New Horizons in Education

Abstract

Background: During a nine-week teaching practice, 20 student teachers spent about 1.5 hours each week videoconferencing with one university faculty member and five student teachers from five different schools, while the other 22 student teachers did not have any videoconferences. Both groups were encouraged to make conscious effort in talking to school personnel and other student teachers about teaching practice related issues.

Aims: The study examined the impact of student teachers’ talk on their reported experience of student teaching and self-perceived teaching competencies.

Sample: The participants were 44 student teachers who underwent a nine-week teaching practice in different primary schools.

Method: The questionnaire was administered to the 44 student teachers two days before they reported to their respective teaching practice schools and two days after they completed their nine-week teaching practice. The return rate was about 80 percent. Out of 44 sets of questionnaires, a total of 35 pre and post questionnaires were valid and used for the analysis.

Results: The findings suggested that the student teachers who had weekly videoconference reported more positive experience of their teaching practice. Self-reported teaching competencies were higher in the post teaching practice questionnaire for both groups and no significant differences were found between the two groups.

Conclusion: The value-added potential of videoconferencing as a technology lies in its possibility of providing new and alternative experiences for student teachers to engage in conversations and collaborative reflection. As videoconferencing removes the barriers of time and space that prevented student teachers from interacting with peers outside their teaching practice schools.

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