Experiences of Preservice Teachers on Online-Based Microteachings: New Insights for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) Programs

Abstract

Practicing online teaching activities has been favored quite some time, and it continues to gain popularity with the evolving technology as well as global dynamics (as COVID). Online-Based Microteachings (OBM), in this sense, can enforce preservice teachers to practice digitally-saturated new, possibly an ongoing, set of skills that will contribute to their teaching behaviors in future. Leaning on this idea this paper outlines the experiences of preservice teachers on online teaching activities that are inspired by microteaching strategy, which may initiate a discussion point for teacher trainers and trainees to practice more online-saturated teaching activities that can be developed as online-based microteachings in initial teacher education (ITE) programs. Doing so, the study was built upon case study design including 50 (32 females, 18 males) participants of preservice teachers from different fields. Findings indicate that preservice teachers had many new experiences that may reinforce their existing and future teaching skills as well as many challenges that resulted from digital-based drawbacks. The documented experiences can be used as evidences for international researchers and teacher educators to empower preservice teachers’ online teaching skills because apparently, they had real challenges to design and practice online teaching activities in this local-context. Implications of the study suggest that ITE programs may need additional contents in which necessary online pedagogy and skills are harmonized to enable preservice teachers to be much more-ready for future circumstances and to be familiar with online teaching qualifications.