Marcus Collins (Loughborough University) and Jamie Wood (University of Lincoln) have just published the results of their research into history teaching in higher education before, during and after the Covid-19 pandemic in the History Education Research Journal (https://journals.uclpress.co.uk/herj/), “Post-pandemic pedagogy: experiences of learning and teaching history before, during and after Covid-19”.
Funded by History UK, the Royal Historical Society and the East Midlands Centre for History Learning and Teaching (https://eastmidlandscentreforhistorylearningandteaching.education/), they conducted a survey of History lecturers and students in UK higher education in 2021, the results of which were first reported in the project report in May 2024 (https://www.history-uk.ac.uk/files/2024/05/Post-Pandemic-Pedagogy-for-HUK-web.pdf).
We reproduce the abstract of the article here:
“This article presents and analyses the findings of a nationwide survey of history staff and students conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic. More than five hundred respondents from nearly fifty universities provided qualitative and quantitative responses which compared their experience of teaching and learning before and during the pandemic, and their preferences once the pandemic abated. In contrast to the upbeat assessments by regulatory bodies of the ‘emergency pivot’ to online learning, the most significant finding of this survey was that respondents adjudged the pandemic to have worsened teaching and learning in almost every respect. Much less uniform were respondents’ favoured teaching practices after the pandemic. While most missed face-to-face seminars, only half advocated reinstating traditional in-person lectures and supervisions and fewer still wished to return to pen-and-paper exams. Further differences emerged between respondents at different types of institution, between staff and students, and between male and female academics. The overwhelmingly negative experiences of online teaching during the pandemic, and the variegated attitudes towards its continuation afterwards, indicate that higher education institutions should develop a post-pandemic pedagogy that has been evaluated rigorously under non-emergency conditions, and which is sensitive to the needs of different groups of learners and teachers working in different disciplines.”
You can read the full article here: https://journals.uclpress.co.uk/herj/article/pubid/Hist_Educ_Res_J-22-13/. There is a post that summarises some of the findings on the HERJ blog here: https://journals.uclpress.co.uk/herj/news/85/.
Full reference: Collins, M. and Wood, J. (2025) ‘Post-pandemic pedagogy: experiences of learning and teaching history before, during and after Covid-19’. History Education Research Journal, 22 (1), 13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14324/HERJ.22.1.13.
You can find out more about the Post-Pandemic Pedagogy project here: https://www.history-uk.ac.uk/post-pandemic-pedagogy/.