ABSTRACT
Integration of computational thinking and programming into science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) classes is needed to promote students' learning of twenty-first century skills. Yet, teachers are not equipped to achieve this integration successfully as teacher education curricula do not generally align with this need. With the Covid-19 outbreak, curricula also need to be adapted for online environments. This qualitative study presents the redesign of an educational technology course that introduces programming and computational thinking to STEM preservice teachers for online settings, and explores learning experiences of preservice teachers, in terms of how they combine technological knowledge with pedagogy and content. Data were collected from course artifacts, such as reading responses, coding challenges, and lesson designs and implementations. The findings showed the online course design was helpful in enhancing preservice STEM teachers' pedagogical approaches of how to teach computational thinking and programming. Offering hands-on coding practices in the course allowed preservice teachers to improve their technological knowledge (programming), and they were able to integrate their technological pedagogical knowledge into their content area and design meaningful lessons. The study offers implications for design of online teacher education courses that promote preservice teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge for computational thinking and programming.Implications for practice or policy:* The online course design implemented in this study can be adjusted into different contexts, considering that fully-online or blended teacher education courses will still be needed in the future.* The design guidelines used in this study can be utilised to develop online teacher education modules for educational technology topics other than programming.* The question prompts given to preservice teachers in the study can be refined to trigger deeper reflection on pedagogy of computing education.
ABSTRACT
Covid-19 related transfer of instruction to digital platforms has heightened the complications involved in teaching writing, including assessment problems regarding the increased risk of academic misconduct incidents. This study aimed at scrutinizing how the revised anonymous multi–mediated writing model fits emergency remote teaching (ERT), ensuring the promotion of academic integrity. The revised model was implemented throughout a two–semester freshmen "Writing Skills” course via a mixed methods triangulation research design in the ELT department of a university in Türkiye. Quantitative data came from writing assignments and peer feedback analyses, whereas qualitative data were retrieved through reflection papers and interviews. Students' ERT scores were compared to pre-Covid face-to-face (F2F) learning scores, revealing no significant differences;confirming that students' performances were similar in F2F or ERT without any increase in academic misconduct in ERT. The AMMW model worked well in ERT by enabling scaffolding through asymmetrical and symmetrical asynchronous online feedback, with the integration of a rubric as the learning tool. Qualitative findings revealed the limitations of online teaching, especially regarding the importance of teacher–student(s) interaction. As an anthology of L2 writing practice amid the Covid-19 outbreak, this study may help other academics to cope with cases resembling those presented here.
ABSTRACT
BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic and associated preventative measures introduced a shock to the teaching paradigm in Saudi Arabia and the world. While many studies have documented the challenges and perceptions of students during the COVID-19 pandemic, less attention has been given to higher education staff. The aim of the present investigation is to evaluate the staff's perception and experiences of online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and methodsA validated survey was conducted between December 2021 and June 2022 in Saudi Arabian Universities to assess the status of online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic among faculty members. The collected responses were exploratively and statistically analyzed. ResultsA total of 1117 response was received. About 66% of the respondents were male and 90% of them hold postgraduate degree. Although rarely or occasionally teach online pre-COVID-19, only 33% of the respondents think the transition was difficult and 55% of them support the move. Most respondents received adequate training (68%) and tools (80%) and 88% of the respondents mentioned that they did not accrue additional workload in online study design. While the perception of online teaching was mostly positive (62%) with high satisfaction (71%). However, 25% of the respondents reported that a poor internet bandwidth was an obstacle and 20% was unable to track students' engagement. Respondents with more years of experience, previous training, support, or perceived online transition as easy were also more likely to be satisfied with the process. Also, older respondents, those who support the transition and those with previous training were less likely to report barriers (all p < 0.001). ConclusionThe perception and experience of transition to online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia were positive. Low internet bandwidth and inability to track students' limited effective online teaching. Work experience, previous training, and positive perception are the main factors that influence staff online teaching satisfaction.
ABSTRACT
Field experiences during teacher preparation programs support teacher candidates in forming and reforming teacher identities through real-world teaching situations. Trying out teaching approaches with children, reflecting on practice, and collaborating with cooperating teachers support teacher candidates in building a teacher identity. However, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, public schools closed in many states, requiring that field placements either end or change significantly. This is a study of five teacher candidates in an early childhood teacher preparation program. These candidates’ field placement ended in March 2020, requiring that university faculty develop an alternative teaching placement. Using Bourdieusian theoretical concepts of habitus, field, and doxa, this study explores how the candidates perceived this change and how they were able to continue to reflect and build their teacher identities. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Teacher Education is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
ABSTRACT
Integration of computational thinking and programming into science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) classes is needed to promote students’ learning of twenty-first century skills. Yet, teachers are not equipped to achieve this integration successfully as teacher education curricula do not generally align with this need. With the Covid-19 outbreak, curricula also need to be adapted for online environments. This qualitative study presents the redesign of an educational technology course that introduces programming and computational thinking to STEM preservice teachers for online settings, and explores learning experiences of preservice teachers, in terms of how they combine technological knowledge with pedagogy and content. Data were collected from course artifacts, such as reading responses, coding challenges, and lesson designs and implementations. The findings showed the online course design was helpful in enhancing preservice STEM teachers’ pedagogical approaches of how to teach computational thinking and programming. Offering hands-on coding practices in the course allowed preservice teachers to improve their technological knowledge (programming), and they were able to integrate their technological pedagogical knowledge into their content area and design meaningful lessons. The study offers implications for design of online teacher education courses that promote preservice teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge for computational thinking and programming. Implications for practice or policy: • The online course design implemented in this study can be adjusted into different contexts, considering that fully-online or blended teacher education courses will still be needed in the future. • The design guidelines used in this study can be utilised to develop online teacher education modules for educational technology topics other than programming. • The question prompts given to preservice teachers in the study can be refined to trigger deeper reflection on pedagogy of computing education © Articles published in the Australasian Journal of Educational Technology (AJET) are available under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives Licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). Authors retain copyright in their work and grant AJET right of first publication under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
ABSTRACT
Teaching a field experience course during a pandemic resulted in unique challenges because preservice teachers could not visit classrooms like they would in a traditional field experience. This article is a self-study exploration of the tensions experienced by a doctoral student teaching an elementary math and science field experience in a fully online setting during the height of the COVID - 19 pandemic. To substitute for a lack of available elementary school children, preservice teacher acted as substitutes for children during lesson rehearsals. Preservice teachers were usually poor substitutes for actual children when evaluating the extent to which the pandemic field experience mimicked traditional field experience. Instructional videos were frequently used in an attempt to provide meaningful opportunities for preservice teachers to engage in classroom practices. The perceived usefulness of instructional videos by preservice videos varied based on the type of video that was used.
