Preparing pre-service teachers through technology-enhanced fieldwork
Concurrent Session 6
Brief Abstract
This session presents original research on course design for online teaching fieldwork. In response to COVID-19, we created digital spaces for pre-service teachers to observe, discuss and deconstruct classroom observations. We will discuss implications of this research, and show examples of pre-service teachers’ representations, decompositions, and approximations of complex practice.
Presenters
Additional Authors
Extended Abstract
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Context
Educational fieldwork, in which pre-service teachers observe experienced teachers’ lessons, is an essential component of teacher preparation. Pre-service teachers (PSTs) complete in-person observations prior to student teaching to conceptualize what it means to teach and connect theoretical constructs. In March of 2020, K-12 schools around the country closed for in-person instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic, moving all teaching and learning to online settings. School closings had immediate effects on both teachers and students, but this abrupt change of programming also challenged teachers-in-training and schools of education. We know that ample clinical experience is one of the most critical factors related to future teaching success (e.g., Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005; Grossman, 2010). Pandemic-related school closures created the need for innovative learning experiences to prepare PSTs in alternative, online settings.
Despite lack of access to classrooms, teacher-educators are attempting to provide relevant, authentic, and meaningful clinical experiences to meet certification requirements and ensure that PSTs graduate and enter the workforce well prepared for the classrooms of today and tomorrow. Alternative methods of preparing teachers have been required to replace fieldwork temporarily. This study examines the challenges and affordances of alternative fieldwork experiences involving video analysis. Drawing from the Grossman et al. (2009) framework of “pedagogies of practice,” we examine the ways PSTs identify representations, decompositions, and approximations of practice, in an effort to understand the complexities of classroom teaching. Based on this framework, we define representations as to the practices visible to students as they watch classroom videos; decompositions occur during sense-making reflections and conversations to understand component parts and rationales of practice; and approximations are attempts to perform complex practices on one’s own after seeing examples in video. In the year-long study, we investigated video analysis as an alternative form of fieldwork. We required pre-service teachers to watch uncut classroom videos, note their observations and reflections, and discuss the videos with classmates in an online forum in preparation for an upcoming student-teaching residency. Uncut classroom videos are defined as video recordings of a lesson from start to finish, or “bell to bell.” They are not edited to focus on one particular area of the lesson, nor do they include commentary from teachers in the videos. Instead, they provide a realistic look at a whole class lesson with all of its ups and downs. In this presentation, we report this alternative, technology-enhanced form of fieldwork, which combined work in a video based platform (Teaching Channel Plus) with online discussion in our learning management system (Moodle).
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Questions
We will report findings on one overarching research question with three sub-questions: What are the unique benefits/ affordances and challenges of observing teaching online through uncut classroom videos; a) What representations of practice do PSTs notice, and how do these representations influence their approach to teaching English Language Learners (ELLs) in their student teaching residency; b) How does online discussion help PSTs to deconstruct or "decompose" teaching practices viewed in video lessons; and c) How do PSTs perceive their preparation and readiness for student teaching residencies was affected by the experience of analyzing uncut classroom videos?
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Methods
This presentation shares original research related to alternative, technology-enhanced forms of fieldwork and student teaching that we employed in response to the barriers to traditional types of clinical experiences that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we used uncut classroom videos from Teaching Channel Plus to prepare students for their year-long student teaching experiences, online (asynchronous) discussions via the learning management system Moodle to help them to make sense of what they saw in the videos, and the Teaching Channel Plus platform for them to share video recording, lesson plans, and instructional materials with their university supervisors who were not able to observe their teaching in-person, and receive supervisor’s feedback on their uploaded lessons as well.
Participants in this study were six pre-service teaching candidates in a Master of Arts in Teaching program, all taking the same courses (TESOL Practicum and TESOL Residency) during which the study took place. The participating PSTs ranged in age from mid 20s- 50s, with varying degrees of professional experience. Two of the participants were foreign born and not educated in the US. One participant was already working as a full-time teacher, and the other five had some classroom experience, either as substitute teachers, teaching-assistants, or college-level ESL instructors.
Data for this study included: observation protocols, online discussion posts, course exit tickets, and uploaded video-recorded lessons (with plans and instructional materials) with supervisor feedback. Observation protocols and discussion posts were de-identified and combined into two separate transcripts for analysis.
We conducted a qualitative analysis through multiple rounds of open coding of each data source. This analysis began with each member of our research team reading the full transcripts of observation protocols and discussion threads, and each of us watching the PSTs’ teaching videos, coding thematically throughout. Thereafter, we independently organized the data in conceptually clustered matrices, which provided “an at-a-glance summative documentation and analysis” (Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña, 2014). Through these matrices, we were able to use the themes that emerged from the early analysis and identify the areas of convergence and divergence among data sources.
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Results
Findings revealed an anatomy of classroom teaching practices for English language learners, in which best practices, classroom management, and aspects of classroom culture were noted by PSTs. We found that participating pre-service teachers were able to identify teaching specific actions that comprise abstract concepts such as “building mutual trust,” “supporting comprehension,” and “developing collaboration.” In addition, we found that this work of identifying representations of complex practices and decomposing practices through online discussion prepared PSTs for their student teaching residency and influenced their “approximations” of practice when they began teaching.
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Conclusions
This research shows how the use of technology-enhanced, video-based fieldwork allows PSTs to make connections between theory and practice of teaching, as they identified specific teacher actions that comprise complex and abstract constructs. By being able to see clear representations of practice in the videos, and then decompose those actions through online discussion, PSTs were able to approximate complex pedagogy in their own teaching practice.
Video provided several unique affordances: the instructors (course designers) were able to choose exactly what PSTs saw in the video lessons, PSTs had the opportunity to re-watch model lessons and moments within lessons, and they could review their lessons as they viewed their supervisors’ feedback. Additionally, supervisors were able to focus on micro-actions, as they annotated videos with time-stamped feedback. None of these opportunities are possible with live, in-person classroom observations. The online discussion platform allowed PSTs to have a record of how they decomposed teaching practices collaboratively, which is something you might not be able to capture in a live, f2f class.
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Discussion/ Implications
In this presentation, we will share the course design and technological tools that we employed in providing our PSTs with this alternative fieldwork experience. We will show participants how we structured our course to allow PSTs to maximize the benefits of each tool, as well as describe how each tool contributed to the development of the anatomy of classroom teaching for ELLs. Additionally, we recount how these technological enhancements can be used moving forward to complement traditional types of clinical experiences. We will discuss implications of this research for preparing novice teachers, and also how these methods could be used in other clinically-based education programs. We will invite participants to ask questions and contribute to the discussion of how to move traditionally “live” educational activities to a fully online format. Slides will be shared with participants.