GATEways to Teacher Education

A journal of the Georgia Association of Teacher Educators learning targets? c) Describe the effectiveness of the teaching strategies and planned supports. d) Based on the analysis of students’learning and teaching effectiveness, what are your next steps to strengthen your teaching practiceAND support students’learning?

TeacherAnalysis Project. Students were required to video record the teaching of one of their lesson plans. From that recording, they then extracted clips that provided a sample of how they modeled and interacted with students to develop the essential literacy strategy(s) and related skills for the lesson’s central focus.

Culturally Responsive Teaching Project. The Culturally responsive teaching project comprises four parts–a rationale, lesson plan, inclass presentation, and a reflection. For this project, students select a culturally responsive picture book and explain why they chose that book in their rationale. They then develop a lesson plan that uses the book as a mentor text. The class then divides into four small groups where each pre-service teacher has 25 minutes to teach the lesson they designed. They teach this lesson to their peer group; thus each pre-service teacher is exposed to several culturally responsive texts. Finally, students write a reflection detailing their experience and what they learned.

Final Exam. The final exam is composed of 25 true/false and multiple-choice questions and 2 short answers. Pre-service teachers were allowed to complete the final exam online and could use course notes and/or texts.

Interviews were conducted at the end of the semester and took approximately 10-15 minutes. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. These interviews were used primarily to member check the information learned through coursework. It also allowed me to ask follow-up questions if there was something in the data that seemed to be a bit of an outlier. For example, in my interview with Chelsea, I asked her why in her reflection she stated that small group instruction was a struggle and something she was uncomfortable with, and she replied, “I wasn’t great at navigating all of the breakout rooms and then trying to get them to interact with each other and me–it was a lot. Whole group was just easier–in the bigger group you could usually count on someone to reply.” I asked her about this because, typically in faceto-face learning environments, my students prefer small groups as it seems less intimidating, and they can form better relationships with their students. However, online Chelsea had different experiences. In addition to providing this method of member checking, the interviews also provided pre-service teachers with a way to ask questions about the semester and, specifically, this research project.

Data were analyzed using constantcomparative analysis (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). This type of analysis helps the researcher compare people, incidents, and categories within data (Charmaz, 2000). Three levels of coding were used to analyze the data: a) open coding, b) axial coding, and c) selective coding. I began with open coding, in which I examined all the data and looked for different categories that emerged. The following open codes were common during this stage of the analysis: technology fail, Covid protocols, new skills, tech integration, and flexibility. Next, I engaged in axial coding, where I looked for the connection among the categories and subcategories of data (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). Within this step, I went back through my data and open codes and noticed the relationship and connections among the codes. The following are examples of some of the axial codes that emerged: successful technology integration, resiliency, restrictions, frustrations, and relationships.

In the final stage of coding (selective coding), core categories emerge, systematically connecting them to the other codes/categories and confirming the similarities among them. The core categories that emerged in this study were a) the challenges that pre-service teachers faced in the field because of the Covid-19 pandemic and b) the learning opportunities that completing field experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic offered.

To ensure trustworthiness and credibility, I discussed the data and findings with the participants and solicited their feedback. I also looked for findings that did not confirm my initial analysis. While I found stand-alone codes (codes that occurred within only one participant’s data–e.g., a pre-service teacher