Background and Objective: The COVID-19 outbreak led to school closures and a sudden shift from in-person to online learning, which reduced students’ motivation and social interactions, creating significant challenges for academic achievement. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the impact of motivation deficit and educational isolation on students’ academic decline during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: The present study employed a mixed-methods design, combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. The study population included all mothers, students, and secondary school teachers in Sabzevar in 2021. Among them, 30 participants were purposefully selected for qualitative interviews after meeting inclusion criteria and achieving data saturation. Following the qualitative phase, after identifying and validating categories and factors, a questionnaire was designed and administered to 384 participants (mothers, students, and secondary school teachers) due to the large and unlimited population. The research instrument was a 49-item researcher-made questionnaire assessing challenges of effective virtual education contributing to academic decline during COVID-19.
Results: The findings indicated that motivation deficit and educational isolation had a significant impact on students’ academic decline during the pandemic. Moreover, these variables explained 61% of the variance in academic decline, and the predictive power for academic decline was 0.357, which is considered strong. Therefore, the tested structural model demonstrated acceptable quality and validity.
Conclusion: Overall, the findings highlight that academic success during a crisis is not solely dependent on students’ cognitive abilities, but psychological and social factors- particularly motivation and social interaction- play a crucial role. Managing these factors can be an effective strategy to reduce academic decline in emergency educational situations and underscores the importance of designing supportive and motivational learning environments.