TY - JOUR

T1 - Remote internships: The experiences of pre-service teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic

AU - Beckmann, Timo

AU - Ehmke, Timo

N1 - Funding Information: This project is part of the “Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung”, a joint initiative of the Federal Government and the Länder, which aims to improve the quality of teacher training. The programme is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The authors are responsible for the content of this publication. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

PY - 2023/9/24

Y1 - 2023/9/24

N2 - School-based internships are an important learning opportunity for pre-service teachers (PSTs); they were partly or fully obstructed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to investigate how schools, PSTs, and the university succeeded in organizing and supporting school internships during the pandemic. Accordingly, 434 pre-service teachers (PSTs) were asked to complete an online survey at two time points (just before starting and just before completing the internship) about their internship experiences under pandemic conditions in 2020 (201 PSTs) and 2021 (233 PSTs). We investigated the effects of the internships on PSTs’ health, lesson planning competence, and teacher self-efficacy; we also compared these effects between the cohorts in 2020 and 2021. While PSTs had little contact with school pupils, university teacher educators quickly offered alternative supervision formats (especially in 2020). Internships contributed more to PSTs’ career choice certainty and self-efficacy in 2021, though there was no difference in self-assessed lesson planning competence. The central implications are that university teachers can create learning opportunities even without PSTs being physically present in schools; this potential should be developed in the future, despite the removal of pandemic-related restrictions. Furthermore, schools should remain aware of their educational obligations to PSTs even in challenging times.

AB - School-based internships are an important learning opportunity for pre-service teachers (PSTs); they were partly or fully obstructed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to investigate how schools, PSTs, and the university succeeded in organizing and supporting school internships during the pandemic. Accordingly, 434 pre-service teachers (PSTs) were asked to complete an online survey at two time points (just before starting and just before completing the internship) about their internship experiences under pandemic conditions in 2020 (201 PSTs) and 2021 (233 PSTs). We investigated the effects of the internships on PSTs’ health, lesson planning competence, and teacher self-efficacy; we also compared these effects between the cohorts in 2020 and 2021. While PSTs had little contact with school pupils, university teacher educators quickly offered alternative supervision formats (especially in 2020). Internships contributed more to PSTs’ career choice certainty and self-efficacy in 2021, though there was no difference in self-assessed lesson planning competence. The central implications are that university teachers can create learning opportunities even without PSTs being physically present in schools; this potential should be developed in the future, despite the removal of pandemic-related restrictions. Furthermore, schools should remain aware of their educational obligations to PSTs even in challenging times.

KW - Educational science

KW - Covid-19

KW - distance learning

KW - internship

KW - lesson planning

KW - practicum

KW - pre-service teachers (PSTs)

KW - self-efficacy

KW - stress

KW - teacher education

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85172000132&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/7b78bd59-4d72-3f2d-9f12-d3310ce01d98/

U2 - 10.1080/2331186X.2023.2260679

DO - 10.1080/2331186X.2023.2260679

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 10

JO - Cogent Education

JF - Cogent Education

SN - 2331-186X

IS - 2

M1 - 2260679

ER -