Original Article
Comparison of Parent-Rated
Teaching Activities During the First
and Second School Lockdowns and Its
Association With Students’ Learning
Outcomes During Distant Teaching
Ricarda Steinmayr1, Rebecca Lazarides2, Linda Wirthwein1, and Hanna Christiansen3
1Department of Psychology, TU Dortmund University, Germany
2Department of Education, University of Potsdam, Germany
3Department of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology and Psychotherapy, Philipps University Marburg, Germany
Abstract: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, schools were closed twice in Germany for several months. The aim of the present study was to
investigate whether distant teaching activities increased from the first school lockdown to the second school lockdown and whether the
frequency of distant teaching activities were related to students’ outcomes (motivation, competent and independent learning, perceived
learning progress) during distant learning. To this end, N = 3,480 legal guardians filled in an online questionnaire during the second lockdown
(see Steinmayr et al., 2021). Distant teaching activities greatly increased from the first lockdown to the second lockdown. Besides commu-
nication with a parent, all other distant teaching activities were more frequent at secondary schools. However, in both elementary and
secondary schools, distant teaching activities varied greatly. Distant teaching activities as well as children’s characteristics and social
background were independently important for students’ outcomes. The results are discussed with regard to their practical implications for
realizing distant teaching.
Keywords: COVID-19, distant teaching, teaching quality, motivation, perceived competencies
The two school lockdowns in Germany due to COVID-19 in to students’ motivation, learning behaviors, and academic
2020 and 2021 faced students, parents, and teachers with achievement (Steinmayr et al., 2021). The aim of this study
new challenges. During the first lockdown in Germany, the thus is to compare the frequency of teaching activities
prerequisites for distant teaching were not given at most during the first and second school lockdowns and to
schools (e.g., König et al., 2020), which resulted in an replicate the results by Steinmayr and colleagues.
undesirable realization of distant teaching (Steinmayr et al.,
2021). Before the second lockdown in Germany (December
2020), the government had time and financial investments Effects of Infection Control Interventions
to prepare schools better (May & Hoerl, 2022). In both on Children and Adolescents
lockdowns, the Ministries of Education of all federal states
completely allocated the realization of distant teaching to Overall, the pandemic-caused school closures and dis-
the schools (see also Fickermann & Edelstein, 2020). Thus, ruption of family routines hadmassive consequences on the
the quality of distance teaching greatly varied between children worldwide (for a review, see Panchal et al., 2021).
schools in the first lockdown (see Steinmayr et al., 2021). As The results of the German COPSY study, which surveyed
teaching quality is an important prerequisite for students’ students between 12 and 17 years, showed that school
academic achievement, motivation, and emotion (e.g., closures were associated with an increase in mental health
Lazarides & Buchholz, 2019), the teaching activities during impairment and the perception that the school situation is
the first school lockdown and their respective quality (in the burdensome, whereas the school openings in the fall of
following labeled as distant teaching activities) were related 2021 were associated with improvements in those factors
Zeitschrift für Psychologie (2023), 231(3), 192–203 © 2023 The Author(s). Distributed as a Hogrefe OpenMind article
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R. Steinmayr et al., Homeschooling During Second School Lockdown 193
(Ravens-Sieberer et al., 2022). In a longitudinal study, learning activities, and learning success. Similarly, Steinmayr
Steinmayr and colleagues (2022) demonstrated a decline in and colleagues (2021) showed that distant teaching activities
affective subjective well-being by testing an elementary that involve direct forms of interpersonal feedback and
school sample before and during the pandemic. communication particularly contributed to elementary and
As teachers were unprepared when schools closed the secondary school students’ academic outcomes during
first time and digital equipment was insufficient at German school lockdown. Furthermore,more recent findings showed
schools (Lorenz et al., 2020), the government invested a that instructional quality during distance education con-
lot of money to equip teachers with digital teaching and tributed little to explaining students’ learning effort and
communication devices. In the end, most teachers had a intrinsic motivation (Helm & Huber, 2022).
laptop or tablet by which they were able to realize distant
teaching. However, having the means to teach in distance
does not equal that distant teaching is realized on a fre- Student and Family Characteristics
quent basis. Thus, one aim of the present study was to
check whether the realization of distant teaching changed Family and students’ characteristics are important for stu-
from the first lockdown to the second lockdown. dents’ motivation (e.g., Steinmayr et al., 2012). Therefore,
students’ achievement motivation and their academic
achievement during homeschooling should be substantially
Distant Teaching Activities During the related to students’ abilities, personality/temperament, and
COVID-19 Pandemic school engagement. In line with Steinmayr and colleagues
(2021), we included the following student characteristics as
Students’ motivational and cognitive development in possible confounding factors in our study: parents’perceptions
learning settings is shaped by the teaching practices they of students’ abilities in the domains of math and German,
experience in class (Pianta & Hamre, 2009). The Three students’negative emotionality (as a facet of their personality/
Dimensions of Teaching Quality framework of Klieme and temperament), and students’ school engagement. We chose
colleagues (2009) describes three basic dimensions of ef- school engagement as well as math and language art com-
fective teaching. An effective classroom management is de- petencies as they had the highest relative importance for
fined, for example, by actions of the teacher to establish school achievement in previous studies (e.g., Steinmayr et al.,
order or to elicit cooperation among students. Cognitive 2018). As homeschooling requires a lot of emotional self-
activation refers, for example, to the encouragement of control, we also assessed negative emotionality. The findings
students to develop their own solutions, to try out multiple demonstrated substantial relations between these factors and
solution paths, and to critically evaluate their own solutions. students’ motivation and achievement in elementary and
Learning support is particularly important for students’ mo- secondary schools (e.g., Steinmayr et al., 2018, 2021). Thiswas
tivational development and is characterized, for example, by also true for students’ motivation, independent and compe-
emotional supportive teacher–student relationships and tent learning, and perceived learning progress during the first
adaptive learning support. Against this background, research lockdown (Steinmayr et al., 2021). The findings also dem-
has emphasized that distant teaching during the COVID-19- onstrated the association between social background variables
related school lockdown also needs to consider the im- and academic achievement as well as learning motivation
plementation of teaching quality (Voss &Wittwer, 2020). As during the pandemic (e.g., Heyder et al., 2020). Furthermore,
the recently published meta-analysis by Betthäuser and learning losses were especially pronounced for socially dis-
colleagues (2023) has shown, studies on distance educa- advantaged students (Ludewig et al., 2022). Thus, we also
tion during the school closures display generally negative included variables assessing students’ socioeconomic back-
effects on students’ learning outcomes, especially when ground, e.g., parents’ highest school leaving certificate.
