectives

• Open Access
• © 2022

You have full access to this open access Book

• Joan DeJaeghere   ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6084-8447 0 ,
• Erin Murphy-Graham   ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8351-2244 1

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA

You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, USA

• Calls for critical conceptualizations of life skills
• Offers examples and considerations for reframing life skills conceptually and pedagogically
• Draws on a review of theoretical, methodological, and empirical literature on life skills
• This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access

Part of the book series: Young People and Learning Processes in School and Everyday Life (YPLP, volume 5)

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Table of contents (12 chapters)

Front matter, introduction.

• Joan DeJaeghere, Erin Murphy-Graham

Life Skills Education for Youth in Developing Countries: What Are They and Why Do They Matter?

• Erin Murphy-Graham, Alison K. Cohen

Social and Emotional Learning: From Conceptualization to Practical Application in a Global Context

• Katharine E. Brush, Stephanie M. Jones, Rebecca Bailey, Bryan Nelson, Natasha Raisch, Emily Meland

Reframing Life Skills: From an Individualistic to a Relational Transformative Approach

Joan DeJaeghere

Empowering Girls Through Sport: A Gender Transformative Approach to Life Skills?

• Christina Ting Kwauk

Workforce Skills Curriculum Development in Context: Case Studies in Rwanda, Algeria, and the Philippines

• Catherine Honeyman, Laura Cordisco Tsai, Nancy Chervin, Melanie Sany, Janice Ubaldo

Life Skills Education for Urban Youth in Honduras and Guatemala: A Capability Analysis of the Sports-Based Job Training Program A Ganar

Erin Murphy-Graham

Career Life Skills for 10th Grade Boys in Delhi, India: Mapping Information Literacies for Sustainable Development

• Aditi Arur, Mansi Sharma

A Life Knowledge Approach to Life Skills: Empowering Boys with New Conceptions of Masculinity

• Urvashi Sahni

Fostering Critical Thinking as a Life Skill to Prevent Child Marriage in Honduras: The Case of Holistic Education for Youth (HEY!)

• Diana Pacheco-Montoya, Erin Murphy-Graham

Life Skills Education in Ethiopia: Afar Pastoralists’ Perspectives

• Sileshi Yitbarek, Yohannes Wogasso, Margaret Meagher, Lucy Strickland

Concluding Thoughts on Life Skills Education for Youth

• Dana Schmidt
• examining life skills education scholarships
• life skills for adolescents in developing countries
• linking life skills education and social-emotional learning
• life skills for 'at risk' youth
• social justice based approach to life skills
• empirical cases of life skills education
• employability and soft skills curriculum development
• career skills as education

About this book

This open access volume critically reviews a diverse body of scholarship and practice that informs the conceptualization, curriculum, teaching and measurement of life skills in education settings around the world. It discusses life skills as they are implemented in schools and non-formal education, providing both qualitative and quantitative evidence of when, with whom, and how life skills do or do not impact young women’s and men’s lives in various contexts. Specifically, it examines the nature and importance of life skills, and how they are taught. It looks at the synergies and differences between life skills educational programmes and the way in which they promote social and emotional learning, vocational/employment education, and health and sexuality education. Finally, it explores how life skills may be better incorporated into education and how such education can address structures and relations of power to help youth achieve desired future outcomes, and goals set out inthe Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Life skills education has gained considerable attention by education policymakers, researchers and educators as being the sine qua non for later achievements in life. It is nearly ubiquitous in global and national education policies, including the SDGs, because life skills are regarded as essential for a diverse set of purposes: reducing poverty, achieving gender equality, promoting economic growth, addressing climate change, fostering peace and global citizenship, and creating sustainable and healthy communities. Yet, to achieve these broad goals, questions persist as to which life skills are important, who needs to learn them, how they can be taught, and how they are best measured. This book addresses these questions.

Editors and Affiliations

About the editors.

Erin Murphy-Graham  is an Associate Adjunct Professor at the Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley, where she teaches courses in research methods, international development, and globalization and education. Her research focuses on three inter-related areas: 1) the process by which education can foster the empowerment of girls and women, and the theorization of what empowerment entails; 2) the role of education in changing how students relate to others, particularly in their intimate relationships and in building trust; 3) the rigorous evaluation of educational programs that have demonstrated potential to empower youth and adults in Latin America. She iscurrently engaged in a design-based research project to prevent child marriage in Honduras, and has a longstanding research program on the innovative secondary education system Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial (Tutorial Learning System or SAT). 

Bibliographic Information

Book Title : Life Skills Education for Youth

Book Subtitle : Critical Perspectives

Editors : Joan DeJaeghere, Erin Murphy-Graham

Series Title : Young People and Learning Processes in School and Everyday Life

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85214-6

Publisher : Springer Cham

eBook Packages : Education , Education (R0)

Copyright Information : The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2022

Hardcover ISBN : 978-3-030-85213-9 Published: 24 November 2021

Softcover ISBN : 978-3-030-85216-0 Published: 24 November 2021

eBook ISBN : 978-3-030-85214-6 Published: 23 November 2021

Series ISSN : 2522-5642

Series E-ISSN : 2522-5650

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : XVI, 276

Number of Illustrations : 1 b/w illustrations

Topics : Life Skills , Career Skills , Schools and Schooling , Curriculum Studies , Social Structure, Social Inequality , Personality and Social Psychology

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Life skills education: planning for research as an integral part of life skills education development, implementation and maintenance.

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• Published: 09 May 2024

Looking back to move forward: comparison of instructors’ and undergraduates’ retrospection on the effectiveness of online learning using the nine-outcome influencing factors

• Yujie Su   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1444-1598 1 ,
• Xiaoshu Xu   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0667-4511 1 ,
• Yunfeng Zhang 2 ,
• Xinyu Xu 1 &
• Shanshan Hao 3  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  11 , Article number:  594 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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This study delves into the retrospections of undergraduate students concerning their online learning experiences after the COVID-19 pandemic, using the nine key influencing factors: behavioral intention, instruction, engagement, interaction, motivation, self-efficacy, performance, satisfaction, and self-regulation. 46 Year 1 students from a comprehensive university in China were asked to maintain reflective diaries throughout an academic semester, providing first-person perspectives on the strengths and weaknesses of online learning. Meanwhile, 18 college teachers were interviewed with the same questions as the students. Using thematic analysis, the research identified 9 factors. The research revealed that instruction ranked highest among the 9 factors, followed by engagement, self-regulation, interaction, motivation, and others. Moreover, teachers and students had different attitudes toward instruction. Thirdly, teacher participants were different from student participants given self-efficacy and self-regulation due to their variant roles in online instruction. Lastly, the study reflected students were not independent learners, which explained why instruction ranked highest in their point of view. Findings offer valuable insights for educators, administrators, and policy-makers involved in higher education. Recommendations for future research include incorporating a more diverse sample, exploring relationships between the nine factors, and focusing on equipping students with skills for optimal online learning experiences.

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Introduction.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on education worldwide, leading to the widescale adoption of online learning. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), at the peak of the pandemic, 192 countries had implemented nationwide closures, affecting approximately 99% of the world’s student population (UNESCO 2020 a). In response, educational institutions, teachers, and students quickly adapted to online learning platforms, leveraging digital technologies to continue education amidst the crisis (Marinoni et al. 2020 ).

The rapid and unexpected shift to online learning brought about a surge in research aiming to understand its impact, effectiveness, and challenges. Researchers across the globe have been investigating various dimensions of online learning. Some focus on students’ experiences and perspectives (Aristovnik et al. 2021 ), technological aspects (Bao 2020 ), pedagogical strategies (Hodges et al. 2020 ), and the socio-emotional aspect of learning (Ali 2020 ). Tan et al. ( 2021 ) found that motivation and satisfaction were mostly positively perceived by students, and lack of interaction was perceived as an unfavorable online instruction perception. Some center on teachers’ perceptions of the benefits and challenges (Lucas and Vicente, 2023 ; Mulla et al. 2023 ), post-pandemic pedagogisation (Rapanta et al. 2021 ), and post-pandemic further education (Kohnke et al. 2023 ; Torsani et al. 2023 ). It was worth noting that elements like interaction and engagement were central to the development and maintenance of the learning community (Lucas and Vincente 2023 ),

The rise of online learning has also posed unprecedented challenges. Studies have pointed out the digital divide and accessibility issues (Crawford et al. 2020 ), students’ motivation and engagement concerns (Martin and Bolliger 2018 ), and the need for effective online instructional practices (Trust and Whalen 2020 ). The rapid transition to online learning has highlighted the need for robust research to address these challenges and understand the effectiveness of online learning in this new educational paradigm.

Despite the extensive research on online learning during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, there remains a notable gap in understanding the retrospective perspectives of both undergraduates and teachers. Much of the current literature has focused on immediate response strategies to the transition to online learning, often overlooking the detailed insights that reflective retrospection can provide (Marinoni et al. 2020 ; Bao 2020 ). In addition, while many studies have examined isolated aspects of online learning, they have not often employed a comprehensive framework, leaving undergraduates’ voices, in particular, underrepresented in the discourse (Aristovnik et al. 2021 ; Crawford et al. 2020 ). This study, situated in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impetus toward online learning, seeks to fill this crucial gap. By exploring online learning from the perspectives of both instructors and undergraduates, and analyzing nine key factors that include engagement, motivation, and self-efficacy, the research contributes vital insights into the dynamics of online education (Wang and Wang 2021 ). This exploration is especially pertinent as digital learning environments become increasingly prevalent worldwide (UNESCO 2020b ). The findings of our study are pivotal for shaping future educational policies and enhancing online education strategies in this continuously evolving educational landscape (Greenhow et al. 2021 ). Thus, three research questions were raised:

Q1: How do undergraduates and teachers in China retrospectively perceive the effectiveness of online learning after the COVID-19 pandemic?

