Section archive - Trends in Teacher Education

Elementary student teachers in both a yearlong and one-semester student teaching design were impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This phenomenon forced the closure of placement schools and their universities, and drastically changed the roles and responsibilities of student teachers. This qualitative phenomenology study sought to capture and describe the lived experiences through two different student teaching designs and their student teaching coordinators. This manuscript reports findings from analysis of student teacher and student teaching coordinator surveys that describe both beneficial and disappointing preparation experiences, as they navigated the ever-changing educational environment of student teaching during the initial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The lived experiences of these student teachers captured how varying educational learning and teaching experiences were impacted due to the pandemic. Throughout these lived experiences, student teaching coordinators of both student teaching designs became an integral part of the communication chain for student teachers.

With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, even greater efforts are needed to address students’ academic and social emotional needs, all the while making up for learning loss and preparing for the unpredictable combinations of distance learning, blended learning, and in-classroom learning. These expectations, along with the need for greater emphasis on equity-focused teaching and learning have raised the bar for educators and for educator preparation. This paper explores what policymakers and educators can do to support educators in meeting the social emotional and academic needs of students. These strategies include investing in high-quality educator preparation, transforming educator professional learning opportunities to match current needs, supporting mentoring and the development of new teacher roles, and creating time for educators to collaborate with each other and key partners. These actions are vital for navigating teaching and learning during the pandemic and beyond.

This study examined the flipped classroom through the eyes of pre-service language teachers to reveal what hinders them from or encourages them to adopt this approach. Data were collected from students in a Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) course; they experienced two flipped class sessions (complementing the traditional instructor-led sessions) and completed a survey about their experiences. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with a sub-set of students to examine their perceptions in greater depth. Three major themes emerged regarding benefits of the flipped classroom: learner autonomy, learning by doing with support, and preventing cognitive overload. Four challenges emerged: learners’ technology access and technical ability, technical support for instructors, ambiguous student responsibility, and an inability to provide immediate clarification. Three additional notable themes emerged: heightened awareness of peers in the classroom, different reactions to content-oriented versus technically-oriented instructional videos, and student workload. These themes are discussed in detail, along with suggestions for teacher training and professional development. Also considered is the need to establish guidelines for best practices in flipped classrooms and to develop high-quality approaches to flipping without a dependence on instructional videos.

Globalization is undoubtedly affecting every aspect of our lives. The reach and the reality of globalization means that what happens “there” to “them” now affects what happens “here” to “us.” The destinies of billions of people around the planet have become inextricably tied, connected by multiple networks, whether virtual, commercial, political, trans-familial, socio-cultural, or educational. This is the globalized space in which today’s teachers operate, it is the space they must navigate, they have no choice to do otherwise than to look, know, think, understand and teach beyond the boundaries of the(ir) local. But what exactly does that mean in practice? In response, the author begins first with a brief discussion about globalization—what it means, and how it is—or perhaps not—affecting teaching and teacher education. She then discusses the mindsets teachers (and therefore teacher education/educators) need to cultivate along four dimensions in the context of globalization: the curricular, professional, moral, and personal. She then closes with two immediate actions we should take as/to be a global teacher education community.