GATEways to Teacher Education

A journal of the Georgia Association of Teacher Educators

2021). As approximately 70% of students’inschool learning had been disrupted worldwide because of the Covid-19 pandemic, university students’field experiences changed and for faculty it was very much like trying to fly the plane as it was being built (United Nations, Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, 2019).

What schools initially thought would only last for a couple of weeks has now extended into our current reality–with masks still being required from time to time and quarantines still occurring periodically because of Covid-19 exposures It has been unlike anything educators (or most Americans) had ever experienced, and thus there is a need to examine such experiences. This study explores the experiences of nineteen elementary education pre-service teachers who entered the field during a global pandemic.

At our southeastern university, there are approximately 8,300 undergraduate students enrolled. Of that, approximately 80 choose to major in elementary education. Elementary education students typically enter the College of Education in their junior year and are placed in cohorts where they complete four semesters, which we call blocks, of coursework and field experiences, with student teaching in their fourth and final block. Blocks 1-3 contain a mix of methods/theory courses with complementary field experiences embedded within each methods course. During the first three semesters, field experiences range from 60 to 120 hours. Within the first three blocks, pre-service teachers are expected to teach a minimum of nine lessons, with course instructors observing a minimum of three–though instructors are there daily (during non-Covid times) to observe informally, answer questions, and provide guidance when needed. In addition to teaching lessons, pre-service teachers are also expected to assist the teacher with day-to-day teaching tasks, including running small groups, read-alouds, and organizing centers.

The cohort of nineteen elementary education pre-service teachers in this study was in their second block of education coursework at the time of data collection (spring 2021). This cohort was selected because these students entered the elementary education program in the fall of 2020 and have thus had no pre-pandemic field experiences. The pre-service teachers in the cohort identified as 2 White males and 15 females (6 Black and 9 White). In their block 2 placements, seven students were placed in classrooms that had both face-to-face and online learners, ten were placed in classrooms that were solely face-to-face, and the remaining two were placed in classrooms that were completely virtual. Pre-service teachers were placed in grades K-5 depending on cooperating teachers’ willingness and ability to work with university students.

Data collection occurred during the spring of 2021 (January-May). It consisted of two main sources: coursework and interviews. The coursework was collected throughout the semester and the interviews occurred at the end of the semester.

The coursework consisted of: three sets of lesson plans, reflections, teacher-analysis project, culturally responsive teaching project, and a final exam.All coursework was collected throughout the spring 2021 (January-May) semester and stored on the university’s online platform.

Lesson plans (x3). Lesson plans were typically 5-7 pages and included the state standard, learning objectives, assessments, behavior management process, differentiation, introduction to the lesson, body of the lesson, and then the conclusion of the lesson. The student emailed each lesson to me as the course professor and the student’s cooperating teacher 48 hours prior to instruction. Once approved, the pre-service teacher would teach the lesson and then meet with me afterward to debrief the lesson.

Reflections (x3). Areflection was required after each lesson debrief. A debrief is when the student and I discuss the things that went well during the lesson and the areas where adjustments need to be made. The pre-service teachers are asked to address the following prompts in their reflections: a) Provide a detailed description of what occurred throughout the lesson. b) What did students do well with and what are they still struggling with related to the