Q2: Which of the nine outcome influencing factors had the most significant impact on online learning experiences after the pandemic, and why?

Q3: What recommendations can be proposed to enhance the effectiveness of online learning in the future?

The research takes place at a comprehensive university in China, with a sample of 46 Year 1 students and 18 experienced teachers. Their reflections on the effectiveness of online learning were captured through reflective diaries guided by four questions. These questions investigated the students’ online learning states and attitudes, identified issues and insufficiencies in online learning, analyzed the reasons behind these problems, and proposed improvements. By assessing their experiences and perceptions, we seek to explore the significant factors that shaped online learning outcomes after the pandemic and the means to enhance its effectiveness.

This paper first presents a review of the existing literature, focusing on the impact of the pandemic on online learning and discussing the nine significant factors influencing online learning outcomes. Following this, the methodology utilized for this study is detailed, setting the stage for a deeper understanding of the research process. Subsequently, we delve into the results of the thematic analysis conducted based on undergraduate students and teachers’ retrospections. Finally, the paper concludes by offering meaningful implications of the findings for various stakeholders and suggesting directions for future research in this critical area.

Literature review

Online learning application and evaluation in higher education.

Online learning, also known as e-learning or distance learning, refers to education that takes place over the Internet rather than in a traditional classroom setting. It has seen substantial growth over the past decade and has been accelerated due to the COVID-19 pandemic (Trust and Whalen 2020 ). Online learning allows for a flexible learning environment, breaking the temporal and spatial boundaries of traditional classroom settings (Bozkurt and Sharma 2020 ). In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, educational institutions globally have embraced online learning at an unprecedented scale. This has led to an immense surge in research focusing on the effects of the pandemic on online learning (Crawford et al. 2020 ; Marinoni et al. 2020 ).

Researchers were divided in their attitudes toward the effects of online learning, including positive, neutral, and negative. Research by Bahasoan et al. ( 2020 ), Bernard et al. ( 2004 ), Hernández-Lara and Serradell-López ( 2018 ), and Paechter and Maier ( 2010 ) indicated the effectiveness of online learning, including improved outcomes and engagement in online formats, providing flexibility and enhancing digital skills for instance. Research, including studies by Dolan Hancock and Wareing ( 2015 ) and Means et al. ( 2010 ), indicates that under equivalent conditions and with similar levels of support, there is frequently no substantial difference in learning outcomes between traditional face-to-face courses and completely online courses.

However, online learning was not without its challenges. Research showing less favorable results for specific student groups can be referenced in Dennen ( 2014 ), etc. The common problems faced by students included underdeveloped independent learning ability, lack of motivation, difficulties in self-regulation, student engagement and technical issues (Aristovnik et al. 2021 ; Martin and Bolliger 2018 ; Song et al. 2004 ; Zheng et al. 2022 ).

Moreover, factors like instructional strategies, course design, etc. were also linked to learning outcomes and successful online learning (Ali 2020 ; Hongsuchon et al. 2022 ). Careaga-Butter et al. ( 2020 ) critically analyze online education in pandemic and post-pandemic contexts, focusing on digital tools and resources for teaching in synchronous and asynchronous learning modalities. They discuss the swift adaptation to online learning during the pandemic, highlighting the importance of technological infrastructure, pedagogical strategies, and the challenges of digital divides. The article emphasizes the need for effective online learning environments and explores trends in post-pandemic education, providing insights into future educational strategies and practices.

Determinants of online learning outcomes

Online learning outcomes in this paper refer to the measurable educational results achieved through online learning methods, including knowledge acquisition, skill development, changes in attitudes or behaviors, and performance improvements (Chang 2016 ; Panigrahi et al. 2018 ). The literature review identified key factors influencing online learning outcomes, emphasizing their significant role in academic discourse. These factors, highlighted in scholarly literature, include student engagement, instructional design, technology infrastructure, student-teacher interaction, and student self-regulation.

Student Engagement: The level of a student’s engagement significantly impacts their learning outcomes. The more actively a student is engaged with the course content and activities, the better their performance tends to be. This underscores the importance of designing engaging course content and providing opportunities for active learning in an online environment (Martin and Bolliger 2018 ).

Instructional Design: How an online course is designed can greatly affect student outcomes. Key elements such as clarity of learning objectives, organization of course materials, and the use of diverse instructional strategies significantly impact student learning (Bozkurt and Sharma 2020 ).

Technology Infrastructure: The reliability and ease of use of the learning management system (LMS) also play a significant role in online learning outcomes. When students experience technical difficulties, it can lead to frustration, reduced engagement, and lower performance (Johnson et al. 2020 ).

Student-Teacher Interaction: Interaction between students and teachers in an online learning environment is a key determinant of successful outcomes. Regular, substantive feedback from instructors can promote student learning and motivation (Boling et al. 2012 ).

Student Self-Regulation: The autonomous nature of online learning requires students to be proficient in self-regulated learning, which involves setting learning goals, self-monitoring, and self-evaluation. Students who exhibit strong self-regulation skills are more likely to succeed in online learning (Broadbent 2017 ).

While many studies have investigated individual factors affecting online learning, there is a paucity of research offering a holistic view of these factors and their interrelationships, leading to a fragmented understanding of the influences on online learning outcomes. Given the multitude of experiences and variables encompassed by online learning, a comprehensive framework like is instrumental in ensuring a thorough investigation and interpretation of the breadth of students’ experiences.

Students’ perceptions of online learning

Understanding students’ perceptions of online learning is essential for enhancing its effectiveness and student satisfaction. Studies show students appreciate online learning for its flexibility and convenience, offering personalized learning paths and resource access (Händel et al. 2020 ; Johnson et al. 2020 ). Yet, challenges persist, notably in maintaining motivation and handling technical issues (Aristovnik et al. 2021 ; Händel et al. 2020 ). Aguilera-Hermida ( 2020 ) reported mixed feelings among students during the COVID-19 pandemic, including feelings of isolation and difficulty adjusting to online environments. Boling et al. ( 2012 ) emphasized students’ preferences for interactive and communicative online learning environments. Additionally, research indicates that students seek more engaging content and innovative teaching approaches, suggesting a gap between current online offerings and student expectations (Chakraborty and Muyia Nafukho 2014 ). Students also emphasize the importance of community and peer support in online settings, underlining the need for collaborative and social learning opportunities (Lai et al. 2019 ). These findings imply that while online learning offers significant benefits, addressing its shortcomings is critical for maximizing its potential.

The pandemic prompted a reconsideration of instructional modalities, with many students favoring face-to-face instruction due to the immediacy and focus issues (Aristovnik et al. 2021 ; Trust and Whalen 2020 ). Despite valuable insights, research gaps remain, particularly in long-term undergraduate reflections and the application of nine factors of comprehensive frameworks, indicating a need for more holistic research in online learning effectiveness.

Teachers’ perceptions of online learning

The pandemic has brought attention to how teachers manage instruction in virtual learning environments. Teachers and students are divided in terms of their attitudes toward online learning. Some teachers and students looked to the convenience and flexibility of online learning (Chuenyindee et al. 2022 ; Al-Emran and Shaalan 2021 ). They conceived that online learning provided opportunities to improve educational equality as well (Tenório et al. 2016 ). Even when COVID-19 was over, the dependence on online learning was likely here to stay, for some approaches of online learning were well-received by students and teachers (Al-Rahmi et al. 2019 ; Hongsuchon et al. 2022 ).

Teachers had shown great confidence in delivering instruction in an online environment in a satisfying manner. They also agreed that the difficulty of teaching was closely associated with course structures (Gavranović and Prodanović 2021 ).

Not all were optimistic about the effects of online learning. They sought out the challenges facing teachers and students during online learning.

A mixed-method study of K-12 teachers’ feelings, experiences, and perspectives that the major challenges faced by teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic were lack of student participation and engagement, technological support for online learning, lack of face-to-face interactions with students, no work-life balance and learning new technology.

The challenges to teachers’ online instruction included instruction technology (Maatuk et al. 2022 ; Rasheed et al. 2020 ), course design (Khojasteh et al. 2023 ), and teachers’ confidence (Gavranović and Prodanović 2021 ).

Self-regulation challenges and challenges in using technology were the key challenges to students, while the use of technology for teaching was the challenge facing teachers (Rasheed et al. 2020 ).

The quality of course design was another important factor in online learning. A research revealed the competency of the instructors and their expertise in content development contributed a lot to students’ satisfaction with the quality of e-contents.

Theoretical framework

The theoretical foundation of the research is deeply rooted in multifaceted framework for online learning, which provides a comprehensive and interwoven model encompassing nine critical factors that collectively shape the educational experience in online settings. This framework is instrumental in guiding our analysis and enhances the comparability and interpretability of our results within the context of existing literature.

Central to Yu’s framework is the concept of behavioral intention, which acts as a precursor to student engagement in online learning environments. This engagement, inherently linked to the students’ intentions and motivations, is significantly influenced by the quality of instruction they receive. Instruction, therefore, emerges as a pivotal element in this model, directly impacting not only student engagement but also fostering a sense of self-efficacy among learners. Such self-efficacy is crucial as it influences both the performance of students and their overall satisfaction with the learning process.

