The Impact of Disrupted Student Teaching on Preservice Teacher Self-Efficacy

• In Event: Responding to the Current Context: Exploring Implications for Responsive and Humanizing Practices in Teacher Education

Abstract

We use exit survey data from 17 teacher education programs in four states to compare self-ratings of preparedness between two cohorts of teacher candidates: 2019 graduates who had “normal” student teaching experiences (n=1,334, 82% response rate) and 2020 graduates (n=1,447, 79% response rate), whose in-person student teaching was shortened by 6-10 weeks (38-83% of their placement) during the spring 2020 COVID-19 school closures. Our mixed methods analysis finds that teacher candidates with disrupted student teaching experiences rated themselves as more prepared than teacher candidates who had a full student teaching experience, and we explore the meaning and implication of this counterintuitive finding through a theoretical lens of self-efficacy.

Authors

• Dayna Jean DeFeo, The University of Alaska - Anchorage

• Jerry Dogbey-Gakpetor, North Dakota State University

• Stacy Duffield, North Dakota State University

• Trang C Tran, University of Colorado Boulder