belonging to marginalized groups (see also Darling-Aduana Moreover, we asked for the child’s and parent’s age,migration
et al., 2022). Huber and Helm (2020) report that the background, and gender.Genderwas related to both students’
feedback that students reported to have received from their learning outcomes during the first lockdown (Steinmayr et al.,
teachers was positively associated with their self-reported 2021) and a decrease in academic achievement after the first
learning success and with time spent with learning activities. lockdown (Breaux et al., 2021).
The student-reported quality of the contact between students
and their teachers during the school closures was negatively
associated with learning success but positively associated Aims of the Present Study
with students’ positive emotions and time spent with
learning activities. The level of self-reported self-directed Only few studies investigated distant teaching realization
learning was positively associated with positive emotions, in the second lockdown (e.g., Alves et al., 2022;Wößmann
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194 R. Steinmayr et al., Homeschooling During Second School Lockdown
et al., 2021). We are not aware of a study that system- Method
atically compared the first and second school lockdowns
concerning the realization of distant teaching in different Procedure
subjects in elementary and secondary schools.
Therefore, the first aim of the present study was to The study was conducted online. Parents filled in the online
investigate how distant teaching was realized in different questionnaire between January and March 2021 during the
subjects during the second school lockdown in schools in second school lockdown in Germany of the global Corona
Germany. In line with Steinmayr and colleagues (2021), crisis (the COVID-19 pandemic). To reduce the risk of in-
we expected that different forms of distant teaching (e.g., fection, most schools had been closed in Germany from
grading, sending tasks vs. task-related feedback, provi- before Christmas 2020 onward for several weeks, for most
sion of solutions, direct communication with students grades at least until Easter holidays 2021 and beyond. We
and parents) would differ across school types and would recruited parents from all over Germany by posting the
be differentially associated with students’ motivation, study link on Facebook.com, Twitter.com, and other social
learning behaviors, and achievement during the school networks (e.g., Bing). Additionally, we contacted 28 parent
lockdown. Furthermore, studies indicated that students’ associations from all federal states in Germany in January
individual characteristics and family-related socioeco- 2021 by e-mail. Finally, we disseminated the study link by
nomic resources were substantially associated with stu- ourselves via our university homepages and via personal
dents’ motivation, their behavior, and achievement contacts and e-mail distribution lists.
during the school lockdown (e.g., Huber & Helm, 2020; The online questionnaire was nearly identical to the one
Sliwka & Klopsch, 2020). used by Steinmayr and colleagues (2021). The completion
Against this background, we investigated the following of the online questionnaire took the parents about 20 min.
hypotheses: If they hadmore than one child in the school, parents were
asked to indicate for which child they filled in the
Hypothesis 1: The frequency of distant teaching questionnaire.
activities differs between elementary and secondary
schools.
Participants
Hypothesis 2: The frequency of distant teaching
activities differs between the first and second lockdowns A total of 3,480 adults from all German federal states were
for both elementary and secondary schools. included in the study. The mean age of the parents was
43.34 years (SD = 5.71). Themajority of parents were female
Hypothesis 3: The frequency of distant teaching (n = 3,040; male: n = 437; other: n = 3), were born in
activities is positively associated with students’ Germany (n = 3,230), and had some kind of university
motivation, competent and independent learning, and entrance certificate [(Fach-)Abitur] (n = 2,557). Of all par-
learning progress during the school lockdown. ticipating subjects, n = 3,076 indicated to be the mother of
the child for whom they filled in the questionnaire (father:
Hypothesis 4: Distant teaching activities that involve n = 375; different responsible relationship to the child:
direct forms of interpersonal feedback and commu- n = 29). The sample was representative for the German
nication (e.g., task-related feedback, teaching via population with respect to mean age (Federal Statistical
videoconference, and student–teacher communica- Office, 2020b). However, females and parents with a uni-
tion) are particularly strongly related to students’ versity entrance certificate were overrepresented in the
motivation, competent and independent learning, and sample (Federal Statistical Office, 2020a, 2020b).
learning progress during the school lockdown when Themean age of the rated children was 10.97 (SD = 2.96),
simultaneously considering other forms of distant of whom n = 1,696 were female (male: n = 1765; other:
teaching activities (e.g., grading, frequency of sending n = 19). Children attended the following school types: el-
out tasks). ementary school: n = 1,373; academic track secondary
schools (Gymnasium): n = 1,378; comprehensive secondary
Hypothesis 5: Students’ characteristics and social schools (Gesamtschule): n = 375; intermediate track sec-
background variables add to the variance explanation ondary schools (Realschule): n = 264; lowest track sec-
of students’ motivation, competent and independent ondary schools (Hauptschule): n = 29; schools for special
learning, and learning progress during the school educational needs (Förderschule): n = 23; and other school
lockdown above distant teaching activities. type: n = 38. Children were in Grades 1–13.