The framework posits that engagement, a derivative of both strong behavioral intention and effective instruction, plays a vital role in enhancing student performance. This engagement is tightly interlaced with self-regulation, an indispensable skill in the autonomous and often self-directed context of online learning. Interaction, encompassing various forms such as student-teacher and peer-to-peer communications, further enriches the learning experience. It significantly contributes to the development of motivation and self-efficacy, both of which are essential for sustaining engagement and fostering self-regulated learning.

Motivation, especially when intrinsically driven, acts as a catalyst, perpetuating engagement and self-regulation, which ultimately leads to increased satisfaction with the learning experience. In this framework, self-efficacy, nurtured through effective instruction and meaningful interactions, has a positive impact on students’ performance and satisfaction, thereby creating a reinforcing cycle of learning and achievement.

Performance in this model is viewed as a tangible measure of the synergistic interplay of engagement, instructional quality, and self-efficacy, while satisfaction reflects the culmination of the learning experience, shaped by the quality of instruction, the extent and nature of interactions, and the flexibility of the learning environment. This satisfaction, in turn, influences students’ future motivation and their continued engagement with online learning.

Yu’s model thus presents a dynamic ecosystem where changes in one factor can have ripple effects across the entire spectrum of online learning. It emphasizes the need for a holistic approach in the realm of online education, considering the complex interplay of these diverse yet interconnected elements to enhance both the effectiveness and the overall experience of online learning.

The current study employed a qualitative design to explore teachers’ and undergraduates’ retrospections on the effectiveness of online learning during the first semester of the 2022–2023 school year, which is in the post-pandemic period. Data were collected using reflective diaries, and thematic analysis was applied to understand the experiences based on the nine factors.

Sample and sampling

The study involved 18 teachers and 46 first-year students from a comprehensive university in China, selected through convenience sampling to ensure diverse representation across academic disciplines. To ensure a diverse range of experiences in online learning, the participant selection process involved an initial email inquiry about their prior engagement with online education. The first author of this study received ethics approval from the department research committee, and participants were informed of the study’s objectives two weeks before via email. Only those participants who provided written informed consent were included in the study and were free to withdraw at any time. Pseudonyms were used to protect participants’ identities during the data-coding process. For direct citations, acronyms of students’ names were used, while “T+number” was used for citations from teacher participants.

The 46 students are all first-year undergraduates, 9 females and 37 males majoring in English and non-English (see Table 1 ).

The 18 teachers are all experienced instructors with at least 5 years of teaching experience, 13 females and 5 male, majoring in English and Non-English (see Table 2 ).

Data collection

Students’ data were collected through reflective diaries in class during the first semester of the 2022–2023 school year. Each participant was asked to maintain a diary over the course of one academic semester, in which they responded to four questions.

The four questions include:

What was your state and attitude toward online learning?

What were the problems and shortcomings of online learning?

What do you think are the reasons for these problems?

What measures do you think should be taken to improve online learning?

This approach provided a first-person perspective on the participants’ online teaching or learning experiences, capturing the depth and complexity of their retrospections.

Teachers were interviewed separately by responding to the four questions the same as the students. Each interview was conducted in the office or the school canteen during the semester and lasted about 20 to 30 min.

Data analysis

We utilized thematic analysis to interpret the reflective diaries, guided initially by nine factors. This method involved extensive engagement with the data, from initial coding to the final report. While Yu’s factors provided a foundational structure, we remained attentive to new themes, ensuring a comprehensive analysis. Our approach was methodical: familiarizing ourselves with the data, identifying initial codes, systematically searching and reviewing themes, and then defining and naming them. To validate our findings, we incorporated peer debriefing, and member checking, and maintained an audit trail. This analysis method was chosen for its effectiveness in extracting in-depth insights from undergraduates’ retrospections on their online learning experiences post-pandemic, aligning with our research objectives.

According to the nine factors, the interviews of 18 teachers and 46 Year 1 undergraduates were catalogued and listed in Table 3 .

Behavioral intention towards online learning post-pandemic

Since the widespread of the COVID-19 pandemic, both teachers and students have experienced online learning. However, their online teaching or learning was forced rather than planned (Baber 2021 ; Bao 2020 ). Students more easily accepted online learning when they perceived the severity of COVID-19.

When entering the post-pandemic era, traditional teaching was resumed. Students often compared online learning with traditional learning by mentioning learning interests, eye contact, face-to-face learning and learning atmosphere.

“I don’t think online learning is a good form of learning because it is hard to focus on learning.” (DSY) “In unimportant courses, I would let the computer log to the platform and at the same time do other entertains such as watching movies, listening to the music, having snacks or do the cleaning.” (XYN) “Online learning makes it impossible to have eye contact between teachers and students and unable to create a face-to-face instructional environment, which greatly influences students’ initiative and engagement in classes.” (WRX)

They noted that positive attitudes toward online learning usually generated higher behavioral intention to use online learning than those with negative attitudes, as found in the research of Zhu et al. ( 2023 ). So they put more blame on distractions in the learning environment.

“Online learning relies on computers or cell phones which easily brings many distractions. … I can’t focus on studying, shifting constantly from study and games.” (YX) “When we talk about learning online, we are hit by an idea that we can take a rest in class. It’s because everyone believes that during online classes, the teacher is unable to see or know what we are doing.” (YM) “…I am easily disturbed by external factors, and I am not very active in class.” (WZB)

Teachers reported a majority of students reluctantly turning on their cameras during online instruction and concluded the possible reason for such behavior.

“One of the reasons why some students are unwilling to turn on the camera is that they are worried about their looks and clothing at home, or that they don’t want to become the focus.” (T4)

They also noticed students’ absent-mindedness and lazy attitude during online instruction.

“As for some students who are not self-regulated, they would not take online learning as seriously as offline learning. Whenever they are logged onto the online platform, they would be unable to stay focused and keep their attention.” (T1)

Challenges and opportunities in online instruction post-pandemic

Online teaching brought new challenges and opportunities for students during and after the pandemic. The distractions at home seemed to be significantly underestimated by teachers in an online learning environment (Radmer and Goodchild 2021 ). It might be the reason why students greatly expected and heavily relied on teachers’ supervision and management.

“The biggest problem of online learning is that online courses are as imperative as traditional classes, but not managed face to face the same as the traditional ones.” (PC) “It is unable to provide some necessary supervision.” (GJX) “It is incapable of giving timely attention to every student.” (GYC) “Teachers can’t understand students’ conditions in time in most cases so teachers can’t adjust their teaching plan.” (MZY) “Some courses are unable to reach the teaching objectives due to lack of experimental conduction and practical operation.” (YZH) “Insufficient teacher-student interaction and the use of cell phones make both groups unable to engage in classes. What’s more, though online learning doesn’t put a high requirement for places, its instructional environment may be crucial due to the possible distractions.” (YCY)

Teachers also viewed online instruction as an addition to face-to-face instruction.

“Online learning cannot run as smoothly as face-to-face instruction, but it can provide an in-time supplement to the practical teaching and students’ self-learning.” (T13, T17) “Online instruction is an essential way to ensure the normal function of school work during the special periods like the pandemic” (T1, T15)

Factors influencing student engagement in online learning

Learning engagement was found to contribute to gains in the study (Paul and Diana 2006 ). It was also referred to as a state closely intertwined with the three dimensions of learning, i.e., vigor, dedication, and absorption (Schaufeli et al. 2002 ). Previous studies have found that some key factors like learning interaction, self-regulation, and social presence could influence learning engagement and learning outcomes (Lowenthal and Dunlap 2020 ; Ng 2018 ). Due to the absence of face-to-face interaction like eye contact, facial expressions and body language, both groups of interviewees agreed that the students felt it hard to keep their attention and thus remain active in online classes.

“Students are unable to engage in study due to a lack of practical learning environment of online learning.” (ZMH, T12) “Online platforms may not provide the same level of engagement and interaction as in-person classrooms, making it harder for students to ask questions or engage in discussions.” (HCK) “The Internet is cold, lack of emotional clues and practical connections, which makes it unable to reproduce face-to-face offline learning so that teachers and students are unlikely to know each other’s true feelings or thoughts. In addition, different from the real-time learning supervision in offline learning, online learning leaves students more learning autonomy.” (XGH) “Lack of teachers’ supervision and practical learning environment, students are easily distracted.” (LMA, T9)

Just as Zhu et al. ( 2023 ) pointed out, we had been too optimistic about students’ engagement in online learning, because online learning relied more on students’ autonomy and efforts to complete online learning.

Challenges in teacher-student interaction in online learning

Online learning has a notable feature, i.e., a spatial and temporal separation among teachers and students. Thus, online teacher-student interactions, fundamentals of relationship formation, have more challenges for both teachers and students. The prior studies found that online interaction affected social presence and indirectly affected learning engagement through social presence (Miao and Ma 2022 ). In the present investigation, both teachers and students noted the striking disadvantage of online interaction.

“Online learning has many problems such as indirect teacher-student communication, inactive informative communication, late response of students and their inability to reflect their problems. For example, teachers cannot evaluate correctly whether the students have mastered or not.” (YYN) “Teachers and students are separated by screens. The students cannot make prompt responses to the teachers’ questions via loudspeakers or headphones. It is not convenient for students to participate in questioning and answering. …for most of the time, the students interact with teachers via typing.” (ZJY) “While learning online, students prefer texting the questions to answering them via the loudspeaker.”(T7)

Online learning interaction was also found closely related to online learning engagement, performance, and self-efficacy.

“Teachers and students are unable to have timely and effective communication, which reduces the learning atmosphere. Students are often distracted. While doing homework, the students are unable to give feedback to teachers.” (YR) “Students are liable to be distracted by many other side matters so that they can keep their attention to online learning.” (T15)

In the online learning environment, teachers need to make efforts to build rapport and personalizing interactions with students to help them perform better and achieve greater academic success (Harper 2018 ; Ong and Quek 2023 ) Meanwhile, teachers should also motivate students’ learning by designing the lessons, giving lectures and managing the processes of student interactions (Garrison 2003 ; Ong and Quek 2023 ).

