Student Teachers’ In-depth Reflective Learning from Field Experience during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Teaching practice (Block Practice, BP) is perceived by student teachers as the most challenging yet the most valuable component in their teacher education. They meet various challenges and obtain deep learning through reflection on their BP. Under the COVID-19 pandemic, student teachers have confronted unprecedented challenges at the front line. This paper investigates how different pre-service teachers coped with dynamic school contexts during the special period by analysing their reflection in the post-BP Field Experience (FE) ePortfolios. Following an interpretative phenomenology approach, twenty FE ePortfolios were collected from seven full-time teacher education programs, coded, and analyzed. Numerous outstanding themes were identified. Student teachers demonstrated a comprehensive understanding of the placement school’s educational philosophy, goals, policies, and practices; appropriately applied the pedagogical knowledge to cater for diverse needs of their students; constructively reviewed and evaluated the process and outcomes of their own teaching attempts and ethical practices, and provided reasonable solutions to the problems they confronted during their BP. Particularly, students reflected deeply on their contingency teaching plans amid the COVID-19 pandemic and their experience of virtual and authentic teaching. Findings of this exploratory study add to the literature on student learning from FE under exceptionally challenging circumstances.

Keywords: ePortfolio; Field experience; Reflective learning; Teacher education; COVID-19