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R. Steinmayr et al., Homeschooling During Second School Lockdown 195
At the time their parents participated in this study, lockdown” (reversely coded). Parents answered the items
children had to learn at home because of the school on the same scale as the motivation items.
lockdown for 7.59 weeks on average (SD = 3.97 weeks). We Learning Progress During the School Lockdown. The item
excluded parents of children who attended a school for “My child learns a lot during the school lockdown”
special educational needs because these children have assessed parents’ perception of their child’s learning
systematically different needs than students who are at- progress during the school lockdown. Parents answered
tending regular schools. Furthermore, we excluded parents the item on the same scale as the motivation items. The
whose children attended a different school type than the item correlated in the expected direction with the other
Gymnasium, Gesamtschule, Realschule, and Hauptschule. items; for example, correlation with motivation during the
The final analysis sample of this study thus comprised 3,419 school lockdown was high.
participants, of whom n = 1,373 attended an elementary Distant Teaching Activities. Eight different distant
school and n = 2,046 attended a secondary school. This teaching activities were assessed via eight items assessing
distribution of elementary (40%) and secondary school the perceived frequency at which different teachers realized
students (60%) was similar to the distribution in the these aspects. According to Steinmayr and colleagues
population of German students in 2020/2021 (elementary: (2021), we focused on mathematics, language arts, En-
36%; secondary: 64%). A MANOVA with both gender and glish, and science (elementary school) and biology teachers
age variables as well as the indicator of sociodemographic (secondary school). Specifically, we asked parents for the
background demonstrated that the present sample slightly frequency at which the respective teacher sent tasks and
differed from the sample in the first lockdown (see solutions, requested students’ solutions, gave feedback on
Steinmayr et al., 2021). Subsequent ANOVAs showed that those, graded students’ solutions, taught via videoconfer-
the case was statistically significant ( p < .05) for having an ence, and had contact with the child and/or parent via chat,
own room (F = 12.74), highest school leaving certificate e-mail, or phone. Answers were given on a scale with six
(F = 18.52), child’s age (F = 5.42), and both gender variables answer options: 1 (not yet), 2 (every 3 weeks), 3 (every 2 weeks),
(parent: F = 14.37; child: F = 15.67). However, all effect sizes 4 (every week), 5 (twice per week), and 6 (three times per week or
were η2 < .003. Thus, samples assessed in the first and more). Parents were asked to answer these questions for
second lockdowns were nearly identical. every subject even if the same teacher taught these subjects.
Items referring to the same distant teaching activity were
summed up indicating how this aspect of distant teaching
Instruments was realized in general at the school that the rated child
attended. Reliabilities were at least satisfactory. We addi-
All scales used in the present paper had been identically tionally asked parents whether distant teaching was orga-
assessed and described in detail in Steinmayr and colleagues nized via videoconferences according to their child’s regular
(2021). Reliabilities for all measures are reported in the timetable (with the exception of sports). Answering options
Electronic Supplementary Material (ESM 1), Supplement 1, were no, yes, and other. The itemwas dummy-coded with no
and are high. and other = 0 and yes = 1.
Motivation During the School Lockdown. Students’ moti- Parent Ratings of Student Characteristics. Parents were
vation was assessed with the following items: “My child instructed to compare their child with children of the same
works motivated on the assignments during the school age when rating their child’s negative emotionality, school
lockdown” and “My child enjoys working on her/his as- engagement, and math and language arts abilities in
signments during the school lockdown.” Parents were general. Parents answered all items on a 7-point scale. All
asked to read through the items and indicate whether the items had previously been used in a parent survey (see
following statements apply to their situation at home Steinmayr et al., 2021).
during the school lockdown. They answered the items on a Negative Emotionality. Parents’ perception of their
5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 child’s negative emotionality was assessed with the fol-
(strongly agree). The two items were combined to a mo- lowing four items which were adapted from the Personality
tivation during the school lockdown scale. questionnaire for children between the ages of 9 and 14
Competent and Independent Learning During the School (Persönlichkeitsfragebogen für Kinder zwischen 9 und 14
Lockdown. The items were the following: “My child ac- Jahren/PFK 9–14; Seitz & Rausche, 2019): “My child is
complishes her/his assignment during the school lockdown easily annoyed about something,” “It is mostly difficult for
without any difficulties,” “My child only accomplishes her/ my child to be patient,” and “My child gets angry quickly.”
his assignment during the school lockdown with my or my School Engagement. We used the short version of the
partner’s help” (reversely coded), and “My child needs a lot Behavioral Engagement andDisaffection scales developed
of support for doing her/his school tasks during the school by Skinner and colleagues (2008). We assessed behavioral
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196 R. Steinmayr et al., Homeschooling During Second School Lockdown
engagement with the following items: “My child tries hard goodness of fit of the tested models (Goodboy & Kline,
to dowell in school,” “My child listens carefully if someone 2017). The SEMs were set up in the following way: In the
explains something to her/him,” and “My child always first model, parent-rated student’s motivation, competent
takes an effort to do her/his homework well.” and independent learning, and learning progress during
Math and Language Arts Abilities. Parents’ perception of distant learning were simultaneously regressed on the eight
their child’s abilities in the domain of math was assessed distant teaching activities. Perceived motivation and com-
by the following three items (adapted from Lorenz, 2011): petent and independent learning were modelled as latent
“My child is talented in math,” “My child has a good factors and learning progress as a manifest variable. Then,
understanding of mathematical relations,” and “My child parent-rated student’s motivation, competent and inde-
can solve arithmetic problems well.” Parents’ perception pendent learning, and learning progress were additionally
of their child’s ability in the domain of language arts was regressed on parent-rated child’s general negative emo-
assessed by the following four items (adapted fromLorenz, tionality, school engagement, abilities inmath and language
2011): “My child is talented in German,” “My child can arts (all modelled as latent factors), dummy-coded parent’s
understand texts well,” “My child has an extensive highest school leaving certificate, migration background,
vocabulary,” and “My child can read well.” possession of a laptop or a tablet during school lockdown,
Social Background. Four items assessed families’ social possession of an own bedroom, and child’s and parent’s
background. First, we asked for the rater’s highest school gender and age (for more details, see ESM 1, Supplement 2).