Determinants of self-efficacy in online learning

Online learning self-efficacy refers to students’ perception of their abilities to fulfill specific tasks required in online learning (Calaguas and Consunji 2022 ; Zimmerman and Kulikowich 2016 ). Online learning self-efficacy was found to be influenced by various factors including task, learner, course, and technology level, among which task level was found to be most closely related (Xu et al. 2022 ). The responses from the 46 student participants reveal a shared concern, albeit without mentioning specific tasks; they highlight critical aspects influencing online learning: learner attributes, course structure, and technological infrastructure.

One unifying theme from the student feedback is the challenge of self-regulation and environmental distractions impacting learning efficacy. For instance, participant WSX notes the necessity for students to enhance time management skills due to deficiencies in self-regulation, which is crucial for successful online learning. Participant WY expands on this by pointing out the distractions outside traditional classroom settings, coupled with limited teacher-student interaction, which hampers idea exchange and independent thought, thereby undermining educational outcomes. These insights suggest a need for strategies that bolster students’ self-discipline and interactive opportunities in virtual learning environments.

On the technological front, participants WT and YCY address different but related issues. Participant WT emphasizes the importance of up-to-date course content and learning facilities, indicating that outdated materials and tools can significantly diminish the effectiveness of online education. Participant YCY adds to this by highlighting problems with online learning applications, such as subpar functionalities that can introduce additional barriers to learning.

Teacher participants, on the other hand, shed light on objective factors predominantly related to course content and technology. Participant T5’s response underscores the heavy dependency on technological advancement in online education and points out the current inability of platforms or apps to adequately monitor student engagement and progress. Participant T9 voices concerns about course content not being updated or aligned with contemporary trends and student interests, suggesting a disconnect between educational offerings and learner needs. Meanwhile, participant T8 identifies unstable network services as a significant hindrance to online teaching, highlighting infrastructure as a critical component of online education’s success.

Teachers also believed the insufficient mastery of facilities and unfamiliarity with online instruction posed difficulty.

“Most teachers and students are not familiar with online instruction. For example, some teachers are unable to manage online courses so they cannot design the courses well. Some students lack self-regulation, which leads to their distraction or avoidance in class.” (T9)

Influences on student performance in online learning

Students’ performance during online lessons is closely associated with their satisfaction and self-efficacy. Most of the student participants reflected on their distractions, confusion, and needs, which indicates their dissatisfaction with online learning.

“During online instruction, it is convenient for the students to make use of cell phones, but instead, cell phones bring lots of distraction.” (YSC) “Due to the limits of online learning, teachers are facing the computer screen and unable to know timely students’ needs and confusion. Meanwhile, it’s inconvenient for teachers to make clear explanations of the sample questions or problems.” (HZW)

They thought their low learning efficiency in performance was caused by external factors like the learning environment.

“The most obvious disadvantage of online learning goes to low efficiency. Students find it hard to keep attention to study outside the practical classroom or in a relaxing environment.” (WY) “Teachers are not strict enough with students, which leads to ineffective learning.” (WRX)

Teacher participants conceived students’ performance as closely related to valid online supervision and students’ self-regulation.

“Online instruction is unable to create a learning environment, which helps teachers know students’ instant reaction. Only when students well regulate themselves and stay focused during online learning can they achieve successful interactions and make good accomplishments in the class.” (T11) “Some students need teachers’ supervision and high self-regulation, or they were easily distracted.” (T16)

Student satisfaction and teaching effectiveness in online learning

Online learning satisfaction was found to be significantly and positively associated with online learning self-efficacy (Al-Nasa’h et al. 2021 ; Lashley et al. 2022 ). Around 46% of student participants were unsatisfied with teachers’ ways of teaching.

“Comparatively, bloggers are more interesting than teachers’ boring and dull voices in online learning.” (DSY) “Teachers’ voice sounds dull and boring through the internet, which may cause listeners to feel sleepy, and the teaching content is not interesting enough to the students.” (MFE)

It reflected partly that some teachers were not adapted to online teaching possibly due to a lack in experience of online teaching or learning (Zhu et al. 2022 ).

“Some teachers are not well-prepared for online learning. They are particularly unready for emergent technological problems when delivering the teaching.” (T1) “One of the critical reasons lies in the fact that teachers and students are not well trained before online learning. In addition, the online platform is not unified by the college administration, which has led to chaos and difficulty of online instruction.” (T17)

Teachers recognized their inadequate preparation and mastery of online learning as one of the reasons for dissatisfaction, but student participants exaggerated the role of teachers in online learning and ignored their responsibility in planning and managing their learning behavior, as in the research of (Xu et al. 2022 ).

The role of self-regulation in online learning success

In the context of online learning, self-regulation stands out as a crucial factor, necessitating heightened levels of student self-discipline and autonomy. This aspect, as Zhu et al. ( 2023 ) suggest, grants students significant control over their learning processes, making it a vital component for successful online education.

“Online learning requires learners to be of high discipline and self-regulation. Without good self-regulation, they are less likely to be effective in online learning.” (YZJ) “Most students lack self-control, unable to control the time of using electronic products. Some even use other electronic products during online learning, which greatly reduces their efficiency in learning.” (GPY) “Students are not well developed in self-control and easily distracted. Thus they are unable to engage fully in their study, which makes them unable to keep up with others” (XYN)

Both groups of participants had a clear idea of the positive role of self-regulation in successful learning, but they also admitted that students need to strengthen their self-regulation skills and it seemed they associated with the learning environment, learning efficiency and teachers’ supervision.

“If they are self-motivated, online learning can be conducted more easily and more efficiently. However, a majority are not strong in regulating themselves. Teachers’ direct supervision in offline learning can do better in motivating them to study hard…lack of interaction makes students less active and motivated.” (LY) “Students have a low level of self-discipline. Without teachers’ supervision, they find it hard to listen attentively or even quit listening. Moreover, in class, the students seldom think actively and independently.” (T13)

The analysis of participant responses, categorized into three distinct attitude groups – positive, neutral, and negative – reveals a multifaceted view of the disadvantages of online learning, as shown in Tables 4 and 5 . This classification provides a clearer understanding of how attitudes towards online learning influence perceptions of self-regulation and other related factors.

In Table 4 , the division among students is most pronounced in terms of interaction and self-efficacy. Those with neutral attitudes highlighted interaction as a primary concern, suggesting that it is less effective in an online setting. Participants with positive attitudes noted a lack of student motivation, while those with negative views emphasized the need for better self-efficacy. Across all attitudes, instruction, engagement, self-regulation, and behavior intention were consistently identified as areas needing improvement.

Table 5 sheds light on teachers’ perspectives, revealing a consensus on the significance and challenges of instruction, motivation, and self-efficacy in online learning. Teachers’ opinions vary most significantly on self-efficacy and engagement. Those with negative attitudes point to self-efficacy and instructional quality as critical areas needing attention, while neutral attitudes focus on the role of motivation.

Discussions

Using a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the questionnaire data showed that among the 18 college teachers and 46 year 1 undergraduate students of various majors taking part in the interview, about 38.9% of teachers and about 30.4% of students supported online learning. Only two teachers were neutral about online learning, and 50% of teachers did not support virtual learning. The percentages of students who expressed positive and neutral views on online learning were the same, i.e., 34.8%. This indicates that online learning could serve as a complementary approach to traditional education, yet it is not without challenges, particularly in terms of student engagement, self-regulation, and behavioral intention, which were often attributed to distractions inherent in online environments.

In analyzing nine factors, it was evident that both teachers and students did not perceive these factors uniformly. Instruction was a significant element for both groups, as validated by findings in Tables 3 and 5 . The absence of face-to-face interactions in online learning shifted the focus to online instruction quality. Teachers cited technological challenges as a central concern, while students criticized the lack of engaging content and teaching methods. This aligns with Miao and Ma ( 2022 ), who argued that direct online interaction does not necessarily influence learner engagement, thus underscoring the need for integrated approaches encompassing interactions, self-regulation, and social presence.

Furthermore, the role of technology acceptance in shaping self-efficacy was highlighted by Xu et al. ( 2022 ), suggesting that students with higher self-efficacy tend to challenge themselves more. Chen and Hsu ( 2022 ) noted the positive influence of using emojis in online lessons, emphasizing the importance of innovative pedagogical approaches in online settings.

The study revealed distinct priorities between teachers and students in online learning: teachers emphasized effective instruction delivery, while students valued learning outcomes, self-regulation, and engagement. This divergence highlights the unique challenges each group faces. Findings by Dennen et al. ( 2007 ) corroborate this, showing instructors focusing on content and guidance, while students prioritize interpersonal communication and individualized attention. Additionally, Lee et al. ( 2011 ) found that reduced transactional distance and increased student engagement led to enhanced perceptions of learning outcomes, aligning with students’ priorities in online courses. Understanding these differing perspectives is crucial for developing comprehensive online learning strategies that address the needs of both educators and learners.

Integrating these findings with broader contextual elements such as technological infrastructure, pedagogical strategies, socio-economic backgrounds, and environmental factors (Balanskat and Bingimlas 2006 ) further enriches our understanding. The interplay between these external factors and Yu’s nine key aspects forms a complex educational ecosystem. For example, government interventions and training programs have been shown to increase teachers’ enthusiasm for ICT and its routine use in education (Balanskat and Bingimlas 2006 ). Additionally, socioeconomic factors significantly impact students’ experiences with online learning, as the digital divide in connectivity and access to computers at home influences the ICT experience, an important factor for school achievement (OECD 2015 ; Punie et al. 2006 ).

