Behavioral, cognitive, emotional and social engagement in mathematics learning during COVID-19 pandemic

Dirgha Raj Joshi; Krishna Prasad Adhikari; Bishnu Khanal; Jiban Khadka; Shashidhar Belbase

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0278052

Behavioral, cognitive, emotional and social engagement in mathematics learning during COVID-19 pandemic

PLoS One. 2022 Nov 22;17(11):e0278052. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0278052. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Dirgha Raj Joshi^{1

2}, Krishna Prasad Adhikari³, Bishnu Khanal¹, Jiban Khadka⁴, Shashidhar Belbase⁵

Affiliations

¹ Mahendra Ratna Campus Tahachal, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Nepal.
² Nepal Open University, Lalitpur, Nepal.
³ Department of Mathematics Education, Central Campus, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Nepal.
⁴ Faculty of Social Science and Education, Nepal Open University, Lalitpur, Nepal.
⁵ Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Abstract

A meaningful engagement of learners is critical in the quality teaching and learning of mathematics at school level. Learner engagement has been an ongoing issue in mathematics classrooms in Nepal and elsewhere. In this context, this study aimed to examine the level of engagement (behavioral, social, emotional, and cognitive activities) and their association with learning mathematics through the virtual mode of instruction during the pandemic. The cross-sectional online survey design was employed among 402 secondary-level mathematics teachers in Nepal. Descriptive statistics, correlation, and structural equation modeling were the major statistical techniques used in research. The findings indicate that the level of behavioral, social, emotional, and cognitive engagement of students was found to be high in the online mode of instruction. Additionally, cognitive engagement has significant highest impact on social, behavior, and emotional engagement.

Copyright: © 2022 Joshi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19* / epidemiology
Cognition
Cross-Sectional Studies
Humans
Mathematics
Pandemics*
Social Participation

Grants and funding

The author(s) received no specific funding for this work. However, the open access publication fee was supported by the College of Education, United Arab Emirates University under the project grant 12D004 (Start-up Research Grant for Dr. Shashidhar Belbase).