leaving certificate. The variable was dummy-coded by Analyses were run separately for elementary and secondary
recoding no or vocational track leaving certificates as 0 schools. We checked whether secondary schools differed in
and both academic track school leaving certificates as 1. the models described below. We found no statistically or
Others were coded as missing. Second, parents indicated practically significant differences. Thus, we decided to
if they were born in Germany or in a different country as perform all analyses for the combined secondary school
a measure of migration background. The variable was sample.
also dummy-coded with 0 (born in Germany) and 1 (not
born in Germany). Third, we assessed whether the rated
child had a bedroom for them and whether the child had
a computer or tablet at their disposal for their assign- Results
ments during the school lockdown (see Wendt et al.,
2017). Answer options for the latter two items were 0 (no) Descriptive Statistics and Frequencies
and 1 ( yes).
Further Demographics. Additionally, we considered Table 1 displays the results MANOVAs yielded concerning
children’s and parents’ age and gender. Gender was difference in distant teaching activities between measure-
dummy-coded with 0 (male) and 1 ( female). ment points (first and second lockdowns) and elementary
and secondary schools. The data used for the first lockdown
had already been published in Steinmayr and colleagues
Statistical Analyses (2021). Frequencies of distant teaching activities for the
second lockdown are reported in ESM 1, Supplement 3.
Descriptive statistics and multivariate analyses of variance The results demonstrated, in line with Hypothesis 1, that
were calculatedwith SPSS 28.When conductingMANOVAs the frequency of teaching activities differed between
to test Hypotheses 1 and 2, we first ran them with demo- elementary and secondary schools (between different
graphic variables as covariates as the samples in the first secondary school types, they did not differ statistically
and second lockdowns slightly differ. However, as none of significant). Besides communication with a legal guardian,
the demographic variables reached statistical significance, all teaching activities were more frequent in secondary
the results are presentedwithout covariates.We usedMplus schools (see ESM 1, Supplement 3, Table E2). MANOVAs
version 7.4 (Muthén & Muthén, 1998–2015) for all other yielded effect sizes ranging between η2 = .03 (grading) and
analyses using the same analytical approach as in Steinmayr η2 = .35 (sending tasks). Furthermore, in line with Hy-
et al (2021). We accounted for missing data by applying full pothesis 2, distant teaching activities greatly increased
information maximum likelihood estimation (Enders & from the first school lockdown to the second school
Bandalos, 2001). For the structural equation models lockdown in both school levels (see also ESM 1, Supple-
(SEM), we refer to the comparative fit index (CFI), the root ment 4). MANOVAs yielded especially large effect sizes
mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) along with its for the frequency by which teacher taught via videocon-
associated CIs, the standardized root mean squared re- ferences (η2 = .33). However, variances for all distant
sidual (SRMR), and the chi-square test statistic to evaluate teaching activities were still huge in both school levels.
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R. Steinmayr et al., Homeschooling During Second School Lockdown 197
Table 1. Multivariate analyses of variance with mean frequencies of different distant teaching activities as the dependent variables and type of
school (elementary vs. secondary school) and time ofmeasurement (first vs. second lockdown) as independent variables and subsequent univariate
analyses of variance
1. Lockdown 2. Lockdown ANOVAs
Lockdown ×
M SD M SD Lockdown School school
Teaching activities ES SecS ES SecS ES SecS ES SecS F η2 F η2 F η2
How often did the following teacher. . .
. . . sent tasks? 281.62 .19 654.93 .35 44.96 .04
Math teacher 3.68 4.00 0.90 0.89 4.15 4.78 0.82 0.92 690.91 .11 398.09 .06 44.99 .01
Language arts teacher 3.68 3.92 0.91 0.90 4.15 4.69 0.80 0.94 666.82 .10 271.54 .04 36.93 .01
English teacher 2.12 3.96 1.35 0.88 3.26 4.67 1.32 0.93 907.92 .14 2,770.04 .34 47.23 .01
Biology/science teacher 2.46 3.29 1.39 1.18 3.58 4.03 1.18 0.88 825.10 .14 385.18 .07 33.77 .01
. . . sent solutions? 89.57 .07 337.22 .22 3.74 <.01
Math teacher 2.38 3.41 1.59 1.34 2.96 4.05 1.78 1.44 217.01 .04 661.53 .10 0.39
Language arts teacher 2.31 2.92 1.55 1.53 2.91 3.67 1.78 1.67 235.40 .04 239.24 .04 2.97
English teacher 1.59 3.12 1.19 1.48 2.38 3.77 1.63 1.58 288.65 .05 1,183.02 .18 2.75
Biology/science teacher 1.76 2.53 1.32 1.46 2.53 3.29 1.68 1.47 332.34 .06 332.30 .06 0.01
. . . requested students’ solutions? 313.32 .21 374.93 .24 2.93 <.01