In sum, the study advocates for a holistic approach to understanding and enhancing online education, recognizing the complex interplay between internal factors and external elements that shape the educational ecosystem in the digital age.

Conclusion and future research

This study offered a comprehensive exploration into the retrospective perceptions of college teachers and undergraduate students regarding their experiences with online learning following the COVID-19 pandemic. It was guided by a framework encompassing nine key factors that influence online learning outcomes. To delve into these perspectives, the research focused on three pivotal questions. These questions aimed to uncover how both undergraduates and teachers in China view the effectiveness of online learning post-pandemic, identify which of the nine influencing factors had the most significant impact, and propose recommendations for enhancing the future effectiveness of online learning.

In addressing the first research question concerning the retrospective perceptions of online learning’s effectiveness among undergraduates and teachers in China post-COVID-19 pandemic, the thematic analysis has delineated clear divergences in attitude between the two demographics. Participants were primarily divided into three categories based on their stance toward online learning: positive, neutral, and negative. The results highlighted a pronounced variance in attitude distribution between teachers and students, with a higher percentage of teachers expressing clear-cut opinions, either favorably or unfavorably, towards the effectiveness of online learning.

Conversely, students displayed a pronounced inclination towards neutrality, revealing a more cautious or mixed stance on the effectiveness of online learning. This prevalent neutrality within the student body could be attributed to a range of underlying reasons. It might signify students’ uncertainties or varied experiences with online platforms, differences in engagement levels, gaps in digital literacy, or fluctuating quality of online materials and teaching methods. Moreover, this neutral attitude may arise from the psychological and social repercussions of the pandemic, which have potentially altered students’ approaches to and perceptions of learning in an online context.

In the exploration of the nine influential factors in online learning, it was discovered that both teachers and students overwhelmingly identified instruction as the most critical aspect. This was closely followed by engagement, interaction, motivation, and other factors, while performance and satisfaction were perceived as less influential by both groups. However, the attitudes of teachers and students towards these factors revealed notable differences, particularly about instruction. Teachers often attributed challenges in online instruction to technological issues, whereas students perceived the quality of instruction as a major influence on their learning effectiveness. This dichotomy highlights the distinct perspectives arising from their different roles within the educational process.

A further divergence was observed in views on self-efficacy and self-regulation. Teachers, with a focus on delivering content, emphasized the importance of self-efficacy, while students, grappling with the demands of online learning, prioritized self-regulation. This reflects their respective positions in the online learning environment, with teachers concerned about the efficacy of their instructional strategies and students about managing their learning process. Interestingly, the study also illuminated that students did not always perceive themselves as independent learners, which contributed to the high priority they placed on instruction quality. This insight underlines a significant area for development in online learning strategies, emphasizing the need for fostering greater learner autonomy.

Notably, both teachers and students concurred that stimulating interest was a key factor in enhancing online learning. They proposed innovative approaches such as emulating popular online personalities, enhancing interactive elements, and contextualizing content to make it more relatable to students’ lives. Additionally, practical suggestions like issuing preview tasks and conducting in-class quizzes were highlighted as methods to boost student engagement and learning efficiency. The consensus on the importance of supervisory roles underscores the necessity for a balanced approach that integrates guidance and independence in the online learning environment.

The outcomes of our study highlight the multifaceted nature of online learning, accentuated by the varied perspectives and distinct needs of teachers and students. This complexity underscores the necessity of recognizing and addressing these nuances when designing and implementing online learning strategies. Furthermore, our findings offer a comprehensive overview of both the strengths and weaknesses of online learning during an unprecedented time, offering valuable insights for educators, administrators, and policy-makers involved in higher education. Moreover, it emphasized the intricate interplay of multiple factors—behavioral intention, instruction, engagement, interaction, motivation, self-efficacy, performance, satisfaction, and self-regulation—in shaping online learning outcomes. presents some limitations, notably its reliance on a single research method and a limited sample size.

However, the exclusive use of reflective diaries and interviews restricts the range of data collection methods, which might have been enriched by incorporating additional quantitative or mixed-method approaches. Furthermore, the sample, consisting only of students and teachers from one university, may not adequately represent the diverse experiences and perceptions of online learning across different educational contexts. These limitations suggest the need for a cautious interpretation of the findings and indicate areas for future research expansion. Future research could extend this study by incorporating a larger, more diverse sample to gain a broader understanding of undergraduate students’ retrospections across different contexts and cultures. Furthermore, research could also explore how to better equip students with the skills and strategies necessary to optimize their online learning experiences, especially in terms of the self-regulated learning and motivation aspects.

Data availability

The data supporting this study is available from https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.25583664.v1 . The data consists of reflective diaries from 46 Year 1 students from a comprehensive university in China and 18 college teachers. We utilized thematic analysis to interpret the reflective diaries, guided initially by nine factors. The results highlight the critical need for tailored online learning strategies and provide insights into its advantages and challenges for stakeholders in higher education.

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Su, Y., Xu, X., Zhang, Y. et al. Looking back to move forward: comparison of instructors’ and undergraduates’ retrospection on the effectiveness of online learning using the nine-outcome influencing factors. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11 , 594 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03097-z

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Flora, a 32-year-old single mother, faces a dilemma shared by many of the millions of American adults without a college degree.

A new report, co-authored by Stanford scholars, advises National Science Foundation on building an applied science to support “working learners.” (Image credit: Getty Images)

She’s an excellent, highly motivated Tier 1 patient care representative at a health insurance firm. Now, her company is automating the work she does, and all of the Tier 1 positions will be eliminated. Her company will be promoting workers to Tier 2 patient care representative positions, something Flora has long desired. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have the degree the job requires. Flora earned a certificate in customer service at work and has six credits at a community college, but she can’t afford to go back to school.

The case study of Flora, who is a composite of research interviews and analyses of demographic data, helped guide a year-long effort by leading educators, convened by the Graduate School of Education and Stanford’s Transforming Learning Accelerator, to build an applied science to study the needs of “working learners,” a term that refers to adults pursuing paid employment and learning opportunities at the same time. The project culminated in nine recommendations, released Jan. 19, as part of a concise  report  to the National Science Foundation, which funded the endeavor.

“In a nutshell, we’re calling on government to play a leadership role in investing in an applied science of adult and lifelong learning, with a particular emphasis on understanding the educational needs of working adults who do not have four-year college degrees,” said Mitchell Stevens, a sociologist and professor at Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE) who is a leader of the project. “Most education research looks solely at the first quarter of life. The relationships between school, work and biography across the lifespan are a black box.”

In recent years, growing numbers of government agencies, nonprofits, for-profit companies, philanthropies and education institutions have developed programs to support working learners, spurred by the recognition that many adults without college degrees struggle with the impact of new technologies on work and the accompanying shifts in employment qualifications. But there is not yet a reliable way to evaluate the effectiveness of such programs, or even of determining whether they address the most critical challenges working learners face. The new report suggests that a major research initiative can determine how best to build an education system for working learners and how to invest public and private resources most effectively.

The recommendations include identifying new educational opportunities that may benefit workers throughout their working lives, promoting collaboration between researchers and businesses to better understand how new credentials are affecting hiring decisions; and developing data collection systems that will enable researchers to track transitions between learning and employment experiences as people progress from young adulthood to retirement. The report also recommends that such research be conducted by bringing together different stakeholders regionally.

Universities have a particular role to play as conveners, as employers and as educators and researchers, said Stanford University President Marc Tessier Lavigne when he spoke at the last of four discussion sessions in July that laid the basis for the new report. More than 180 education leaders from different sectors – government, private and nonprofit organizations, philanthropies and higher education – joined the online gatherings, which were convened with NSF funding by Stevens and the  Transforming Learning Accelerator  (TLA), a university-wide initiative to develop more equitable and scalable learning solutions. More than 35 Stanford faculty, staff members and students contributed to the project.

“To be effective, this must be a true cross-sector discussion because any science we develop requires the contributions of all of these stakeholders,” Tessier-Lavigne said at the July 28 meeting. “This is the beginning of a conversation that has the potential to make a difference for working learners for the long term.”

Daniel Schwartz, the I. James Quillen Dean of the Graduate School of Education who leads TLA, added in a recent interview that the report underscores the importance of work underway at Stanford. “We are creating new scholarship and learning solutions that bridge discoveries in education, neuroscience, humanities, data science, psychology, law and other fields to serve the needs of working learners,” he said. “We need to foster a future where all learners thrive – no matter their cultural backgrounds, zip code or age.”

The summer meetings led Stanford’s Office of Community Engagement to convene a campus conversation to explore how the university could deepen collaboration to support working learners. Megan Swezey Fogarty, Stanford’s associate vice president of community engagement and a participant in the July gatherings, explained, “We need to learn from leaders across campus, local community colleges, workforce development agencies and others how we can contribute to improve knowledge and skills not only for our own employees but for others in our region as well.”

Stanford Digital Education, a unit in the provost’s office, plans to help implement the recommendations of the report by piloting new programs, jointly developed with partners, for working adults. These programs could, in turn, yield new research opportunities in the emerging science of lifelong learning. Stanford Digital Education was launched last year to advance educational innovations for social impact and strengthen Stanford’s digital learning infrastructure.

Attention to working learners has grown in recent years as part of a sea change in thinking about national education policy. Since the Higher Education Act of 1965 expanded the GI Bill’s subsidy of college access for WWII veterans to include all citizens, the nation has sought to provide economic mobility by promoting college for all. However well-intended, that policy prescription has come to create its own problems. Key among them is that possession of a college credential has become a fateful divide in American life .

