Field-based experience is fundamental to any high-quality teacher education program (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, 2018). Teaching placements are considered a crucial stage in teacher training whereby theory and practice are brought together to provide opportunities for student teachers to expand their learning, being a fundamental building block in preparing them to become effective teachers (Darling-Hammond 2017). Student teachers acquire a great range of content and pedagogical knowledge and skills during their training at institutes of teacher education which they then apply during the practical period. In light of these views, other researchers (Ulvik, Helleve and Smith, 2018), have argued that all the knowledge and skills required by a teacher cannot be learnt solely from teacher education programmes due to the fact that these university programmes cannot replicate an environment that is equivalent to the school reality. The landscape of teacher education particularly the teaching practicum component however was drastically altered with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic challenged traditional placements of pre-service teachers in classrooms. As schools all around were forced to close or to operate with limited number of staff and limited number of external guests, it has left a significant impact on teaching practice placements. Nevertheless, teacher preparation programmes are still responsible to provide meaningful clinical experiences.

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I was responsible for the clinical teaching experiences of three student teachers who were put under me for supervision. The teaching practice placement was already in a state of disarray having been postponed a semester due to the pandemic. I waded through a cloud of uncertainty and ambiguity as to how I should guide, supervise and evaluate my teacher trainees under these very unprecedented times. As teacher educators, we are supposed to have all the answers but I was at a lost this time. My student teachers looked to me for solutions and I found myself submerged in uncharted waters. The school my three student teachers were assigned to was located in a semi-urban area. A majority of the students were from non-affluent backgrounds. Most relied on their parents’ mobile devices and internet connectivity was a prevailing obstacle. The only mode of online learning platform the students had access to was WhatsApp and the general practice of the school was assigning tasks via WhatsApp during the lockdown. Studies by Daniel (2020) and Ferdig, Baumgartner, Hartshorne, Kaplan-Rakowsi and Mouza (2020) raised concerns, that the scenario of the pandemic has led people to make different reflections and review attitudes. One of these reflections refers to the comfort of the classrooms and the inseparable teacher-student relationship, since now the classes are remote or virtual. Similarly, Flores and Gago (2020), pointed the need to take the different experiences that has emerged from the teaching practicum in terms of “the pace and diversity of the tasks as well as the student teachers’ involvement which are now very much context-dependent” (p.6).

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 In the context of my scenario, the mode of supervision would now have to be realigned to suit the current practice of the school, my student teachers were placed in. While we still had to closely follow the criteria outlined in the evaluation forms, nevertheless certain aspects had to be redefined. Perhaps the most challenging aspect that I had to evaluate was the teaching and learning process. In a scenario before the Covid-19 pandemic, traditionally the practicum supervisor would be in the classroom observing the student teachers’, seeing first hand as they navigate through the teaching process and checking on their learners’ understanding of the delivery in classroom.  Within this organic development of the teaching and learning process in the actual classroom context, the practicum supervisors would be able to make an informed decision in regards to the evaluation criteria and grading process. This process however is somewhat altered when the classroom context is placed online.

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The space and the distance between the practicum supervisors, the student teachers and their learners create many uncertainties and constraints.  In one instance for example during an evaluation process that was online, one of my student teachers attempted to use Google Meet instead of the prescribed WhatsApp approach. Unfortunately, in a class of thirty-eight (n=38) students, only six (n=6) managed to join the Meet and towards the end of the half an hour teaching session, only two (n=2) remained online. My student teacher was so flustered and worried about her evaluation as she should be, and even asked me permission to redo the teaching session. As a supervisor, I felt so sorry for her as the overall lesson was very well planned and carried out on her part, despite the unavoidable issues that appeared. These are some of the considerations that require rethinking the evaluation process during teaching practice. Should some of the criteria in the practicum evaluation forms be re-aligned to fit in the current teaching and learning conditions such as student learning evidences, learner participation, online modes of teaching and learning approaches, assessment strategies online and most importantly technological readiness, adaptation and accessibility. Certain placement schools have adopted the module-based system of learning which requires a different approach of teaching. How does that fit in the current practicum evaluation criteria?