Math teacher 2.40 3.27 1.52 1.45 3.73 4.39 1.44 1.24 1,062.82 .16 408.30 .07 8.20 <.01
Language arts teacher 2.49 3.20 1.50 1.41 3.75 4.35 1.41 1.18 1,077.29 .16 315.59 .05 2.07
English teacher 1.63 3.22 1.21 1.41 2.91 4.34 1.63 1.18 981.54 .16 1,555.39 .23 4.73 <.01
Biology/science teacher 1.83 2.68 1.29 1.44 3.14 3.76 1.55 1.13 974.29 .16 368.85 .07 8.70 <.01
. . . gave feedback on students’ solutions? 226.81 .16 155.19 .12 7.99 <.01
Math teacher 2.01 2.41 1.40 1.51 3.44 3.39 1.57 1.66 807.19 .13 17.71 <.01 28.11 <.01
Language arts teacher 2.11 2.40 1.43 1.48 3.53 3.34 1.54 1.61 802.25 .13 1.30 34.59 <.01
English teacher 1.42 2.44 1.02 1.49 2.61 3.39 1.65 1.63 613.93 .11 436.13 .08 8.58 <.01
Biology/science teacher 1.57 1.97 1.14 1.35 2.91 2.86 1.62 1.50 750.56 .13 18.40 <.01 28.51 <.01
. . . graded students’ solutions? 57.38 .05 34.97 .03 9.73 <.01
Math teacher 1.15 1.19 0.61 0.71 1.46 1.70 1.12 1.29 220.63 .04 23.92 <.01 12.70 <.01
Language arts teacher 1.16 1.20 0.61 0.72 1.47 1.70 1.12 1.26 214.92 .04 23.64 <.01 11.90 <.01
English teacher 1.08 1.20 0.46 0.73 1.29 1.72 0.89 1.27 175.31 .03 98.64 .02 31.07 <.01
Biology/science teacher 1.09 1.14 0.47 0.59 1.38 1.58 1.00 1.11 220.27 .04 27.23 <.01 10.00 <.01
. . . taught via videoconference? 572.08 .33 192.01 .14 58.49 .05
Math teacher 1.28 1.80 0.89 1.35 3.05 3.87 2.00 1.70 1963.46 .26 239.18 .04 12.24 <.01
Language arts teacher 1.32 1.67 0.93 1.28 3.19 3.81 2.01 1.71 2,153.55 .28 129.27 .02 9.66 <.01
English teacher 1.12 1.68 0.63 1.26 2.11 3.81 1.72 1.71 1,397.70 .22 735.18 .13 187.49 .04
Biology/science teacher 1.12 1.34 0.61 0.97 2.36 2.92 1.85 1.58 1,321.84 .21 101.74 .02 18.86 <.01
. . . had contact with the child? 84.60 .07 152.45 .12 4.99 <.01
Math teacher 1.80 2.31 1.29 1.62 2.79 2.93 1.90 1.89 287.10 .05 46.65 <.01 14.87 <.01
Language arts teacher 1.92 2.27 1.30 1.57 2.94 2.95 1.88 1.89 328.90 .06 15.02 <.01 13.34 <.01
English teacher 1.32 2.29 0.92 1.57 2.03 2.88 1.67 1.86 193.70 .04 384.62 .07 1.60
Biology/science teacher 1.46 1.71 1.06 1.30 2.33 2.35 1.79 1.64 314.34 .06 9.32 <.01 7.42 <.01
. . . had contact with a parent? 10.39 <.01 239.04 .17 22.57 .02
Math teacher 2.11 1.44 1.35 1.00 2.41 1.26 1.60 0.76 3.64 781.48 .13 55.84 .01
Language arts teacher 2.24 1.44 1.38 0.97 2.50 1.29 1.59 0.80 3.25 951.46 .15 40.67 <.01
English teacher 1.42 1.43 1.00 0.99 1.77 1.23 1.39 0.72 7.03 <.01 84.17 .02 89.64 .02
Biology/science teacher 1.63 1.20 1.20 0.72 2.07 1.11 1.52 0.52 34.52 <.01 575.07 .10 83.85 .02
Note. All F values p < .05; exceptions are written in italic letters. df: 44,684–15,855. Values written in bold describe the results of themultivariate analyses of variance.
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198 R. Steinmayr et al., Homeschooling During Second School Lockdown
Indeed, at both elementary and secondary schools, the RMSEA = .032 (90% CI: .030; .035); CFI = .981;
perceived frequency by parents of all recorded distance SRMR = .014.
learning activities, such as giving feedback, teaching via Second, we regressed students’ motivation, competent
video conferencing, and the communication with the and independent learning, and learning progress during
child, had increased statistically significant from the first the school lockdown on the different teaching activities
lockdown to the second lockdown. However, frequencies and students’ characteristics (for the results without stu-
were partly still low (see ESM 1, Supplement 3). Only 5.1% dents’ characteristics and demographics, see Supplements
of the parents of the elementary school children said that 5 and 6 in ESM 1). In the secondary school sample, the item
the video conference lessons were given according to the “providing lessons via videoconferences according to the
class schedule. This was stated by 24.5% of the parents at timetable” was additionally included (in Steinmayr et al.,
secondary schools. Furthermore, many children had not 2021, this item was not assessed). However, we did not
received any distant teaching activity of high quality. For include it in the elementary school sample as the item
example, at both elementary (19.5%–47.1%) and second- barely showed variance. Table 2 displays model fit indices
ary (24.1%–36.7%) schools, children still did not receive and correlations between residuals for elementary and
any feedback on their task solutions in the various subjects. secondary schools. The model fit was excellent in all
In elementary schools, between 41.5% and 68.2% of the models. Table 3 depicts path coefficients from all inde-
parents stated that no lessons had yet taken place via video pendent variables to students’ motivation, competent and
conference in the assessed subjects (at secondary schools independent learning, and learning progress for the two
only between 20.1% and 42.1%), although – according to samples.