ABSTRACT
The need for teachers to effectively serve students in grades K-12 virtual programs has increased. However, research has shown that teachers who have experience in traditional brick-and-mortar schools are expected to transition to online teaching using the same set of skills without any adjustments or training needed. The increasing number of K-12 schools offering more online courses and the Covid-19 pandemic has brought attention to how teachers deliver instruction in virtual learning environments. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand the characteristics of virtual teacher professional development that would cause teachers to change or adjust their online instruction. The following questions guided this study: according to teachers who teach online, what factors of a virtual teacher professional development session would make them change or adjust their instruction, and what types of virtual teacher professional development do teachers new to online instruction need? This study was guided by the Community of Inquiry conceptual framework which is focused on creating useful learning communities that support in-depth approaches to learning. Data were collected from seven teachers and two administrators of students in grades 3rd - 8th attending a public, online school. Data were coded and analyzed until seven themes emerged: presenter qualities, target-specific content, relevancy, usefulness in the classroom, instructional change, the role of the virtual teacher, and student reactions. These themes are needed to provide virtual teacher professional development that would encourage teachers to change or make adjustments to their online instruction. Recommendations for future practice include creating teacher professional development that includes active participation and reflection from the participants. Recommendations for future research include using various traditional and virtual schools and teachers from all K-12 grade levels. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of comprehensive treatment on ocular surface function and the visual quality of online teachers with a mild-to-moderate dry eye condition during the early phase of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). METHODS: Secondary school online teachers diagnosed with a mild-to-moderate dry eye disease in our outpatient clinic from February to May 2020 were enrolled in this retrospective cross-section study, and all patients received dry eye comprehensive treatment. A questionnaire survey on eye-use habits, visual quality and dry eye-related indicators was collected before and after treatment (2 and 4 weeks). The changes and the correlations between indicators before and after treatment were compared. RESULTS: A total of 30 patients (15 females and 15 males) were included. After comprehensive treatment, patients had significantly higher central tear meniscus height (TMH), non-invasive first tear film breakup time (NIBUTf) and non-invasive average tear film breakup time (NIBUTav) than those before with statistical significance (P < 0.05). Lower ocular surface disease index (OSDI) and Meibomian gland scores were observed after treatment with statistical significance (P < 0.05). Objective scatter index (OSI), modulation transfer function (MTF) cutoff, strehl ratio (SR), and tear film objective scatter index (TF-OSI) were significantly improved after treatment (P < 0.05). Besides, TF-OSI was positively correlated with the changes in OSDI, Meibomian gland score, eye-use duration and OSI with statistical significance (P < 0.05), while it was negatively correlated with NIBUTf, NIBUTav, the TMH of the central lower eyelid, SR, sleep duration, conjunctival congestion and the MTF cutoff (P < 0.05), respectively. No correlation between TF-OSI and ciliary congestion was found (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Comprehensive treatment could effectively improve the symptoms and visual quality of online teachers with a mild-to-moderate dry eye condition during the early stage of COVID-19 pandemic.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: COVID-19 forced many colleges and schools of nursing to abruptly pivot face-to-face learning to online formats. Online teaching is not new, but some faculty have not taught in a virtual environment and rapidly transitioning courses online was challenging. It is not known if teacher self-efficacy was impacted by these circumstances. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to assess online teacher self-efficacy of nursing faculty who transitioned at least one-face-to face course to an online format. We hypothesized that faculty with previous online teaching experience and greater self-rated instructional support would demonstrate higher online teacher self-efficacy scores compared to faculty who had little or no online teaching experience or reported less satisfaction with instructional support. DESIGN: A cross-sectional, descriptive design was used. SETTING: Faculty from ten universities across the United States were recruited. PARTICIPANTS: Nursing faculty (N = 84) who transitioned at least one face-to-face course to an online format during COVID-19 were included in the study. METHODS: Participants completed the 32-item Michigan Nurse Educators Sense of Efficacy for Online Teaching (MNESEOT) instrument and a demographic questionnaire which included items about prior online teaching experience and instructional support. RESULTS: Participants scored overall teacher self-efficacy high (75th percentile). "Computer skills" were scored highest while "student engagement" scored lowest. Prior online teaching was a predictor of higher online teacher self-efficacy; however, instructional support was not a predictor of higher online teacher self-efficacy. CONCLUSION: Nursing faculty reported a high level of online teacher self-efficacy during an abrupt pivot from face-to-face teaching to a virtual format. Pre-emptive opportunities to teach online can build self-efficacy for novice faculty. Faculty and students will benefit from improving student engagement skills, especially during isolating and overwhelming events such as the COVID-19 pandemic.