Preservice teachers use of WhatsApp to explain subject content to school children during the COVID-19 pandemic

South Africa went into lockdown on 27 March, 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is unlikely that thousands of preservice teachers will be able to complete their teaching practicum during 2020 at schools. In this action research study, we investigated a two-week teaching practicum experie...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of work-integrated learning 2020-01, Vol.21 (5), p.629
Main Authors: Nel, Carisma, Marais, Elma
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Action Research
Communities of Practice
Computer Mediated Communication
COVID-19
Distance learning
Educational Innovation
Educational software
Electronic Learning
Foreign Countries
Lifelong learning
Mentoring programs
Online instruction
Pandemics
Practicums
Social Media
Student Teachers
Student Teaching
Teacher education
Teaching
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Summary:South Africa went into lockdown on 27 March, 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is unlikely that thousands of preservice teachers will be able to complete their teaching practicum during 2020 at schools. In this action research study, we investigated a two-week teaching practicum experience that was completed via WhatsApp by 12 students. During this time, the student teachers were supervised and monitored by university teaching practicum lecturers and mentored by school mentor teachers via WhatsApp. The results indicated that all participants perceived the teaching practicum experience via WhatsApp to have contributed to the formation of a community of practice that resulted in feedback and assessment being focused on a core teaching practice, namely explaining subject-specific content. Guidelines are provided for universities or teacher training providers who have work-integrated learning components to show how a teaching practicum experience via WhatsApp can be integrated into their training programs.
ISSN:2538-1032
2538-1032