parents – both elementary (75.5%) and secondary (96.8%) In elementary schools, giving feedback, teaching via
schools used Internet platforms for distance learning. videoconferences, and communications with a parent
Although overall communication with children had also were still positively associated with students’ motivation
increased from the first lockdown to the second lockdown, and perceived learning progress after controlling for all
many parents indicated that their children had not yet other variables. Communication with the child displayed
communicated with the teacher in any way (elementary an association with these student outcomes and with
school: 40.9%–69%; secondary schools: 41.1%–58.6%). competent and independent learning. Requesting solu-
All descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations are tions was negatively associated with elementary students’
displayed in ESM 1, Supplement 1 (Table E1). As assumed motivation. However, as this distant teaching activity
in Hypothesis 3, most distant teaching activities showed displayed positive bivariate correlations with students’
small- to medium-sized positive correlations with stu- outcomes (see ESM 1, Supplement 1), this must be due to a
dents’ motivation, competent and independent learning, suppression effect. Negative emotionality (negatively) and
and learning progress during the school lockdown for school engagement (positively) predicted all student
elementary and secondary school students. Distant outcomes after controlling for all other variables with the
teaching activities just show negligible associations with strongest effects sizes, whereas perceived math and lan-
sociodemographic variables. guage art competencies were only significant for students’
competent and independent learning. Among the demo-
graphic and social variables, effects were only found on
Structural Equation Models perceived learning progress: Parents perceived their girls
and younger children to learn more. Furthermore, parents
First, we tested the measurement model of the distant with a higher school leaving certificate and/or a migration
teaching activities (measurement model depicted in ESM 1, background, as well as mothers, thought their children to
Supplement 2). For the elementary school sample, themodel have a higher learning progress during the second school
fit was good: χ2(df = 366) = 1852.78, p < .001; RMSEA = .055 lockdown.
(90% CI: .053; .058); CFI = .950; SRMR = .025. For sec- In the secondary school, feedback, videoconferences,
ondary schools, χ2(df = 366) = 1,135.42, p < .001; and communication with a child predicted all three
Table 2. Model fit indices and intercorrelations between exogenous variables for SEMs regressing distant teaching activities and students’
characteristics on students’ academic outcomes during the school lockdown for elementary school (ES) and secondary school (Sec)
School type χ2 (df) RMSEA (CI 90%) SRMR CFI rresM × resC rresM × resL rresC × resL
ES 3,752.22 (1,290) .038 (.036–.039) .024 .956 .520 .492 .256
Sec 3,721.72 (1,322) .030 (.029–.031) .022 .965 .462 584 .206
Note. resM = residual factor motivation, resC = residual factor competent and independent learning, resL = residual learning process.
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R. Steinmayr et al., Homeschooling During Second School Lockdown 199
Table 3. Standardized path weights (β) and standard error (SE) of the SEM regressing distant teaching activities on students’ academic outcomes
during the school lockdown controlling for students’ school-related characteristics, socioeconomic background, and parent’ and child’s age and
gender for secondary schools and elementary schools
Elementary school Secondary school
Learning Learning
Motivation CIL progress Motivation CIL progress
Model β SE β SE β SE β SE β SE β SE
Distant teaching activities during the school lockdown
Tasks .030 .029 .020 .028 .032 .029 
.046 .056 
.078 .052 
.102 .060
Task solutions .041 .031 .020 .029 .009 .031 .034 .038 .092* .036 .092* .038
Request solutions 
.069* .034 
.061 .032 
.062 .034 
.046 .046 
.042 .044 .021 .047
Feedback .091** .037 .055 .035 .117*** .037 .174*** .043 .134*** .041 .152*** .044
Grading .013 .028 
.037 .027 .008 .028 .033 .024 
.024 .024 .047 .025
Video .077** .031 
.020 .029 .090** .031 .117** .038 .153*** .037 .106*** .039
Com. child .109*** .032 .100*** .031 .095** .032 .119*** .030 .082** .029 .082** .031
Com. parent .072* .030 .060* .028 .086** .030 .060* .026 
.024 .025 .112*** .026
Timetable .080** .027 .042 .026 .108*** .028
Student characteristics
Neg. emotionality 
.138*** .032 
.211*** .030 
.092** .032 
.135*** .029 
.122*** .027 
.019 .030
Engagement .452*** .038 .135*** .038 .198*** .039 .443*** .032 .097*** .031 .248*** .033
Math competence 
.014 .033 .290*** .031 
.018 .033 .011 .025 .175*** .024 .017 .026
Language competence 
.025 .034 .250*** .032 
.014 .034 .007 .028 .201*** .027 .022 .029
Social background
HSLC .040 .027 .039 .026 .085*** .027 .040 .022 .061** .021 .074** .022
Migration 
.023 .026 
.038 .025 
.058* .026 
.001 .022 
.005 .021 
.028 .022
Own room .028 .027 
.012 .026 .009 .027 .006 .027 
.003 .028 .028 .027
Computer .031 .026 .030 .026 
.019 .027 .002 .029 .026 .026 .011 .027
Gender and age
Child’s gender 
.004 .028 
.003 .027 .060* .028 
.012 .023 .031 .023 
.041 .024
Child’s age 
.002 .028 .024 .027 
.076** .027 
.060** .023 .196*** .023 
.096*** .024
Parent’s gender .006 .027 <.001 .026 .084** .027 .001 .022 .040 .021 .096*** .022
Parent’s age .048 .029 
.010 .027 .026 .028 
.011 .024 .005 .023 
.048* .024
R2 .345 (.027) .415 (.026) .156 (.020) .492 (.022) .406 (.021) .296 (.020)
Note. CIL = competent and independent learning; tasks = sending tasks; tasks solutions = sending task solutions; request solutions = requesting students’
solutions; feedback = providing feedback on students’ solutions; video = teaching via videoconference; Com. Child = student–teacher communication; Com.
