88 - Evaluation of Alternative Preservice Teachers Practicum During a Pandemic

Abstract Information: The COVID-19 pandemic significantly changed the education system. Educators were forced to use diverse methods to teach their students during the pandemic (Ferdig & Kosko, 2020; Mathende, 2021). One solution promoted during this period was transitioning from brick-and-mortar walls to online learning (Kosko et al., 2020). The solution catered well to students receiving their theory content but posed a different challenge for students needing to conduct lab sessions or engage in field experiences. Different educator preparation program instructors integrated technology to provide preservice teachers with missed field experience (Ferdig & Kosko, 2020; Zolfaghari et al., 2020). Though the driving force for these instructors to integrate technology to provide an alternative for missed opportunities, their stories on implementing the technology and evaluating the success differed. Different studies were produced; some have common aspects evaluated, and others have unique ones evaluated. This presentation discusses the critical evaluation components affected during the pandemic, like situations developing measurable outcomes in crunched times and challenges with external and internal validity or ethical norms. The presentation will show a story that emerges as different evaluators seek to solve a situation that has a crunch time to resolve. The Educator Preparation Programs saw the integration of virtual reality to supplement or provide alternative field experiences for preservice teachers who had missed their practicums. From their stories, we develop methods to deal with unforeseen situations that need immediate solutions. The questions to be answered would include the following: How do we validate our outcomes? How do we develop quick, measurable outcomes? During a pandemic, how can these evaluations be shared?
Relevance Statement: Through the scoping review, we evaluate the impact of the COVID pandemic on evaluating supplementary or alternative preservice teacher practicums. The pandemic disrupted academic learning, making in-person learning no longer possible (Ferdig & Kosko, 2020; Kosko et al., 2020). Institutes of higher education moved courses to online learning. Students in the K-12 system faced the same challenges, with the impact being felt by preservice teachers due for their practicum. Different instructors in educator preparation programs devised methods to provide alternative practicum solutions to cover missed opportunities (Özmantar, 2021). Educators integrated virtual reality to allow their students to practice their learned content in a practicum setting (Zolfaghari et al., 2020).
 In this regard, the study provides the thinking process that happens when quick solutions are needed. However, because the solutions are provided under crunch times, the analysis of the emerging literature will seek to evaluate the challenges, such as the internal validity of data collection instruments, issues related to ethics, access to data, and dissemination of data. Moreover, through the analysis made by this study, future evaluations done during crunch periods, such as a pandemic, will have a framework to work from.

References
Ferdig, R. E., & Kosko, K. W (2020). Implementing 360 video to increase immersion, perceptual capacity, and teacher noticing. Tech Trends, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-020-00522-3.
Kosko, K. W., Ferdig, R. E., & Zolfaghari, M. (2019, November 14-17). Pre-service teachers’ noticing in the context of 360 video [Paper presentation]. The 41st Annual Meeting of the PME-NA, St Louis, MO, United States.
Mathende, A.M.(2021). Preservice Teachers’ Perspective on Immersion in 360-degree Video Virtual Reality: Using Virtual Reality Video to Prepare Teachers for Field Experience.
Zolfaghari, M., Austin, C. K., Kosko, K. W., & Ferdig, R. E. (2020). Creating asynchronous virtual field experiences with 360 video. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 28(2), 315–320.