Our study of more than 1,500 students at nine Australian high schools during 2020 found strong links between their level of adaptability and how they fared with online learning.

Students with higher adaptability were more confident about online learning in term 2. And they had made greater academic progress by term 4.

The important thing about these findings is that adaptability is a teachable skill.

What is adaptability and why does it matter?

We have been investigating adaptability for more than a decade. The term refers to adjustments to one's behaviours, thoughts and feelings in response to disruption.

The pandemic certainly tested every student's capacity to adjust to disruption. The switch to remote learning involved huge change and uncertainty.

Research has demonstrated positive links between adaptability and students' engagement and achievement at school and university.

As for online learning, the picture is complicated by the many factors identified as affecting its success. These include access to technology, academic ability, instructional quality, socioeconomic status, ethnicity and specific learning support needs.

The pandemic disruptions added to this complexity.

What did the study find?

Our latest study involved a survey of 1,548 students in nine schools in 2020. It covered a period of fully or partially remote online learning in maths (from the start of term 2).

We used the Adaptability Scale to assess how much students were able to respond to the disruption in their lives.

They were presented with nine statements, such as "To assist me in a new situation, I am able to change the way I do things." Students were asked to respond on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).

They also answered questions about:

• their confidence as online learners
• online learning barriers such as unreliable internet, inadequate
• computing/technology, and lack of a learning area to concentrate
• online learning support, such as satisfaction with the online learning platform
• home support, such as help from parents and others.

In the term 2 survey, we tested students' maths achievement. In term 4, they did a second maths test.

We found students with higher adaptability were significantly more confident about online learning in term 2.

These students also had higher gains in achievement in term 4. Online learning confidence in term 2 was linked to term 4 achievement gains.

After allowing for the many other factors affecting online learning, we found adaptability had a direct positive impact on student achievements.

Students who lacked adaptability tended to be less confident about online learning and it showed in their results.

Online learning support and online learning barriers also affected students' online learning confidence. Support was linked to higher confidence, and barriers to lower confidence.

Thus, as well as focusing on increasing students' adaptability, parents and schools should strive to minimise barriers to online learning and optimise supports.

So how do you teach students to be adaptable?

Boosting adaptability involves teaching students how to adjust their behaviour, thinking and feelings to help them navigate disruption. For example, in the face of new online learning tasks and demands, we could explain to students how to:

• adjust their behaviour by seeking out online information and resources, or asking for help — an example would be asking a teacher to help with an unfamiliar online learning management system such as Canvas or Moodle
• adjust their attitude by thinking about the new online task in a different way — for instance, they might consider the new opportunities the task offers, such as developing new skills that can be helpful in other parts of their lives
• adjust their emotion by minimising negative feelings, or shifting the focus to positive feelings, when engaged in unfamiliar activities — for example, they might try not to focus on their disappointment when the teacher's approach to online learning doesn't match the student's preferences or skill set.

Adaptability is a skill for life

Of course, these adjustments are helpful for navigating all sorts of disruption. Teaching young people adaptability gives them a skill for life.

It can be helpful to let students know that the three adjustments are part of a broader adaptability process — and they have control over each point in the process. The process involves:

• teaching students how to recognise important disruptions to their life so they know when to adjust their behaviour, thinking and feelings
• explaining to students the various ways they can make these adjustments to navigate the disruption (using strategies like those described above)
• encouraging students to take note of the positive effects of these adjustments so they realise the benefits of adaptability and are motivated to adapt in future
• inspiring students to practise their adjustments to behaviour, thinking and feelings so adaptability becomes a routine part of their lives.

It is fair to say adaptability comes more easily to some students than others. However, our longitudinal research among high school students has shown adaptability can and does change over time. It is a modifiable personal attribute. This is great news.

In the face of massive disruptions by COVID-19, we are constantly advised to adjust to a "new normal".

Part of this new normal is the increasing presence of online learning. Our findings show adaptability is an important personal attribute that can help students in their online learning during the pandemic — and likely beyond.

• Andrew J. Martin Scientia Professor and Professor of Educational Psychology, UNSW
• Rebecca J Collie Scientia Associate Professor of Educational Psychology, UNSW
• Robin P. Nagy PhD Candidate and Research Assistant, UNSW
• First published by The Conversation. Republished with permission.

Cardinal Raymond Burke, in an interview with the Rorate Caeli website, said Pope Francis himself doesn't consider "Evangelii Gaudium" to be magisterial teaching.