Parent = parent–teacher communication; timetable: videoconferences according to the timetable; Neg. emotionality = negative emotionality;
engagement = school engagement; math competence = competencies in math; language competence = competencies in language arts; HSLC = highest
school leaving certificate; migration =migration background; own room= child has an own bedroom; computer = child has a computer/tablet during the school
lockdown. Highest school leaving certificate: 0 = no or vocational track school leaving certificate, 1 = academic track school leaving certificate; migration
background: 0 = no, 1 = yes; child has an own bedroom: 0 = no, 1 = yes; child has a computer/tablet: 0 = no, 1 = yes; gender: 0 = male, 1 = female.
*p ≤ .05. **p ≤ .01. ***p ≤ .001.
student outcomes at strong effect sizes in distant teach- language arts competencies only incrementally explained
ing. Furthermore, teaching all subjects (besides sports) variance in students’ competent and independent learn-
according to the timetable incrementally contributed to ing. Parents perceived their younger children to work
the prediction of students’ motivation and learning more motivated and learn more during the second school
progress. Only school engagement was still positively lockdown. However, they also perceived older children to
associated with all three student outcomes after con- learn more independently and competently. Furthermore,
trolling for the other variables. Negative emotionality was parents with a higher school leaving certificate as well as
negatively associated with students’ motivation and with mothers and younger parents thought their children to
competent and independent learning. Students’math and have a higher learning progress during the second school
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200 R. Steinmayr et al., Homeschooling During Second School Lockdown
lockdown. Parents with a higher school leaving certificate teaching, and perceived learning progress were positive.
additionally reported that their children learnt more in- However, different result patterns emerged between ele-
dependently and competently. Thus, in line with Hypoth- mentary and secondary schools. Distant teaching activities
esis 4, those distant teaching activities that directly practice explained less variance in elementary student outcomes
or involve direct forms of interpersonal feedback and than in the secondary school. Interestingly, those distant
communication particularly contributed to students’ aca- teaching activities related most strongly to parent-reported
demic outcomes during the school lockdown. However, in students’ outcomes during the second school lockdown that
line with Hypothesis 5, children’s characteristics addi- had the potential to cognitively activate students and to
tionally contributed to students’ academic outcomes during support learning. Thus, in linewith prior findings on the first
the school lockdown. school lockdown (Schneider et al., 2021), our results also
indicate that social contact and feedback matter most.
Overall, less variance was explained by distant teaching
activities in the elementary than in the secondary school
Discussion sample (see ESM 1, Supplement 6). A possible explanation
why distant teaching activities do not seem to make a great
This study contributes to current literature on learning difference concerning elementary school learning are that
during times of distance teaching by examining how the elementary school children strive less for autonomy (Deci &
realization of distant teaching changed from the first Ryan, 2013) and might still need more direct instructions as
school lockdown to the second school lockdown and how their self-regulation is still developing (McClelland et al.,
various features of distance teaching were related to dif- 2018), which is less possible by distant teaching activities.
ferent academic outcomes among elementary and sec- Our results also showed that the provision of feedback
ondary school students using parent reports. mattered for both elementary and secondary students’
motivation and learning progress. Interestingly, sending
solutions only had a (positive) impact on competent and
Comparison of the First and Second independent learning and perceived learning progress for
Lockdowns secondary school learners. An explanation for this finding
might be that adolescent learners might already have
Our findings show that – as indicated by other studies developed a certain level of self-regulation skills that enables
(Wößmann et al., 2021) – the frequency of distant teaching them to compare their own solutions to the solutions that
activities increased from the first school lockdown to the teachers have sent them, whereas younger children might
second school lockdown. Thus, in contrast to other still need to develop these skills of self-regulated learning.
countries such as Spain (Alves et al., 2022), the situation Research suggests that childhood is a sensitive period in
improved in Germany. However, compared to other which self-regulatory skills are shaped by contextual factors,
studies, we show a detailed picture of how often different such as schools and teachers (McClelland et al., 2018). Thus,
distant teaching activities were realized in different sub- when planning their instruction during times of distant
jects. Contact with a parent increased statistically signif- teaching, teachers need to consider academic needs of the
icant from the first lockdown to the second lockdown but children in their learning groups. Our findings suggest that
did not reach the effect size of a small effect. The largest although adolescents can work well with prepared solutions,
effect size was found for teaching via videoconference, children need different forms of contact to their teachers
which might be a hint that the investments in digital such as feedback or direct communication with parents.
devices such as teacher laptops and in educating teachers
paid off in terms of more frequent videoconferences.
However, althoughmost teachers should have been able to Students’ Characteristics,
teach via videoconferences in the second lockdown, quite Sociodemographic Variables, and
a lot of teachers at secondary schools and even more at Student Outcomes
elementary schools did not do so or if just once a week.
A comparison of explained variance by teaching activities
alone (ESM 1, Supplement 6) and teaching activities plus
Distant Teaching Activities and Student all covariates (Table 3) demonstrates that students’
Outcomes characteristics explained most variance in all students’
outcomes in the elementary school and in competent and
Most correlations between reported distant teaching independent learning in the secondary school during
activities and motivation, competent and independent homeschooling among all relevant variables. Among
Zeitschrift für Psychologie (2023), 231(3), 192–203 © 2023 The Author(s). Distributed as a Hogrefe OpenMind article
under the license CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)
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R. Steinmayr et al., Homeschooling During Second School Lockdown 201
students’ characteristics, negative emotionality and (e.g., Segers et al., 2022). Furthermore, socially disad-
school engagement explained most variance, whereas vantaged children also faced higher risks of worsened
math and language art competencies were less relevant. mental health (Ng & Ng, 2022).
