Training in Tough Times (V)
Mission Impossible: Coordinating Teaching Practice During COVID-1
Dr. Shannon Bruce Ramaka
NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences International Teacher Education for Secondary Schools (ITESS); 30 April 2021
Mission Impossible-Coordinating Teaching Practice During COVID-19
Over the summer of 2020 I relocated to the Netherlands from Kosovo during the brief lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, to lead an undergraduate teaching training programme in Groningen called ITESS (International Teacher Education for Secondary Schools).
The programme was entering its third year of existence and the student body had expanded from 44, almost all Dutch students, to 120 students, of which about 30% were international students.
I expected that because of the young developmental stage of the programme, I would need to be agile, especially because I did not speak Dutch; however, when the second wave of COVID-19 hit the Netherlands in November, and our programme went into a six-month lockdown, I started to think that I might be caught in a ‘mission impossible’.
Mission Impossible
Not only was I new to the Netherlands and the ITESS programme, so was my coordinator who was hired to organize the teaching practice for 110 students.
In September 2020, we welcomed 68 new students into our programme, who expected to complete four weeks of teaching practice in face- to- face classroom settings. Additionally, we needed to coordinate teaching practice for 34 students in the second year of their studies, who had experienced reductions in their teaching practice experience during their first year because of the COVID-19 outbreak.
These students needed to complete 10 weeks of teaching practice in an international school and the placements had yet to be arranged. Added to this, the board of the NHL Stenden University said that they would not advise students to travel and that anyone who did travel would need to sign a waiver and complete a meeting with me proving that they had adequate insurance and had considered how to handle all possible travel challenges.
By the end of December, 10 of these 34 students were willing to assume this responsibility but many international schools were hesitant to accept them because of the uncertainty of the COVID environment. However, by the end of January, using my own professional contacts, we were able to place these 10 students in internships in Spain, Belgium, Austria, and Kosovo. A variety of alternative remote learning plans were designed for the other 23 students and because they involved varying degrees of engagement and time, they required significant adaptations in the learning outcomes.
Coordinating the two-week teaching practice for the remaining 68 students that began on February 1, 2021, was another challenge and would require global collaboration and ingenuity. With three months of planning by a combined leadership team of three colleagues from ITESS in the Netherlands and four colleagues from JIEP (Janesville International Education Program) in Wisconsin, USA, a virtual teaching practice was designed where 19 mentor teachers in the Janesville School District and Pius XI school agreed to work with 68 student teachers who joined in on 518 live face-to-face classes.
During the two-week experience a few ITESS students met with a small group of students around laptops at the side of the classroom for a discussion. In another class, the teacher would pause in the middle of a lesson and ask the ITESS students what they thought about culturally relevant topics. For example, ITESS students might explain how the health care system worked in the Netherlands or what to expect with public transportation in the European region. In another class, one ITESS student led a literature discussion from the front of the room with an interactive white board. In another class, one of the Egyptian ITESS students created a video reflection about his experience with Egypt. In several science classes, the ITESS students introduced new tech tools to the class and demonstrated their use.
At the end of the two weeks, everyone involved had the opportunity to participate in an anonymous Google survey, a variety of qualitative feedback was collected, and a group of three students participated in a small focus group interview.
The complete recorded video can be viewed here:
The two graphs below depict some of the data gathered from the Google Survey. The full survey and paper that outlines the project are described in my paper: Embracing Blended Learning Experiences to Expand Global Mindedness in Secondary Schools written on February 25, 2021, now in peer review with the eLearning Journal.
Figure 1: This Was a Worthwhile Cultural Experience?
Figure 2: Overall, How Would You Rate Your Experience?
During the interview, two key findings from the project were discussed:
1. Relationships are key to the learning process even when the environment is virtual; and
2. Virtual experiences like these do have the potential to make a positive cultural impact
One significant finding of this virtual teaching practice was the cultural experience that many participants had.
The leadership team was skeptical about what might be possible in this regard because the project was planned for only two weeks. However, the narrative responses from the survey revealed that the culture exchange was meaningful for many participants. For example, one ITESS student shared,
“I liked that we had this teaching practice with an American school. It was interesting to look at schools in another country.”
Another ITESS student explained:
“I enjoyed being able to hear about different cultures, having the kids experience different cultures, getting ideas and thoughts from them. Overall, I am so surprised by the fact it was possible to get so much hands-on experience with students during this kind of internship.”
One ITESS supervisor explained:
“ITESS students were enthusiastic and eager to learn. Seeing an American classroom in action was interesting. This was a great opportunity.”
And, by way of conclusion, one mentor teacher in Wisconsin concluded:
“My ITESS student teachers did a great job of teaching some culture of the Netherlands to my students.”
Dr. Shannon Bruce Ramaka
NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences International Teacher Education for Secondary Schools (ITESS)
Dr Ramaka can be contacted on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn
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