Educational Considerations - Vol 48 - March 2022 - Article 3 - Relationships, Learning, and Motivation for One Virtual Literacy Camp during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Oct 15, 2026

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The article examines relationships, learning attitudes, and motivation within a university-run virtual literacy camp created to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic’s shift from in-person education to online instruction. It outlines the redesign of a literacy camp originally established in 2016, describing the first fully virtual Fall 2020 session using Zoom technology. The study is grounded in 21st-century skills, Montessori learning, Dewey’s curriculum ideas, constructivist frameworks, and Maslow’s hierarchy, alongside social-emotional learning principles.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages17

Reading Time43 min

AccessFree to download

Relationships, Learning, and Motivation for One Virtual Literacy Camp during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Theoretical Framework

Review of Literature

Social-Emotional Learning

Educational Considerations | Volume 48 Number 1 | Article 3 | | --- | --- | | March 2022
Relationships, Learning, and Motivation for One Virtual Literacy Camp during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Caitlin Spears
University of Arkansas, [cmahoney@uark.edu](cmahoney@uark.edu)
Heather D. Young
University of Arkansas-Main Campus, [hkindall@uark.edu](hkindall@uark.edu)
Follow this and additional works at: [https://newprairiepress.org/edconsiderations](https://newprairiepress.org/edconsiderations)
Part of the Early Childhood Education Commons, Elementary Education Commons, and the Language and Literacy Education Commons

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License. | | Recommended Citation Spears, Caitlin and Young, Heather D. (2022) "Relationships, Learning, and Motivation for One Virtual Literacy Camp during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Educational Considerations: Vol. 48: No. 1. [https://doi.org/10.4148/0146-9282.2323](https://doi.org/10.4148/0146-9282.2323) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in Educational Considerations by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please [contact](contact cads@k-state.edu)[ cads@k-state.edu](contact cads@k-state.edu). Relationships, Learning, and Motivation for One Virtual Literacy Camp during the COVID-19 Pandemic Caitlin Spears and HeatherD. Young The world-wide pandemic of 2020 caused by the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) resulted in a lifestyle change for most American citizens, most notably in the ways individuals participated in the workforce and in education. While the first known case ofCOVID-19 was reported in the United States on January 22, 2020 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020), the nationwide declaration of the two-week initiative to “Stop the Spread” was not announced by President Trump until March 16, 2020 (The White House, 2020) . Consequently, most universities and schools moved to virtual learning soon after, including the Tier I Research institution in the Southeastern United States where this research took place. The shift to virtual learning has remained largely intact at this university through the Spring 2021 semester, resulting in the need for university-sponsored events, clubs, and camps to also shift to a virtual format. The focus of this article, a university literacy camp established in Summer 2016, was redesigned during the summer of 2020 to fit the virtual format suggested by university officials (Office of Teacher Education, personal communication, August 2020) . The Fall 2020 session was the first literacy camp that had been completed through virtual means using Zoom technology. The shift from an in-person camp setting to an online camp setting created an opportunity for research in investigating students’ attitudes towards literacy, literacy learning, and participation in the newly formatted virtual literacy camp. Theoretical Framework The importance of developing 21st century skills, including teamwork, collaboration, intellectual openness, knowledge, and creativity (Pellegrino & Hilton, 2013) is framed through the lens of Maria Montessori’s approach to learning through non-traditional methods of education, bringing meaning to the students’ realm of understanding (Lillard, 2016) . John Dewey’s 1902 publication of The Child and the Curriculum laid the foundation for education pioneers like Montessori to “abandon the notion of subject-matter as something fixed and ready-made in itself…realize that the child and the curriculum are simply two limits which define a single process”(p. 9) . Further, constructivist principles laid out by Lev Vygotsky in both his sociocultural theory and model of the Zone of Proximal Development (1978) laid the foundation for how this study should be completed. As researchers and lit

FAQs

Why was the literacy camp redesigned for a virtual format?

The article explains that the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting shift to virtual learning led to redesigning university events, clubs, and camps, including the literacy camp.

What theoretical framework guides the study?

The study draws on 21st-century skills, Montessori’s approach, Dewey’s curriculum ideas, Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and Zone of Proximal Development, and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

How does social-emotional learning connect to student success in the camp?

Social-emotional learning is presented as an integral part of learning and is used by camp tutors to build trust and belonging, supporting student engagement and higher success levels.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by acoobca