“On one side lie reasonably well-compensated jobs, better health, more stable families and more informed civic participation,” Stevens said. “On the other lie precarious, marginal employment, dangerous debt levels, strained relationships, depression and anger.”

In the hypothetical case study, Flora, the insurance employee whose job is being eliminated, finds herself stuck on the wrong side of that divide. To move ahead, she must consider a dizzying plethora of new educational services from big tech companies and smaller recently established edtech ventures, without data to help her choose a path that would improve her prospects.

“That’s a new frontier for the science of working learners,” said Stevens, noting that researchers will need data if they are to find answers. More and more of that data are proprietary and in the hands of private parties. The new report calls for researchers, government and other stakeholders to create new data infrastructures that can match the systems in place to evaluate K12 and higher education programs.

Like many working learners, Flora may decide to take advantage of online courses. Such offerings are convenient but may not necessarily be suited for the learning needs of older people. The use of digital education to serve working learners is still in relative infancy, and the report calls for identifying which approaches work best for which groups.

“To serve working learners effectively we have to marry their educational needs with our technological and human capacities,” said Matthew Rascoff, Stanford’s vice provost for digital education, who participated in the NSF-funded project and is one of the leaders in the Stanford Community of Practice on Working Learners. “Working learners need the scheduling flexibility of asynchronous online learning – but also need to connect with a supportive learning community that encourages growth. Our design challenge is to balance those needs in models that scale.”

“We’re still very much in the discovery phase,” Rascoff said.

At 9 a.m., Pacific time, Jan. 19, Stevens and a colleague will host a virtual forum on the report, featuring Luther Jackson, program manager of Silicon Valley  NOVAworks job center; Katherine Newman , system chancellor for academic programs at the University of Massachusetts; and Sarah Turner , university professor of economics and education at the University of Virginia. Journalist Paul Fain of The Job will moderate. To attend, please register here .

Jonathan Rabinovitz is Stanford Digital Education’s communications director .

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Empowering adolescents with life skills education in schools – School mental health program: Does it work?

Bharath srikala.

Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Kumar K. V. Kishore

Mental Health Promotion among adolescents in schools using life skills education (LSE) and teachers as life skill educators is a novel idea. Implementation and impact of the NIMHANS model of life skills education program studied.

Materials and Methods:

The impact of the program is evaluated at the end of 1 year in 605 adolescents from two secondary schools in comparison to 423 age, sex, socioeconomic status-matched adolescents from nearby schools not in the program.

The adolescents in the program had significantly better self-esteem ( P =0.002), perceived adequate coping ( P =0.000), better adjustment generally ( P =0.000), specifically with teachers ( P =0.000), in school ( P =0.001), and prosocial behavior ( P =0.001). There was no difference between the two groups in psychopathology ( P - and adjustment at home and with peers ( P =0.088 and 0.921). Randomly selected 100 life skill educator-teachers also perceived positive changes in the students in the program in class room behavior and interaction. LSE integrated into the school mental health program using available resources of schools and teachers is seen as an effective way of empowering adolescents.

INTRODUCTION

The school mental health program (SMHP) is a very important and integral part of the educational system worldwide. In India, the SMHP is yet to be recognized and initiated as a part of the health component in schools.[ 1 ] In practice it is restricted to individual work by child mental health professionals especially in big metropolitan cities focusing on sensitization of teachers on child developmental and mental health issues. Counseling services for students with persistent emotional issues and a referral system is set up in a few urban clinics.

The educational philosophy in ancient India was one of guru-chela/shisya parampara and stressed on the teacher being responsible both for literacy/knowledge and personality development in the ward. However, education, which is currently prevalent in our country, is achievement oriented than child oriented. It does not address the needs of all the children who in spite of various levels of scholastic competence are capable of learning and need to develop those skills, and become empowered to live effectively in this world. This empowerment is very essential in today’s context in India as there is rapid globalization and urbanization with a breaking up of joint families and the traditional support systems.[ 2 ] Academic stress, violence including bullying, sexual permissiveness, easy drug availability and abuse, crowding, poor infrastructure, social divide are some of major issues which a youth has to contend with in this rapidly changing social scene of India. An empowered child has the competence to cope with the challenges of life using the available resources even amidst such adversities.

Methods to improve the psychosocial competence and resilience of the adolescent as health promotional activities and development oriented approach need to be included in the school syllabus and provided as much relevance as the Three Rs (reading, writing, arithmetic).

LSE is one such program.[ 3 ] The current study is on the impact of a LSE model as a program in secondary schools.

To assess the impact of the life skills education program (LSE program -NIMHANS model) by assessing the difference between adolescents who were in the program and not in the program.

More specifically to assess the difference between the adolescents who were in the LSE program (NIMHANS model) for a year and the ones who were not in the program in the following areas.

• Self-esteem
• Adjustment in various areas
• Psychopathology

NIMHANS model

The present model of health promotion using life skills approach for adolescents in secondary schools was initiated by the authors in late 1996 but crystallized in late 2002.[ 4 – 6 ] It is a model which is comprehensive focusing on all developmental issues of adolescents; it uses experiential learning with peers using participatory methods thus enabling the adolescent with psychosocial skills. The model also uses the available infrastructure of the school and the teachers for implementation of the program in a continuous manner over the academic years as a co-curricular activity for maximum effect. The Model is discussed in detail elsewhere.[ 7 ]

Life skills

Life skills (LS) are abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands, challenges, and stress of everyday life. Childhood and adolescence are the developmental periods during which one acquires these skills through various methods and people.[ 8 ]

The generic LS, which need to be taught at the schools level especially to adolescents, are as follows.

• Critical thinking and creative thinking
• Decision making and problem solving
• Communication skills and interpersonal relations
• Coping with emotions and stress
• Self-awareness and empathy

Implementation of the program as a project

Department of Public Instruction (DPI), Karnataka, in collaboration with NIMHANS planned to implement the NIMHANS model of the health promotion using LSE in four diverse districts (Bangalore rural, Bangalore urban, Udupi, Haveri) covering selected 261 secondary schools and 55,000 adolescents. Following steps were adopted in three phases for the implementation.

• Translation of the resource materials into the local language, i.e. Kannada.[ 9 – 11 ]
• Discussion with the Adolescent Education Division of the Department of State Education, Research and Training (DSERT), Karnataka, identification of master trainers in each of the identified district from District Institute of Education and Training (DIET).
• Training of the identified 31 master trainers over 5 days in two batches on the concepts of adolescent development, challenges and opportunities in adolescence, life skills, values, LS education, facilitation, using the activities to impart LSE in classes, use of the resource materials, and training of teachers as LS educators.
• LSE awareness workshops for the block education officers (BEOs) and the head masters of the identified schools.
• Planning/preparatory workshops with BEOs of the identified four districts.
• Capacity building by training of the teachers in the identified secondary schools as LS educators by the trained master trainers over 3 days. More than 1000 teachers were thus trained from 261 schools over 3 months. Evaluation of the training.
• Implementation of the LS program in the identified secondary schools once a week for an hour over 12 to 20 sessions during the academic year.
• Impact of the program on a sample of adolescents at the end of 1 year.

Impact of the program at every level was assessed and evaluated. The resource materials were evaluated and field tested. Feedback for the training sessions by both master trainers and teachers were done. Impact of the training was also assessed both in the master trainers and teachers by a pre- and post-assessment evaluation.

The aim of this paper is to discuss only the impact of the program in an objective manner in a sample of adolescents who participated in the program for a year.

Study group

The sample and control were selected from two schools in the Bangalore rural district (Chennapatna) and two schools from Udupi District. The control adolescents were selected from secondary schools in the same district as the sample group. Selection of the schools was random.

Since all the students who were in the program for the previous 1 year in the two selected schools needed to be included, a total of 605 students were taken as the sample group.

Adolescents of both sexes 14 to 16 years studying in 8th, 9th or 10th standard in the two schools (Bangalore rural and Udupi) implementing the NIMHANS model of the LSE program the previous 1 year were selected. Informed Consent was taken from the parents as the adolescents were minors. These adolescents had undergone on an average 10 sessions of LSE classes during the previous year (minimum 5 and maximum 16 sessions)

A total of 423 students were assessed as controls. They were adolescents of both sexes, 14 to 16 years studying in 8th, 9th or 10th standard, in secondary schools not covered by the NIMHANS model of LSE (or other adolescent education program). Informed consent was taken from their parents also.

Out of the 1000 odd teachers who were trained as LS educators, 100 were selected randomly and their feedback on the perceived changes in their students who were in the LSE program, NIMHANS model, was compiled. The student indicators were prepared by the authors as a part of the resource material and available in the activity manuals[ 4 – 6 ] were used to assess the changes in the students.

• Rosenberg Scale of Self-Esteem [ 12 ] (RSES, Rosenberg 1965). Designed to measure adolescents’ global feelings of self-worth. It has 10 first person statements and the responses are on 4 point scale of “strongly agree,” “agree,” “disagree” and “strongly disagree.” Scores range from 10 to 40, with higher scores indicating better self-esteem.
• Preadolescent Adjustment Scale [ 13 ] (PAAS, Pareek et al . 1975). Though called preadolescent scale has been used in Indian studies with adolescents (Rao, et al . 1975). It assesses adjustment in five areas of home, school, teachers, peers, and general behavior. The total adjustment ranges from −46 to +34.
• Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale [ 14 ] (GSES Jerusalem and Schwarzer 1995). 10 item measure perceived self-efficacy as an operative construct. Responses are made on a 4--point scale. Sum up the responses to all 10 items to yield the final composite score with a range from 10 to 40.
• Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire – Self-Report Version [ 15 ] (SDQ SRV Goodman et al . 1998). It is a brief behavioral screening questionnaire. Has 25 items divided over five psychological areas. The self report version is used for 11-16 adolescents.
• Class Room Indicators .[ 4 – 6 , 9 – 11 ] A simple checklist was designed for the teachers who did the LSE classes eliciting observable changes in the class room behavior of the students before and in LSE classes.

