Polish primary informatics under COVID remote schooling
Polish primary students mostly had home ICT access during lockdown, but expert-rated informatics outcomes stayed low unless school distance lessons were paired with out-of-school courses.
Source
New realities for Polish primary school informatics education affected by COVID-19
Study at a glance
- Design
- Cross-sectional — Non-probability survey of K3–K10 primary students; skills subsample randomly selected
- N
- N=333 · Including 60 eight-year-olds; 60 students (18%) randomly selected for a skills comparison
- Population
- Polish primary-school students from grade 3 to 10
- Outcome
- Informatics education experience and skills after pandemic-related changes
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Inspect source passages
Polish primary informatics under COVID remote schooling
These passages occur verbatim in the stored paper text. They support the points listed below; they do not verify every statement in the explanation.
The access/use survey included 333 primary school students.
The study non-probabilistic sample consists of 333 primary school students from K3 to K10 curriculum standards in Poland.
60 students (18% of the sample) were randomly selected for the skills comparison.
18% of the total sample (60 students) has been randomly selected and equally assigned to the group “A” – 20 students, “B” – 20 students and “C” – 20 students respectively.
What they did
Researchers surveyed 333 Polish primary students (ages about 8–14) on ICT access and use before and during the first COVID wave, then had experts rate a 60-student subsample on five national-curriculum informatics criteria across three exposure groups: school distance lessons plus out-of-school courses, school distance lessons only, or neither.
What they found
Home Internet and device access were widespread, and students spent more time on screens during the pandemic. Expert ratings of informatics learning outcomes were generally low; the group with both school and out-of-school distance informatics scored better on several criteria (especially programming/troubleshooting) than students with only school lessons or no informatics distance teaching. Social competence ratings were relatively stronger across groups, while e-safety knowledge remained weak.
The limits
What it doesn't show
This is not a randomized trial of remote pedagogy, does not isolate teaching quality from household resources, and cannot show long-term effects on later Matura or secondary informatics achievement.
Key terms
- Distance informatics education
- School computer-science teaching delivered remotely with synchronous or asynchronous tools during COVID school closures.
- Out-of-school courses
- Extra distance informatics activities outside regular school lessons during lockdown.
- ICT access
- Whether household members can use devices and Internet services, regardless of ownership.
- Spiral learning model
- Curriculum design that revisits topics with increasing depth across primary grades toward later exam expectations.
- CR2 (programming criterion)
- Expert-rated outcome for programming and troubleshooting with computers and other ICT devices.
- E-safety
- Knowledge of online security practices such as passwords, safeguards, and data protection.
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Quiz yourself
What was the study’s overall design?
Common questions
Who was studied?
333 Polish primary students for the access/use survey, with 60 randomly selected for expert-rated skill comparison across three distance-learning exposure groups.
What mattered most for informatics outcomes?
Expert means were higher when school distance informatics was combined with out-of-school distance courses, especially for programming-related criteria.
Did students lack Internet at home?
Most reported access; the authors note residual gaps and that connection quality was not measured.
Is social competence the weak spot?
No—social competence ratings were comparatively strong; e-safety knowledge was among the weaker areas.
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