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ERIC Number: EJ1294695
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Apr
Pages: 6
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-2165-2554
EISSN: N/A
"Into the Unknown" Supervising Teacher Candidates during the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic
Maher, Steffany; Zollman, Alan
Journal of Teaching and Learning with Technology, v10 p158-163 Apr 2021
In mid-March 2020, our public schools ended classroom instruction because of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The timing of the suspension of face-to-face instruction was in the middle of the student teaching clinical experience for our secondary education teacher candidates. Without preparation, teacher candidates were to guide their middle and high school students through online learning. University faculty were experiencing a similar challenge--how to support and direct their teacher candidates in midexperience. This was a change in the logistics of teaching and in the focus of education. Unlike in previous years, the first priority of schools was not high-stakes standardized testing, nor daily pacing guides, but rather the emotional and social health of students. This change in the schools' priorities fit well with the preparation of our teacher candidates at our Midwest regional teaching university. Our focus was to prepare teachers of students, not teachers of mathematics or English. While our secondary teacher candidates did not have all the tools and technological skills needed to switch to online teaching immediately, they did know it was the relationship with the learner that was most important. The second change in the schools' priorities was a time-allocation switch from mostly teaching to mostly planning, communicating, and supporting one another as teachers. Our teacher candidates already knew that effective communication makes everyone a better instructor and benefits student learning. To help our teacher candidates make these transitions, we developed and used a clinical practice interview protocol with our candidates regularly online. In addition to these changes in priorities in schools, another helpful experience our teacher candidates possessed was prior experience as students of online classes themselves. Many had taken several online or hybrid university courses and knew what worked well and what they needed to avoid as online teachers. In this reflective essay, we discuss how the university academic clinical educators (university supervisors) supported and facilitated our teacher candidates in preparing and implementing quality instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Indiana University. 107 South Indiana Avenue, Bryan Hall 203B, Bloomington, IN 47405. Tel: 317-274-5647; Fax: 317-278-2360; e-mail: josotl@iu.edu; Web site: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/jotlt
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A