BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE: CHALLENGES FACED BY UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN EDUCATION PROGRAMS

The study examined the impact of covid-19 psychological trauma on self-efficacy among students of school of undergraduate studies, Aminu Saleh College of Education, Azare. The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the psychological wellbeing of students, pandemic resulted in unprecedented levels of psychological distress as a collective trauma requiring a population health approach. Four (4) objectives, research questions and hypotheses were raised and tested in the study. The study delimited to impact of covid-19 psychological trauma of anxiety, stress and depression on self-efficacy among students of School of Undergraduate Studies, Aminu Saleh College of Education, Azare. An Ex-Post facto research design of the survey type was adopted in the study. The population of the study comprised of all Undergraduate Students of Aminu Saleh College of Education, Azare with the population of 2,291 students. Multistage sampling techniques were used to draw the sample of 322 respondents in the study. Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-42) and the General Self-Efficacy Scale. The instrument subjected to pilot study using 50 students from NCE programme the result shows that DASS-42 has a good Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.89, 0.91 and 0.90 for depression, anxiety and stress subscales and also the GSE items showed high internal consistency (Cronbach alpha = 0.95) which determines the validity of the items. Data were collected with the help of four (4) research assistants. Descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentage were used to analyze the demographic information of the respondents. Pearson Product Moment Correlation used to test hypotheses 1 – 3, while linear regression was used in testing hypothesis 4 using latest version of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The finding of the study concludes that, students in School of Undergraduate Studies, Aminu Saleh College of Education, Azare were psychologically stressed due to due to Covid-19 pandemic that deprive their self-efficacy. It is recommended among others that, government and non-governmental organizations should intensify community mindfulness, specifically for the students, by using artificial intelligence to obtain evidenced-based and scientific measures for pandemics and pandemic preparedness. Most importantly, an all-inclusive teaching and learning strategy during pandemics should be deliberated immediately, as this study confirms that the emergency remote teaching has contributed to significant psychological trauma and loss of self-efficacy among students