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Global Health Econ Sustain

REVIEW ARTICLE
Self-directed online learning in support of

students’ mental health to promote positive
psychosocial outcomes in public schools

Carol Nash*

History of Medicine Program, Department of Psychiatry, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of
Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A1, Canada

Abstract

Negative mental health among students is currently categorized as a global crisis,
and those at both ends of the academic achievements are considered at greatest risk.
Public schooling, reproducing accepted psychosocial beliefs through standardized
learning, has traditionally evolved independently of the imperative to address
student mental health. Unlike standardized learning, self-directed learning in public
schools aims to establish relevant support structures for student mental health,
thereby promoting positive psychosocial outcomes. The detachment of public
schooling from mental health and self-directed learning was first acknowledged –
and lamented – by John Dewey over 100 years ago, who anticipated the ubiquity of
the present-day mental health crisis. However, as a response to the challenges posed
Academic editor: by COVID-19 restrictions, self-directed learning became an acknowledged learning
Mihajlo Jakovljevic M.D. Ph.D. MAE
method in public schools, potentially able to be regularly accommodated by them
*Corresponding author: in support of mental health through the use of online technology. This review
Carol Nash
(carol.nash@utoronto.ca) investigates the results of self-directed online learning in public schools during the
COVID-19 pandemic through a Google Scholar search of peer-reviewed studies on
Citation: Nash, C. (2023).
Self-directed online learning in self-directed learning, online learning, mental health, and public schools during
support of students’ mental health COVID-19. The findings suggest that, for self-directed online learning to continue and
to promote positive psychosocial positively impact public school students’ mental health post-COVID-19, it should be
outcomes in public schools. Global embraced without bias, supported by stable internet connections, and self-initiated
Health Econ Sustain, 1(2): 1219.
https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.1219 with relaxed parental expectations regarding standardized learning.
Received: July 1, 2023
Accepted: August 28, 2023 Keywords: Mental health; Self-directed learning; COVID-19; Online learning; Public
schools; Psychosocial outcomes
Published Online: September 26,
2023
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s).
This is an Open Access article 1. Introduction
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution Negative mental health in children and adolescents has been categorized as a global
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, crisis (Benton et al., 2021). To address this concern, the World Health Organization
provided the original work is (WHO) launched the WHO Special Initiative for Mental Health (2019 – 2023): Universal
properly cited. Health Coverage for Mental Health (WHO, 2023), emphasizing the alarming statistics
Publisher’s Note: AccScience that list suicide as the leading cause of death among young people (Ghebreyesus, 2019).
Publishing remains neutral with Concurrently, research has highlighted an intriguing pattern: young people experiencing
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional mental health challenges tend to be the highest achievers in standardized school settings
affiliations. (Wu et al., 2023). This counterintuitive relationship between mental health and academic

Volume 1 Issue 2 (2023) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.1219