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The questions raised are just thoughts voiced out aloud in line with the numerous studies globally on the impact of the pandemic on field experiences in teacher education programmes. Nasri, Husnin, Mahmud and Halim (2020) in their study on the concerns raised in initial teacher education in the time of the pandemic, proposed that more online teaching methods and platforms with instructions and manuals be embedded as part of the training, to better prepare the pre-service teachers for their teaching practice placements. Arguably, Sepulveda-Escobar and Morrison (2020), caution that “if school-based teacher educators are not familiar and competent in online teaching, it is unlikely that they will be able to guide and support student teachers in this scenario, which might also influence the pre-service teachers’ negative attitude towards this experience” (p. 25). The call for a more collaborative and sustainable approach of cooperation between placement schools and teacher education institutes is even more crucial now to create and develop suitable approaches to carry out online teaching during a health emergency to strengthen the learning processes of both the student teachers’ and the school learners.

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Supporting our student teachers’ during their teaching practicum especially in a time of unprecedented challenges must take priority over evaluation. According to Kazanjian and Choi (2016), student teachers should be offered space to experience empathy, to practice creativity and to find, by themselves meanings in their teaching experiences. Although my student teachers were fortunate enough to be able to experience the other half of their practicum experience back in a real classroom as the lockdown eased eventually, nevertheless the concerns raised during the course of the online teaching and learning are real. A new normal has dawned upon all of us in the field of teacher education. The way we carry out teaching practice supervision must be re-aligned and adaptable to the new normal of education now.  As pointed out by Sepulveda-Escobar and Morrison (2020), this change of scenario should prompt an agenda for institutes of teacher education to make the relevant changes to their curriculum in order to respond to unpredictable teaching environments.

References

Daniel, S. (2020). Education and the COVID-19 pandemic. Prospects, 49, 91–96 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-020-09464-3

Darling-Hammond, L. (2017). “Teacher Education around the World: What Can We Learn from International Practice?” European Journal of Teacher Education 40 (3): 291–309.: doi:10.1080/ 02619768.2017.1315399.

Ferdig, R. E., E. Baumgartner, R. Hartshorne, R. Kaplan-Rakowski, and C. Mouza (Eds). (2020). “Teaching, Technology, and Teacher Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Stories from the Field.” Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). https://www.learntechlib. org/p/216903/

Flores, M. A., and M. Gago. (2020). “Teacher Education in Times of COVID-19 Pandemic in Portugal: National, Institutional and Pedagogical Responses.” Journal of Education for Teaching. doi:10.1080/02607476.2020.1799709.

Kazanjian, C., and S. J. Choi. (2016). “The Person over Standardisation: A Humanistic Framework for Teacher Learning in Diverse School-based Contexts.” Pedagogy, Culture & Society 24 (2): 255–267. doi:10.1080/14681366.2016.1153511.

Nurfaradilla Mohamad Nasri, Hazrati Husnin,Siti Nur Diyana Mahmud & Lilia Halim (2020): Mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic: A snapshot from Malaysia into the coping strategies for pre-service teachers’ education, Journal of Education for Teaching, DOI: 10.1080/02607476.2020.180258

Paulina Sepulveda-Escobar & Astrid Morrison (2020) Online teaching placement during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile: challenges and opportunities, European Journal of Teacher Education, 43:4, 587-607, DOI: 10.1080/02619768.2020.1820981

Ulvik, M., I. Helleve, and K. Smith. (2018). “What and How Student Teachers Learn during Their Practicum as a Foundation for Further Professional Development.” Professional Development in Education 44 (5): 638–649. doi:10.1080/19415257.2017.1388271.

Written by Shubashini Suppiah