Steep Learning Curve
teacher education; students at the age of 18 up to 55 years
Dilemma
Getting used to new technical applications, the sudden switch to online teaching, which required a quick adaptation of my skills and habits
In what ways did you respond to this dilemma
I had a very quick learning curve! Getting used to the system (MS-teams), which was new for us, in fact I learned a lot by trial and error! Sometimes the student teachers could help and at other times my colleagues. We were exploring the possibilities together.
What are the implications for teaching and learning now that the pandemic is not closing schools
Within the department we have more sessions of participatory learning amongst teacher educators and student teachers. This means that we not only share interesting sites but also didactic ideas. Consequently, this is incorporated in courses such as skills classes, literature didactics and Renaissance literature. Student teachers share materials and explain their rationale. Why they chose to do particular activities.
Preparing courses to be taught digitally or in a blended mode for a period of campus closure or restriction was very different from designing a fully online-course, which is what we do now.
The tools and teaching techniques are very much the same but we do not always have the time for a full course redesign or a curriculum adaptation. We try to shift our scheduled teaching to a hybrid mode where some students receive in-class, face-to-face instruction while other students out-of-class, online instruction.