"I now say to people that, if they are experiencing some confusion from the method of teaching of Pope Francis, the important thing is to turn to the catechism and to what the Church has always taught, and to teach that, to foster it at the parish level, beginning first with the family," Cardinal Burke said.

"We can't lose our energy being frustrated over something that we think we should be receiving and we're not."

Continue reading

In an interview on a French television channel, Cardinal Raymond Burke said popes do not have the power to change the Church's teaching or doctrine.

Papal power is "at the service of the doctrine of the faith", he explained, according to a translation of the interview on the blog Rorate Caeli.

The interviewer then asked: "In a somewhat provocative way, can we say that the true guardian of doctrine is you, and not Pope Francis?"

"We must, let us leave aside the matter of the Pope," the cardinal replied.

"In our faith, it is the truth of doctrine that guides us."

"If Pope Francis insists on this path, what will you do?" the interviewer then asked.

"I will resist. I cannot do anything else," he said.

Cardinal Burke went on to say that the Catholic Church is facing "a difficult time" that is "painful" and "worrisome".

But he recalled the Lord's assurances in the Gospel that the forces of evil would not prevail.

Asked whether Pope Francis is his friend, the cardinal replied, "I would not want to make of the Pope an enemy, certainly!"

According to a subsequent report on the Catholic News Agency, Cardinal Burke said he was "responding to a hypothetical situation" in his comments about Pope Francis and doctrine.

"I simply affirmed that it is always my sacred duty to defend the truth of the Church's teaching and discipline regarding marriage," Cardinal Burke said.

"No authority can absolve me from that responsibility, and, therefore, if any authority, even the highest authority, were to deny that truth or act contrary to it, I would be obliged to resist, in fidelity to my responsibility before God."

Late last year, Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Burke to a largely ceremonial position with the Order of Malta.

This came after the cardinal's term as prefect of the Apostolic Signatura had come to an end.

Many commentators saw the move by Pope Francis as a demotion for Cardinal Burke.

Sources

• UCA News
• Catholic Herald
• Catholic News Agency
• Rorate Caeli
• Image: CBS News

Ahead of next month's synod on the family, Cardinal Vincent Nichols told a press conference that he grew up in a "Church that understood itself as a Church of sinners".

"[But] I don't think it's been our strong suit in the last 30 years," he said.

The cardinal said a major challenge is to create a "culture of mercy" in the Church, as called for by Pope Francis.

The cardinal insisted that the Church's view that marriage is indissoluble would remain a "foundational rock" of its teaching, but said it could not ignore the "frailty of the human reality".

Cardinal Nichols said the Church must not only recognise the fact that marriages break down, but also the "emergence and celebration of new relationships".

"The Pope over and over again says we start from the wrong place if we start from an idealised form or vision of marriage," he said.

"But we start from the reality of two people often who enter marriage with complex wounded histories, who have all sorts of personal dimensions to their lives."

But Cardinal Nichols said that any move allowing Communion for divorced and remarried couples would require a "radical rethink" on either the indissolubility of marriage or teaching on the Eucharist.

"[S]o I go to this synod intent on listening to what people have to say," he said.

Cardinal Nichols stressed that a culture of mercy does not dispense with the need for conversion and forgiveness.

The cardinal also said that any marriage which is "truly the place of the conscious, willing acceptance of God's grace can no more be dissolved than the Eucharist can be returned to bread, because it is the work of God".

Asked about priests telling unmarried, cohabiting couples they shouldn't receive Communion, the cardinal made a distinction.

"When a person presents themselves for Holy Communion, the onus, the responsibility for doing so lies with that person," the cardinal said.

"So as a matter of practice, priests do not refuse to give Holy Communion," he said.

"Someone who's entered a second civil marriage has already made a public statement.

"So, in a way, that does put them in a different situation, because they have made a statement on public record of where their life is," he said.

Sources

• The Tablet
• Catholic Herald
• The Telegraph
• Christian Today
• Image: The Telegraph

Pozolo, a senior at the University of Notre Dame, is one of many students who find themselves struggling to accept some of the Catholic church's beliefs.

These students are not alone. A recent USA Today article, examined the survey "Catholics in America: Persistence and change in the Catholic landscape."

The survey examined the beliefs and practices of 1,442 U.S. Catholic adults. The research was led by Catholic University sociologist William D'Antonio, and provided detailed information about specific beliefs.

According to the article, the survey found that 86% of those surveyed believed "you can disagree with aspects of the church's teachings and still remain loyal to the church."

Continue reading: Catholic students struggle with ‘outdated and inflexible' traditions

Source - Image: HelloQuizzy