Can a Teacher's Mental Health Impact Teaching Pedagogies in the New Normal?

Teachers globally have been required to adapt to immense change providing students within higher educational institutions (HEI) with the best teaching pedagogies, through which they can progress. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has accelerated the use of technologies to facilitate learning due to remote learning regulations imposed upon HEI. Within the new normal world teachers have been required to re-skill ensuring appropriate teaching pedagogies are implemented to help students reach their educational endeavours. This study aims to understand the impacts on HEI teacher mental health within the new normal world and the implications on teaching pedagogies. A systematic review of published and grey literature is conducted. Results have revealed the following: Teachers within HEI have experienced negative mental health impacts including, stress, anxiety, depression, and loneliness. They have adapted teaching pedagogies to facilitate changing social circumstances leading to re-skill and up-skill ensuring student educational progression. Modes of communication altered to include social media platforms. Teaching pedagogies have included interactive video conferencing and software utilising artificial intelligence. Both students and teachers became accustomed to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, however post-pandemic hybrid learning has become more dominant. This study has deduced that teacher mental health does impact the quality of teaching pedagogies in the new normal world, affecting innovation and authenticity impacting student results. Teachers require flexibility and appropriate skills to ensure sustainable teaching pedagogies to support student learning. Recommendations are provided to facilitate teacher mental health and improve teaching pedagogies. [For the full proceedings, see ED656038.]