Attitude of Schoolchildren Towards Emergency Distance Learning: Relations with Intrinsic Motivation and School Satisfaction

Abstract

The results of a study of retrospective attitudes towards distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic among secondary school students are presented (N=439, grades 5-8th). Motivational predictors of this relationship were analyzed, explaining the individual differences among schoolchildren in their preference for distance learning. With the help of structural equation modeling, it is shown that a negative attitude towards distance learning that took place in the recent past, compared to traditional learning, is associated with greater satisfaction of their basic needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness with teachers and classmates, and this relationship is mediated by intrinsic learning motivation, which, in turn, predicts attitudes towards forced distance learning, school satisfaction, and academic performance. It is shown that intrinsically motivated schoolchildren who are interested in the educational process, in general, have a negative attitude towards the forced distance learning that took place during COVID-19 pandemic and would not want it to return.