Preservice Teacher Perceptions of Virtual Reading Fieldwork During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Latasha Holt

doi:10.22521/edupij.2021.104.1

Abstract

Preservice Teacher Perceptions of Virtual Reading Fieldwork During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Highlights

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted higher education across the globe, including teacher preparatory programs (Marinoni et al, 2020; Neuwirth et al, 2020)
The findings revealed that unique challenges were faced by preservice teachers during participation in a semester long virtual fieldwork requirement as part of a course in “reading assessment.”
Other challenges included issues with scheduling virtual intervention sessions with students, students being distracted during sessions, and the preservice teachers’ own lack of experience with reading assessments

Summary

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted higher education across the globe, including teacher preparatory programs (Marinoni et al, 2020; Neuwirth et al, 2020). Due to mandates restricting traditional, face-to-face, in-person classroom contact, teacher education programs were forced to reconsider the methods used in order that fieldwork requirements could still be met. Instructors had to be mindful of the ongoing scheduling adjustments with regards to partnerships with K-12 schools. These K-12 meeting schedules fluctuated from traditional to virtual (online) and even hybrid models. As with many other sectors, preservice teacher fieldwork looked to virtual methods in order to fulfill its program requirements (Ersin et al, 2020; Holt & Kramer, 2020)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion