‘Online Pre-service Teacher Placements’ during COVID-19: A Compromise or an Opportunity?

ACADEMIA Letters ‘Online Pre-service Teacher Placements’ during COVID-19: A Compromise or an Opportunity? Jessie Ming Sin Wong William Ko Wai Tang In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, all education and training actors had to adapt to a new reality overnight. Trainee teachers, in particular, face additional uncertainties as inperson placements are often impossible. This paper discusses the experience of ‘online preservice teacher placements’ in Hong Kong. Through the words of various trainee teachers and teacher trainers, the authors hope to illustrate the challenges and opportunities that may serve as references for other countries. The nationwide closures of schools due to the outbreak of COVID-19 are impacting almost 70% of the world’s student population (UNESCO, 2020). While most teaching has been undertaken remotely and on digital platforms, trainee teachers in many countries are uncertain what the future holds as placements are put on hold. In Hong Kong, all schools suspended since late January 2020. Kindergartens, primary and secondary school only resumed classes by phases in a gradual and orderly manner starting from late May 2020, but has closed again from early December 2020 (Education Bureau, 2020; Information Services Department, 2020). Meanwhile, most tertiary schools have suspended face-to-face classes for almost a whole year already. Without interrupting learning, most students — from kindergarten to university — are resorting to online learning at home. The sudden transformation from face-to-face instruction to online learning has posed challenges not only for in-service teachers but also for trainee teachers, who need to shift between the roles of tertiary students and teachers. As the COVID-19 crisis and global switch to online learning have never been Academia Letters, May 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Jessie Ming Sin Wong, jmswong@ouhk.edu.hk Citation: Wong, J.M.S., Tang, W.K.W. (2021). ‘Online Pre-service Teacher Placements’ during COVID-19: A Compromise or an Opportunity? Academia Letters, Article 312. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL312. 1 seen before, we employed a grounded theory approach (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) to collect qualitative data from 17 undergraduate trainee teachers and their trainers to understand their situations. We also sought to know what might have facilitated their adaptation. These trainee teachers all underwent pre-service teacher placements online before summer vacation 2020. They were enrolling in either Early Childhood Education (ECE) or English Language Education programs at the authors’ university at the moment. While face-to-face interviews were not possible, the data were collected mainly through virtual conversations, emails, and written comments. We hope the initial findings reported in this Academia Letter may provide a timely discussion of the challenges and opportunities for other parties facing the same problem. Pre-service Teacher Placement Situation in Hong Kong In order to register as a teacher in Hong Kong, depending on the stages of education their programs focus on, graduates of teacher training programs must have successfully fulfilled the 10-12-week placement requirements. Often at least part of the placement training is included in the last year of teacher training programs. However, at present, the government still has not relaxed the 10-12-week requirements for final year student teachers nor issued official guidelines on pre-service teacher placements during COVID-19. It is up to teacher education institutions (TEIs) to decide how the training should proceed. Other than postponing the placements, many TEIs in Hong Kong have taken a more proactive approach. Where possible, some of them require trainee teachers to continue undertaking teaching or non-teaching duties as assigned by the placement schools (e.g., filming lesson videos, preparing online teaching materials, reviewing homework assignments, etc.). They also need to complete the microteaching components through online means. To support partnering schools that may not be familiar with online teaching, some TEIs provide them with additional support on online teaching and the design of learning materials until class resumption (Oriental Daily, 2020). Since only the Upper Kindergarten level (for 5-year-olds) resumed on 15 June 2020, and other levels (for 2-4-year-olds) remained closed until late September 2020, trainee ECE teachers at the authors’ university, for instance, were instead asked to write an additional action research proposal in order to fulfill the placement requirements in the absence of children. Challenges and Opportunities Since supervised placements were mainly conducted online, aside from technical difficulties, some teacher trainers acknowledged that trainee teachers had limited opportunities to form a Academia Letters, May 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Jessie Ming Sin Wong, jmswong@ouhk.edu.hk Citation: Wong, J.M.S., Tang, W.K.W. (2021). ‘Online Pre-service Teacher Placements’ during COVID-19: A Compromise or an Opportunity? Academia Letters, Article 312. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL312. 2 comprehensive picture of their placement schools and the complexity of teachers’ work. They also worried that the inability of trainee teachers to practice classroom management skills in asynchronous, pre-recorded video lessons. Even though some lessons could be conducted synchronously, trainee teachers often found it challenging to know whether their students were attentive in class. Some of them had problems refining or applying the teaching strategies or learning theories they learned in the TEIs. They could only consult and discuss with their supervisors/ mentors using messaging apps such as WhatsApp. Moreover, the remote learning environment was unconstructive to the development of rapport and pastoral care with students. As pointed out by a pre-service primary school English teacher, ‘my students do not even want to turn on the webcams due to different reasons.’ Their teaching practices were sometimes interrupted by people or incidences that do not generally present/happen in classroom settings. One primary school trainee English teacher whined, ‘While most of my students didn’t have any questions about their English homework, their parents, who were also watching the live class, commented that they wanted to see their children having English conversations with me.’ Nevertheless, both the teacher trainers and trainee teachers observed that the trainee teachers became more capable of integrating information technology into their teaching practices. One trainee teacher explained, ‘my placement school is a Microsoft Innovative School. We use Microsoft platforms, such as Teams, to conduct online classes and activities and assign homework. We also make use of teaching platforms other than Teams to add a variety of learning activities.’ The creation of a virtual environment, at times, could motivate trainee teachers and their students, those who may feel embarrassed to speak up in the physical classroom, to raise their inquires through text messaging or social media. As they could sometimes ‘sit-in’ a synchronous lesson, trainee teachers could ‘listen to what the teacher says and then study’ and revisit the lesson videos anytime-anywhere. Some trainee teachers also enjoyed the benefits of creating online learning and teaching activities, which enabled them to save time (e.g., auto-grading) and more efficiently keep track of students’ progress. Conclusion From the above views of both teacher trainers and trainee teachers, it seems pretty apparent that online placements cannot replace the traditional, in-person form of teacher placements. The unexpected transition to online learning and the necessary skills gained from utilizing different digital platforms, however, leave open the possibility of a new hybrid model of teacher education; one that incorporates both physical and virtual components in the placement training of teachers; and one that can be more adaptive to future crisis and the accelerated trend Academia Letters, May 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Jessie Ming Sin Wong, jmswong@ouhk.edu.hk Citation: Wong, J.M.S., Tang, W.K.W. (2021). ‘Online Pre-service Teacher Placements’ during COVID-19: A Compromise or an Opportunity? Academia Letters, Article 312. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL312. 3 of integration of information technology in all levels of education. The abrupt yet inevitable online learning experience that many countries are having, perhaps, has set a new foundation for the future of education. Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank Miss Skyey Sin Ching Law, the students of EDUE350F, and the teacher trainers who shared their experiences and comments with us. References Education Bureau. (2020). Arrangements of class resumption in phases for all schools. Retrieved from: https://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/sch-admin/admin/about-sch/diseasesprevention/edb_20200505_eng.pdf Glaser, B.G., & Strauss, A.L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. New York: Aldine de Gruyter. Information Services Department. (2020). Schools to suspend classes. Retrieved from: https://www.news.gov.hk/eng/2020/11/20201129/20201129_172437_678.html Oriental Daily. (2020, April 23). Unable to complete placement due to university suspension, pre-service teachers teach online instead [in Chinese]. Retrieved from: https://hk.on.cc/ hk/bkn/cnt/news/20200423/bkn-20200423020455753-0423_00822_001.html UNESCO. (2020). COVID-19 educational disruption and response. Retrieved from: https:// en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse Academia Letters, May 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Jessie Ming Sin Wong, jmswong@ouhk.edu.hk Citation: Wong, J.M.S., Tang, W.K.W. (2021). ‘Online Pre-service Teacher Placements’ during COVID-19: A Compromise or an Opportunity? Academia Letters, Article 312. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL312. 4