STUDENT TEACHERS’ RETROSPECTIVE NARRATIVES OF TEACHING PRACTICE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: LESSONS FOR A UNIVERSITY IN EASTERN CAPE PROVINCE, SOUTH AFRICA

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to conduct a desktop research on experiences of Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) students on Teaching Practice (TP) during COVID-19, with the aim to glean lessons for our own B.Ed programme to mitigate such challenges in future. Much attention has been paid to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education, with a few studies having explored the TP experiences of student teachers. Although studies in education have examined useful teaching practices for succeeding during the COVID-19 pandemic, there has not been adequate literature on how the current cohort of student teachers affected by COVID-19 feel about their experiences. Piaget’s Constructivism, Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, and Picciano’s Blending with Pedagogical Purpose Model guided the study. The Semantic Scholar database was used to purposively select eight peer reviewed articles. Results revealed that most student teachers lacked confidence and failed to achieve the outcomes as per the TP objectives. The training period should be extended to acquire theoretical, pedagogical, practical and technological knowledge skills during times of disruption, failure of which, the system will produce half-baked graduate teachers that will compromise the quality of learning and teaching in the future.

Keywords

• covid-19 pandemic
• microteaching
• student teachers
• teacher education