About this Research Topic

Background

The current events to which we are exposed are forcing us to make various behavioral adjustments in the organization of our personal, family and academic lives during the episode of COVID-19. To adapt, teachers, students, and family members need to keep in mind various behavioral principles and strategies of a psychoeducational order.

On the part of the teaching staff, it will be necessary to maintain an environmental design that fosters perception of control and continuity in the students of their subjects. Maintaining the usual contact hours with students, through appropriate technological means is vital. Direct online classes allow teachers to continue with the subject and reduce anxiety in students. Furthermore, teachers must make various adjustments so that all participants perceive normality and a sense of control. On the other hand, they will have to adjust the activities and evaluation systems, if necessary, during this period. They will have to plant new situations for students that pose behavioral challenges and an opportunity to work in an online format, for example, as a team from home. In addition, the teacher must pay attention to the emotional state and expectations of their students. They must transmit tranquility and certainty with their behavior, and become a mentor who supports the process, also emotionally.

On the students part, it will also be essential to maintain some learning and study guidelines that allow them to keep at home hours similar to the usual ones, to maintain the sequence of the action, to self-regulate, and not to lose motivation. Positive emotions and rewarding experiences should also be self-thought each day, indoors. Additionally, maintaining a positive emotional state is very important. Distress (diffuse negative emotionality and discouragement) can be caused by sudden changes in the daily rhythm or the feeling of loss of behavioral control and uncertainty.

Finally, the family context must also actively contribute to being a regulatory context that helps students' self-regulation, through a positive emotional climate and an environmental design that contributes to behavioral and emotional self-regulation.

Therefore, the objective of this Research Topic is to analyze the psychoeducational variables involved in the description, analysis, evaluation, and intervention during the COVID-2019 health emergency. Psychological, technological, personal, design and development aspects of the teaching and learning process can be analyzed under this situation of psycho-socio-health stress. Theoretical, empirical and innovative works that represent a significant advance in knowledge in the field of Educational Psychology are welcome.

Funding information: R&D Project PGC2018-094672-B-I00 (Ministry of Science and Education, Spain), UAL18 SEJ-DO31-A-FEDER (University of Almería, Spain), and the European Social Fund

***Due to the exceptional nature of the COVID-19 situation, Frontiers is waiving all article publishing charges for COVID-19 related research in this Research Topic for submissions made BEFORE 31st December 2020.***

Keywords: educational psychology, health emergency, COVID-19, evaluation, intervention, innovation

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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