Parents reported sociodemographic background con-
tributed to the prediction of students’ motivation, com-
petencies, and learning progress during homeschooling. Practical Implications
Parents with an academic school leaving certificate re-
ported more positive student outcomes, which is in line As the current study clearly demonstrated the importance
with various studies that demonstrated that children from of direct forms of contact between teachers and pupils for
low SES households suffered the most during school all age groups, and especially the younger children, the
lockdowns (e.g., Ravens-Sieberer et al., 2022). Thus, not political decision to keep schools and other forms of
only do students academically benefit from their parents’ childcare/day-care open at all costs is timely and appro-
academic education in regular face-to-face schooling but priate. This will contribute not only to students’ academic
also during homeschooling. learning success but also to their emotional well-being and
mental health – crucial factors that are strongly impaired
due to the pandemic and former lockdowns (Ravens-
Limitations Sieberer et al., 2022) and that will take time to recover.
Regular schooling and contact with peers and friends will
A limitation of this study was that we used a cross-sectional support such a recovery.
design. Thus, the direction of the presented relations be-
tween distant teaching activities and student outcomes is
unclear. However, as previous studies longitudinally dem-
onstrated an impact of teaching activities on students’ Electronic Supplementary Material
motivation and achievement (e.g., Lazarides & Buchholz,
2019), it might well be that teachers’ distant teaching ac- The electronic supplementary material is available with
tivities impacted on students’ academic outcomes during the online version of the article at https://doi.org/10.
the school lockdown. Furthermore, common method bias 1027/2151-2604/a000528
might have influenced our results because parents reported ESM 1. Table E1: Descriptive statistics of all variables.
the teaching methods under investigation and also reported Table E2: Frequencies of all distant teaching activities.
the student outcomes. Thus, the relations that we found in Table E3: Model fit indices and intercorrelations between
our study might be overestimated due to common method exogenous variables for structure equation models. Table
bias. Additionally, we had a slight overrepresentation of E4: Path weights of the structure equation model (SEM)
academic track schools in our sample (Gymnasium), which regressing distant teaching activities.
might have affected our resultswhen comparing elementary
and secondary school students (Hypothesis 1) as mostly
high-achieving students attend academic track schools.
Moreover, we were not able to assess whether our data had References
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Lehrkräfte”. Institut für Schulentwicklungsforschung (IFS). Zugriff Steinmayr, R., Lazarides, R., Weidinger, A. F., & Christiansen, H. (2021).
am 30.10.2022. Verfügbar unter: https://ifs.ep.tu-dortmund.de/ Teaching and learning during the first COVID-19 school lockdown:
forschung/projekte-am-ifs/abgeschlossene-projekte/corona-u/ Realization and associations with parent-perceived students’
Zeitschrift für Psychologie (2023), 231(3), 192–203 © 2023 The Author(s). Distributed as a Hogrefe OpenMind article
under the license CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)
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R. Steinmayr et al., Homeschooling During Second School Lockdown 203
academic outcomes. Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie, Acknowledgments
35(2–3), 85–106. https://doi.org/10.1024/1010-0652/a000306 We thank Selina Engelhardt and Sven Jansen for their support
Steinmayr, R., Paschke, P., & Wirthwein, L. (2022). Elementary in creating the online questionnaire and in data collection.
school students’ subjective well-being before and during the Furthermore, we thank all parents who found time to participate in
COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal study. Journal of Happiness our study despite homeschooling their kids and their other duties.
Studies, 23(6), 2985–3005. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-022-
00537-y Publication Ethics
Steinmayr, R., Weidinger, A. F., & Wigfield, A. (2018). Does stu- The project is in accordance with established ethical guidelines for
dents’ grit predict their school achievement above and beyond psychological research. The study was approved by the local review
their personality, motivation, and engagement? Contemporary board at Philipps University Marburg. All participants provided
Educational Psychology, 53, 106–122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. written informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of
cedpsych.2018.02.004 Helsinki and its later amendments. Participation was voluntary.
Voss, T., & Wittwer, J. (2020). Unterricht in Zeiten von Corona: Ein Funding
Blick auf die Herausforderungen aus der Sicht von Unterrichts- Open access publication enabled by TU Dortmund University,
und Instruktionsforschung. Unterrichtswissenschaft, 48, 601–627. Germany.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s42010-020-00088-2
Wendt, H., Bos, W., Goy, M., & Jusufi, D. (2017). TIMSS 2015. Ska- ORCID
lenhandbuch zur Dokumentation der Erhebungsinstrumente und Ricarda Steinmayr
Arbeit mit den Datensätzen. Waxmann.  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0294-1045
Wößmann, L., Freundl, V., Grewenig, E., Lergetporer, P., Werner, K., Hanna Christiansen
& Zierow, L. (2021). Bildung erneut im Lockdown: Wie ver-  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8104-0711
brachten Schulkinder die Schulschließungen Anfang 2021? ifo
Schnelldienst, 74(5), 36–52. Ricarda Steinmayr
Department of Psychology
History TU Dortmund University
Received October 31, 2022 Emil-Figge-Straße 50
Revision received March 28, 2023 44227 Dortmund
Accepted March 30, 2023 Germany
Published online July 18, 2023 ricarda.steinmayr@tu-dortmund.de
© 2023 The Author(s). Distributed as a Hogrefe OpenMind article Zeitschrift für Psychologie (2023), 231(3), 192–203
under the license CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)
 https://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/pdf/10.1027/2151-2604/a000528 - Thursday, June 27, 2024 6:39:58 AM - Universitätsbibliothek Dortmund IP Address:129.217.133.107