Pre-Service Science Teachers' Teaching Competence in a New Normal Learning Environment

ABSTRACT

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a massive effect on education. The education sector quickly transforms its curriculum to address the need of both teachers and students. Online learning has become the mode of instructional delivery;however, not everyone can fully participate in and benefit from this modality. A similar experience has taken place with the Pre-Service Teachers doing their teaching internship. In the Philippines, a teaching internship is a required component of all teacher education programs. Student teachers must undergo practice teaching in a real classroom setting. Due to the transition of instructional delivery from face-to-face to online learning, Pre-service teacher need also to adapt to this. They have to observe classes online and perform their teaching demonstrations remotely. Hence, this study aimed to determine the perceived teaching competency of the pre-service science teachers in terms of pedagogical skills, student performance assessment skills, and classroom management skills. It also described the teaching internship performance level in the new learning environment. Furthermore, this also served to investigate the significant relationship between perceived teaching competency and teaching internship performance of Pre-service Science Teachers. This study employed a descriptive- correlational design. It was conducted on 55 Pres-service Science Teachers in one of the Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs) of Iligan City, Philippines. The findings of the study indicated that pre-service science teachers were perceived to be very competent in their pedagogical skills, student performance assessment skills, and classroom management skills. Moreover, there was a significant relationship between the teaching internship performance level and their perceived teaching competency in terms of their pedagogical skills.