Initially BEOs of the four districts were contacted and the objective assessment was discussed with them along with the DSERT AEP coordinator. Subsequently, from the list of 261 secondary schools, the two sample schools were selected. BEOs provided help to select the control schools not in the program from the same districts. Parents were contacted before-hand for consent. Assessment of the students was done by a research assistant who was not involved in the training and was blind whether a particular school was included in the program or not. After an introduction to the assessments and tools they are self-administered and completed by the students themselves. The research assistant clarified doubts pertaining to the tools if they were any.

As far as the teachers were concerned, feedback was being collected by post on a regular basis. At the end of 1 year the feedback of 100 teachers selected randomly was compiled.

SPSS version 10 was used for data entry and analysis. The chi-square test was used for categorical measures and Student ‘ t ’ test for continuous measures.

The study groups both the sample and the control group did not differ in age and sex or socioeconomic status ( P =0.001) as they were pre-selected from specific classes in government secondary schools. Their age ranged from 155 to 200 months (mean 175±13.8 months). 35 to 40% of the study groups were girls. There were more girls in Udupi school but was not significantly different from the other schools. 52% of the students in the sample group had participated in 10 LSE classes in the previous year; 23% in less than 10 sessions; and the remaining >10 sessions. The trained teachers were the LS educators and followed the NIMHANS model of LS program. The classes were interactive and participative.

The students in the control group had regular civic/moral/value education classes one to two sessions in a week according to government regulation. Often these classes were used for extra classes of other subjects.

Feedback of teachers as LS educators

The 100 teachers whose feedback was compiled observed positive changes in the classroom behavior and interaction among students in their program [ Figure 1 ].

Feedback of teachers on students in the program

They were not able comment on certain other indicators like decrease in the drop put rate, better performance in the academics, etc.

Comparative assessment of students

According to their self-report, the students in the program in comparison to those not in the program were significantly better adjusted to the school and teachers; opined that they were capable of coping with issues with better self-esteem [ Table 1 , Figure 2 ].

Comparison of students in the LS program with controls

SDQ - Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire; GSES - General Self Efficacy Scale; RSES - Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale

Impact of the LSE program comparision of students in the program with controls

There was no difference between the groups in adjustment with parents and peers. There was no difference between the two groups on psychopathology assessed by Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ).

LSE is a novel promotional program that teaches generic LS through participatory learning methods of games, debates, role-plays, and group discussion. Conceptual understanding and practicing of the skills occur through experiential learning in a non-threatening setting. Such initiatives provide the adolescent with a wide range of alternative and creative ways of solving problems. Repeated practicing of these skills leads to a certain mastery and application of such skills to real life situation and gain control over the situation. It is a promotional program, which improves the positive mental health and self-esteem.[ 8 ] Our country places a premium on values. LS program empowers the youth to choose the appropriate values and behavior which are ingredients of positive health. LS are the processes that will make the target of values possible. The NIMHANS model of LSE was planned to be experiential, participatory and activity based for the students. “Didactic methodology” or “advice” was not part of the model at any level. Cultural sensitivity was maintained.

Life skills education and schools

In India, education has become institutionalized. Schools need to be recognized as the single most important and recognized forum to reach out to the young population. Any program to reach the adolescents/youth has to be incorporated into the educational system to be feasible, effective, and cost-effective. In a country like ours, where resources and trained professionals are sparse and few, it is more be practical to involve and work with the teachers. The teachers are the personnel who interact with the adolescents closely. They could be trained to transfer these skills to the adolescents.[ 8 ] The methodology advised by WHO has been designed into a model by us and used in the above project. It follows a more resource-effective cascade model of training using the education set up of the country and implements the program. This methodology ensures reproducibility of the program within the existing infrastructure year after year at no extra cost. Experience also has shown that teachers need support in the form of syllabus, resource materials, and training to be able to promote LS among the adolescents. The present program has successfully incorporated the needs of the teachers and students as end users at every level/step.

Most of the programs done earlier have evaluation of implementation-money planned spent, measurement of capacity building, extent of training, and conduct of program. Impact of an effective preventive/promotional program is of paramount importance and has been discussed at length.[ 15 ] The significant strength of the present health promotion using the LS approach (NIMHANS model) has been the evaluation at every level.

Original resource materials in English and later even the translated resource materials were evaluated and modified both by expert professionals and the end users (teachers).

Trainings both at the level of the master trainers (MTs) and the teachers were evaluated both qualitatively and quantitatively-the effectiveness of training was established.

Impact of the LS program on the target population (students) is the most powerful step of the program which was planned as an integral part of the project and presented here. A total of 55,000 students in 261 secondary schools in 21 taluks of 4 districts being the target population, impact evaluation was not possible of every student before and after the LSE program. Hence impact evaluation was carried out in a sample (±500) of the target population in a comparative manner.

Since no specific assessment tools have been found to be superior to elicit LS of the adolescents, hence a set of instruments assessing assessment, presence of problems, coping and self-esteem were used. The tools were chosen such that they were self-administered, simple, earlier used in the local vernacular, and chosen diverse areas of competence-coping GSES,[ 14 ] self-esteem RSES,[ 12 ] adjustment in various areas PAAS,[ 13 ] and absence of psychopathology SDQ.[ 15 ]

Using the above tools the present comparative study indicated that even at the end of 1 year, there was a significant change in the way the adolescent perceived himself/herself in the school, with the teachers, and the confidence level of his/ability to deal with developmental challenges. One year is a very short period in development; however the model which is experiential and focused on specific issues of development seems to increase the ability of the adolescents to adjust well in the school with teachers and improve coping and self-esteem. This was also perceived by the LS educator teachers who reported better classroom behavior and interaction among the students in the program. The students in the program did not perceive better adjustment with peers than those not in the program ( P =0. 921 and 0.670) though the LS Educator teachers reported better interaction with peers in students in the program [ Figure 1 ]. The program probably by its facilitative and interactive nature made the adolescents more aware of their behavioral changes with the teacher and the school rather than their friends with whom they probably felt that they had always interacted well. This is evident in their reporting a difference in the prosocial behavior generally but not specifically with peers. The positive effect of LSE program in student--teacher interaction, academic performance, and peer interaction has been established by others in the West.[ 16 – 19 ] Parents were involved in the initial focus group discussions and later were aware of the implementation of the program. However they were not active partners in the implementation of the program. This was probably the reason for the absence of difference ( P =0. 088) in the home adjustment between the two groups.

Perceived self-efficacy ( P =0.000), better self-esteem ( P =0.001), and better general adjustment ( P =0.000) were important aspects which were significantly different between the two groups, indicating that the program prepares the adolescent to be a ‘competent’ and ‘empowered’ person in a changing, competitive, globalized world.[ 16 ]

Review indicates that most preventive program with adolescents have been specific addressing specific issues of substance abuse, teen pregnancy, violence, bullying, etc.[ 3 , 8 , 18 ] However generic programs with multiple outcomes have also been present and found to be effective too.[ 19 ] The current study confirms that absence of pre- and post-evaluation of the same students apart from a comparative group, feedback of the teachers who specifically handled the sample children, assessment of a longer nature are some of the limitations of the study.

CONCLUSIONS

The present study of the NIMHANS model of LS program is a suitable and an effective school mental health program. The highlights of the model/program are as follows.

• Comprehensive health including mental health through psychosocial competence in adolescents is the goal to empower the adolescent.
• Using life skills as the medium/process.
• Providing a structure to the program by activities.
• Teachers as life skills educators/facilitators.

Evaluation of the Impact of the model shows that it improves adjustment of the adolescents with teachers, school, increases prosocial behavior, coping, and self–esteem, as there was a significant difference between the groups in the program and not in the program.

Implications

Inclusion and institutionalization of SMHP using LS approach in the national mental health program (11th Five-Year Plan) and the educational policy of our country to promote psychosocial competence and reduce problem behaviors in adolescents.

Acknowledgments

Support of Mr. Vijayabhaskar IAS, Commissioner, Department of Public Instruction, Karnataka, both for the funding and the active involvement of the secondary school system in the project is acknowledged.

Source of Support: Project Funded by the Department of State Education, Research and Training, Bangalore, under the Department of Public Instruction, Karnataka. The secondary schools from the four selected districts participated in the project with orders from the department

Conflict of Interest: None declared

15 May 2024

The enduring legacy of school buses

Research-informed approach empowers exceptional learning

•   Publishing dates

By Education Gazette editors

Issue: Volume 103, Number 6

Long Bay College’s journey towards exceptional learning, fueled by extensive research and collaboration, culminates in the creation of Tino Akoranga. It’s a guide that transcends the pages to enrich the entire school community.

Deputy principals Lauren Wing and James Heneghan are enthusiastic about the potential of Tino Akoranga.

In 2019 Long Bay College reviewed its approach to teaching and learning. With a view to considering research-based approaches and developments in culturally responsive practice, relational pedagogy, and cognitive science, the goal was to support teaching and learning in being exceptional.

The process also considered educational approaches from across the world through the lens of Aotearoa New Zealand and the college community, and led to the development of Tino Akoranga – a guide empowering ākonga, kaiako and the community to ‘care, create and excel’ in their own way.

