Abstract
This paper examines preservice teachers’ perspectives on assessment feedback developed in a teacher education course during the first lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As initially negotiated with students, feedback was learner-centred and involved a formative intervention approach applied iteratively by the teacher educator over the course of one semester. Although such feedback was initially face-to-face, it had to be given exclusively online following the unexpected closure of the university. Analysis of student teachers’ perspectives, which were collected through an online questionnaire completed after their final assessment, reveals both positive and critical aspects regarding the feedback provided by the teacher educator. While reaffirming the significance of feedback as a crucial element for learning in online teacher education contexts, the findings also show that the clarity, affective bonding and multimodal meaning-making involved in face-to-face interaction are particularly challenging when the communication of feedback is digitally mediated. The implications and limitations of such findings are discussed.
Highlights
On 13 March 2020, the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education announced the closure of all higher education institutions to mitigate the spread of SARS-CoV
This paper focuses on the perspectives of a class of Portuguese masters-level student teachers on the assessment feedback provided during a course conducted under these new circumstances
This study set out to investigate student teachers’ perspectives about the online feedback provided in the online learning environment set up following the closure of the university due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Summary
On 13 March 2020, the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education announced the closure of all higher education institutions to mitigate the spread of SARS-CoV. The same communication specified that “efforts should be made to promote online teaching and learning, maintaining activities through teacher and student interaction via digital tools” [1] The forced transition to online teaching after the fourth teaching week raised unforeseen challenges to the teaching and learning practices with which teachers and students had to cope, leaving almost no time to prepare. This paper focuses on the perspectives of a class of Portuguese masters-level student teachers on the assessment feedback provided during a course conducted under these new circumstances. As will be made clear throughout the paper, the greatest change to this teacher education environment arising from the move to digitally mediated communication was found in the social dimension of the learning process [2], especially with regard to the provision of teacher feedback, which has a pivotal and transversal role in student teachers’ learning
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