Meta-Levels of Adaptation: Pre-Service Teacher Education in Changing Contexts

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Pre-service teacher education programs are vital to preparing future teachers to deliver effective instruction. For educators worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic is a quintessential transformative challenge with no preconfigured playbook. Pre-service education is among the work that has had to adapt or risk a “lost year” – not only for current students in school, but for the student teachers who are needed to serve generations of students in the future.

This panel will explore multiple angles of pre-service teacher education and adaptations in changing contexts. From recent experience and applied research in four different regions of the world, the cases presented include innovations in pre-service programming itself as well as adaptations while working to reform this training, including efforts to assess and strengthen the capacity of the institutions responsible for designing and delivering teacher education curriculum.

In the face of the disruptions caused by the pandemic, the elimination of face-to-face interactions for education and collaboration has required swift adaptations of multiple kinds, nearly always leveraging different technologies. Research is still emerging on pre-service redesigned to provide student teachers with opportunities to learn and practice teaching through different modalities. In many resource rich contexts, activities have rapidly gone online and supported by mobile instant messaging, digital whiteboards, and both synchronous and asynchronous sessions. Early evidence suggests that even some practice teaching, a critical element of teacher education, can be done virtually in lieu of field-based practicums (Cirillo, et al. 2020).

In a book published electronically in June 2020, dozens of cases from “stories from the field” in the United States offer multiple options for how to adapt pre-service training methods and pedagogy to distance learning, including how to create meaningful alternatives to field experiences where student teachers would normally learn from being in the classroom (Ferdig, et al. 2020). Early results based on instructor reflections and student feedback show the promise of collaborative strategies and tools that succeeded in fostering meaningful social connectedness and learning even in these contexts.

However, there is little evidence on adaptations that would be best suited for low resource settings where devices, electricity, and internet connections cannot be guaranteed, and access to opportunities for virtual practice teaching is extremely limited. Early research on the use of written and video-based pre-service education materials in low- and middle-income countries is emerging and ongoing. For example, the pilot study from Senegal presented here shows some early promising results from creating meaningful learning opportunities through self-study and ongoing exchanges with classmates and instructors during remote learning; it also reveals challenges to be addressed in the short and long term.

Rapid adaptations in low- and middle-income countries also means finding ways to continue collaborations around reforms to pre-service teacher training, which traditionally has been heavily theory-based even when opportunities for highly engaging in-person activities and field-based learning were possible. Virtual work sessions and capacity strengthening activities with the government and academic centers responsible for teacher training itself presents both challenges and opportunities – including exposing faculty to the same modalities they are now being encouraged to adopt. In the modern age where young students in pre-service training programs are more experienced with technology, often more so than their professors, there may well be benefits to continuing online pedagogies and blended learning in the future (Winthrop, 2020).

Regarding adapting pre-service training modalities, this panel will present details about the Senegal case, including findings from a pilot program to prepare new teachers in early grade reading instruction that rapidly pivoted to distance learning in the face of the pandemic. These findings reveal both technological and programmatic challenges, particularly in keeping virtual training practical and in ensuring equitable access to all student teachers, including those without appropriate devices and/or internet access. This presentation will also speak to how the pilot will inform the future of the pre-service reform and possible integration of hybrid training models in the long term.

To adapt the reform process for pre-service programs, three other cases provide additional insight. The presentation on the Philippines will share an example of international collaboration between academic institutions working to strengthen teacher education in early literacy instruction, and the design and challenges of quickly pivoting to virtual collaboration modalities for this collective work. Similarly, a presentation on Djibouti will speak to the challenges and strategies in continuing reform efforts to render pre-service teacher education far more practical and aligned to the recently revised national curriculum. This includes learning from helping the ministry’s reform team themselves pivot to online collaboration. Finally, the case of pre-service teacher education reform in Jordan will present both the process and findings of an assessment of a higher education institution’s capacity to sustainably deliver a pre-service teacher education diploma. In particular, this presentation will focus on a) findings related to the current capacity related to educational technology and the use of distance or virtual learning; and b) findings on a range of often neglected “administrative” capacities essential to managing any introduction of distance or blended learning, as well as to ensuring well-subscribed, sustainable and high quality programs over time generally.

The session will explore several cross-cutting questions, including: what are the key challenges in adapting pre-service training and the work of training reform to new, virtual modalities? In what ways are these adaptations possibly increasing and/or lowering beneficiary inequalities? What benefits are arising? What institutional capacities must be better addressed when looking to support both distance learning and remote work adaptations in the future – and also to strengthen the adaptability of institutions to make their own pivots in the face of change?

These questions are relevant to a broad scope of CIES participants, exploring meta-levels of adaptation that go beyond the specificities of pre-service teacher education to address the design of blended learning more generally. It also addresses critical aspects of systems strengthening to be able to support rapid adaptations, learning using technology, and equity – all needed for contexts in constant flux and the social responsibility we have as a global community to ensure equal access to quality education, always.

Sub Unit

• Teacher Education and the Teaching Profession SIG

Chair

• Valerie Power, Chemonics International

Individual Presentations

• No Time to Lose: Distance Learning to Preserve and Enhance Pre-Service Teacher Training for Early Grade Reading in Senegal - Jake Thomsen, Chemonics International; Diane Proudfoot, Independent Consultant; Moussa SOW, Chemonics International

• Reforming Pre-Service Training in Djibouti during the COVID Crisis: A Case Study - Julia Miller, FHI360; Nathalie Louge, FHI 360

• Professional collaborations during a global pandemic: flexible adaptations to ensure continuation - ANA HELGA MARTY, FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY; Marion Fesmire, Florida State University; Adrienne Barnes, Learning Systems Institute at Florida State University

• Institutional Capacity Assessment: A Starting Point for Blended and Remote Pre-Service Training - Rebecca Ward, IREX; Lana al Momani, IREX

Discussant

• Stefanie Kendall, FHI 360