CJ Healey, principal at the North Shore secondary school for seven years, says, “We have always wanted to establish, for our school, a point of difference.

“I asked, ‘How are we able to evolve our practice at a level that will support our staff and our students in their understanding of how they learn?’ That was the remit.”

What it has led to couldn’t have deputy principals Lauren Wing and James Heneghan more enthused. Mahi tahi (working together) may have resulted in a weighty, glossy A4 book, but it’s what’s beyond the pages that matters most.

“We progressed from hearing a talk by Graeme Aitken in 2019, with various provocations to deputy principals, to this coming into being,” says Lauren, deputy principal in charge of professional learning and development.

Weaving a unique kete

Deputy principal in charge of curriculum, James, recalls the embryonic phase of the project.

“We had this blank canvas, so we started by asking, ‘What is the science of teaching?’ And then, ‘How do we refine our craft?’”

This led to more and more questions, with a view to establishing how both staff and students can maximise the teaching and learning experiences available to them in the school environment.

A curriculum and pedagogy team, chaired by James, was fully supported by the school’s board to delve deeply into the work of esteemed educators, including Graeme Aitken, Russell Bishop, Richard Mayer, Viviane Robinson, Craig Randall and more.

Extracting what they felt fitted with the needs of their ākonga and kaiako, the drivers of Tino Akoranga wove together a unique kete of knowledge to carry into practice.

“We could see real value in the different pedagogies, but we had to look at how we could relate these to the teaching and learning at Long Bay College,” says James.

“It’s been a process of translating strategies off the page and into the classroom,” adds Lauren.

Lauren and James with principal CJ Healey in the middle.

Exceptional learning principles

Providing dedicated professional development days was key to expanding this mahi and establishing a whole school approach to developing, implementing and evolving the bespoke approach to learning.

The document introduces itself as, “underpinned by a diverse research base, contextually aligned to our ākonga, and proven within our classrooms and practices”, and “a road map for teaching and learning that … creates a shared educational philosophy across the college”.

“A key early learning was to create a shared understanding of what exceptional teaching and learning is. And how do we distil and translate these ideas from international and local sources for use here at Long Bay College?” says Lauren.

These ideas led to the creation of three ‘Exceptional Learning Principles’:

Tikanga – Our living classroom culture for learning

Ako – Know the student, know what to teach and how to teach it, and know it has been learned

Mahara – Teaching for memory. Learning is a change in memory and teaching supports that change.

Tino Akoranga

From this, developed a raft of strategies and practices stemming from each of the three principles. The 92-page Tino Akoranga book documents these, as well as addressing curriculum design, adaptive routines, culturally responsive practice, considerations for application, lesson plan templates and a bibliography bursting with research references.

Valuing vulnerability

How the process and programme has been embraced by the school is testament to the way it has been a collaborative and, importantly, a safe environment that values vulnerability.

“There were some massive questions asked,” smiles James. “And we brought a real vulnerability to this. It has always been about improving, not proving.”

Senior leaders were the first to place themselves in the spotlight for observation and feedback, modelling the vulnerable approach needed to make this authentic and effective.

As well as regular PLD days and sharing at kāhui ako conferences, an annual showcase enables staff to share learnings and creates a collegiate atmosphere. Lauren says the depth and breadth of engagement is “massively heartening”.

CJ says this body has been a massive undertaking. But the approach, the principles underpinning it and the delivery serve as true examples of mahi tahi, of benefit to all involved, as individuals and as a collective.

Read the 2024 edition of Tino Akoranga (external link) on the Long Bay College website.

BY Education Gazette editors Education Gazette | Tukutuku Kōrero, [email protected]

Posted: 2:01 pm, 15 May 2024

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• Area / composite (Years 1–15)
• Secondary (Years 7–15) / wharekura

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Unravelling life’s origin: five key breakthroughs from the past five years

Associate professor, Dublin City University

PhD Student in Astrobiology, Dublin City University

Disclosure statement

Seán Jordan receives funding from European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 1101114969) and from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI Pathway award 22/PATH-S/10692). He is affiliated with the Origin of Life Early-career Network (OoLEN).

Louise Gillet de Chalonge receives funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 1101114969). She is affiliated with the Origin of Life Early-career Network (OoLEN).

Dublin City University provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK.

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There is still so much we don’t understand about the origin of life on Earth.

The definition of life itself is a source of debate among scientists, but most researchers agree on the fundamental ingredients of a living cell. Water, energy, and a few essential elements are the prerequisites for cells to emerge. However, the exact details of how this happens remain a mystery.

Recent research has focused on trying to recreate in the lab the chemical reactions that constitute life as we know it, in conditions plausible for early Earth (around 4 billion years ago). Experiments have grown in complexity, thanks to technological progress and a better understanding of what early Earth conditions were like.

However, far from bringing scientists together and settling the debate, the rise of experimental work has led to many contradictory theories. Some scientists think that life emerged in deep-sea hydrothermal vents , where the conditions provided the necessary energy. Others argue that hot springs on land would have provided a better setting because they are more likely to hold organic molecules from meteorites. These are just two possibilities which are being investigated.

Here are five of the most remarkable discoveries over the last five years.

Reactions in early cells

What energy source drove the chemical reactions at the origin of life? This is the mystery that a research team in Germany has sought to unravel. The team delved into the feasibility of 402 reactions known to create some of the essential components of life, such as nucleotides (a building block of DNA and RNA). They did this using some of the most common elements that could have been found on the early Earth.

These reactions, present in modern cells, are also believed to be the core metabolism of LUCA, the last universal common ancestor , a single-cell, bacterium-like organism.

For each reaction, they calculated the changes in free energy, which determines if a reaction can go forward without other external sources of energy. What is fascinating is that many of these reactions were independent of external influences like adenosine triphosphate , a universal source of energy in living cells.

The synthesis of life’s fundamental building blocks didn’t need an external energy boost: it was self-sustaining.

Volcanic glass

Life relies on molecules to store and convey information. Scientists think that RNA (ribonucleic acid) strands were precursors to DNA in fulfilling this role, since their structure is more simple.

The emergence of RNA on our planet has long confused researchers. However, some progress has been made recently. In 2022, a team of collaborators in the US generated stable RNA strands in the lab. They did it by passing nucleotides through volcanic glass. The strands they made were long enough to store and transfer information.

Volcanic glass was present on the early Earth, thanks to frequent meteorite impacts coupled with a high volcanic activity. The nucleotides used in the study are also believed to have been present at that time in Earth’s history. Volcanic rocks could have facilitated the chemical reactions that assembled nucleotides into RNA chains.

• Hydrothermal vents

Carbon fixation is a process in which CO₂ gains electrons. It is necessary to build the molecules that form the basis of life.

An electron donor is necessary to drive this reaction. On the early Earth, H₂ could have been the electron donor. In 2020, a team of collaborators showed that this reaction could spontaneously occur and be fuelled by environmental conditions similar to deep-sea alkaline hydrothermal vents in the early ocean. They did this using microfluidic technology , devices that manipulate tiny volumes of liquids to perform experiments by simulating alkaline vents.

This pathway is strikingly similar to how many modern bacterial and archaeal cells (single-cell organisms without a nucleas) operate.

The Krebs Cycle

In modern cells, carbon fixation is followed by a cascade of chemical reactions that assemble or break down molecules, in intricate metabolic networks that are driven by enzymes.

But scientists are still debating how metabolic reactions unfolded before the emergence and evolution of those enzymes. In 2019, a team from the University of Strasbourg in France made a breakthrough . They showed that ferrous iron, a type of iron that was abundant in early Earth’s crust and ocean, could drive nine out of 11 steps of the Krebs Cycle . The Krebs Cycle is a biological pathway present in many living cells.

Here, ferrous iron acted as the electron donor for carbon fixation, which drove the cascade of reactions. The reactions produced all five of the universal metabolic precursors – five molecules that are fundamental across various metabolic pathways in all living organisms.

Building blocks of ancient cell membranes

Understanding the formation of life’s building blocks and their intricate reactions is a big step forward in comprehending the emergence of life.

However, whether they unfolded in hot springs on land or in the deep sea, these reactions would not have gone far without a cell membrane. Cell membranes play an active role in the biochemistry of a primitive cell and its connection with the environment.

Modern cell membranes are mostly composed of compounds called phospholipids, which contain a hydrophilic head and two hydrophobic tails. They are structured in bilayers, with the hydrophilic heads pointing outward and the hydrophobic tails pointing inward.

Research has shown that some components of phospholipids, such as the fatty acids that constitute the tails, can self-assemble into those bilayer membranes in a range of environmental conditions . But were these fatty acids present on the early Earth? Recent research from Newcastle University, UK gives an interesting answer. Researchers recreated the spontaneous formation of these molecules by combining H₂-rich fluids, likely present in ancient alkaline hydrothermal vents, with CO₂-rich water resembling the early ocean.

This breakthrough aligns with the hypothesis that stable fatty acid membranes could have originated in alkaline hydrothermal vents, potentially progressing into living cells. The authors speculated that similar chemical reactions might unfold in the subsurface oceans of icy moons, which are thought to have hydrothermal vents similar to terrestrial ones.

Each of these discoveries adds a new piece to the puzzle of the origin of life. Regardless of which ones are proved correct, contrasting theories are fuelling the search for answers. As Charles Darwin wrote :

False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science for they often long endure: but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for everyone takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness; and when this is done, one path towards error is closed and the road to truth is often at the same time opened.

• Chemical reactions
• Origins of Life
• Charles Darwin
• Scientific discovery
• nucleotides

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