The effects of unexpected changes to content delivery on student learning outcomes: A psychological contract perspective during the COVID‐19 era
Meta‐analyses suggest that student learning outcomes (SLOs) are comparable across modalities of instruction. None of these studies examined how unmet student expectations (here, unexpected changes in course delivery) might increase perceptions of student–instructor‐university psychological contract...
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| Published in: | Psychology in the schools Vol. 59; no. 8; pp. 1473 - 1491 |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
United States
Wiley
01-08-2022
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc John Wiley and Sons Inc |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Meta‐analyses suggest that student learning outcomes (SLOs) are comparable across modalities of instruction. None of these studies examined how unmet student expectations (here, unexpected changes in course delivery) might increase perceptions of student–instructor‐university psychological contract breaches (PCBs) and, ultimately, perceived SLOs within and across modalities. The COVID‐19 pandemic provided an opportunity to study these potential relationships because many residential institutions of higher education opted into, or were required to, offer distance and/or blended learning to accommodate COVID‐19 safety mandates. This study sampled undergraduate students (n = 155) from a university, which, before the pandemic, offered exclusively face‐to‐face classroom instruction. During the Fall 2020 semester, however, this university offered three modalities of instruction: (1) face‐to‐face; (2) blended learning; and (3) distance education. The results of this study suggest that perceived PCBs by instructors and universities negatively influence underling indices of student achievement in terms of motivation, engagement, and learning within and across modalities of instruction. Given this and near universal decrements in student enrollment and retention in institutions of higher education, it is important for universities and instructors to understand, explicitly and transparently negotiate, and meet student expectations to improve student progression to graduation and maintain competitiveness among similar institutions.
Highlights
The first study to examine the extent to which unexpected pivots to distance and blended learning impact student perceptions of their learning experiences through the lens of the psychological contract theory.
Study results reveal interesting and consistent trends, indicating that psychological contracts, or breaches thereof, do play a part in determining whether students may prefer and be more motivated and engaged in one modality of instruction over another.
Perceived psychological contract breaches on the part of instructors who taught via a specific learning modality (F2F, distance, or blended) were related to (1) generally preferring the other two modalities over that modality; and (2) lower levels of motivation, engagement, and learning within that modality as compared to the other two.
Results suggest that when courses were offered in the expected format (i.e., F2F), then any unmet expectations were attributed to the instructor. But in those courses that were offered in alternative formats (i.e., distance or blended), then blame was shared by the university and instructors of record. |
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| Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
| ISSN: | 0033-3085 1520-6807 |
| DOI: | 10.1002/pits.22685 |