Exploring a Synchronous Hybrid Observation Approach for Supporting Student Teachers during School Placements
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Background
2.1. Virtual Supervision of Student Teachers on School Placements
2.2. Towards a Synchronous Hybrid Supervision Approach
3. Study Design
4. Findings
4.1. Theme 1: Enabling Enhanced Observation Practices
“At times when I was [observing] student teachers in my job, I would think, I wish I could have somebody here who had a little bit more K–2 experience than what I’ve got … I’ve seen situations where I wish I [had] somebody, particularly in the younger years [of schooling], with strong experience in the teaching of reading” (AU FG1).
“There is this professional conversation [between tutors] as the class goes on. What can we see? What are we hearing? What is happening? What do you think of that? And we have that professional [text-based] conversation … It does give you a really good insight into the classroom” (IE FG1).
“The chat feature in Zoom is really good … There were three of us, two of us on Zoom and one in the class with the student [teacher]. So, it’s like a private conversation sharing observations … we’re saying: ‘did you see that? What did you think was going on there?’… And the other tutor can say, well, I think this is what they meant” (IE FG2).
“So, when our colleague was in the classroom and we were ‘Zooming in’ [virtual observation], we sent a chat, saying ‘what’s going on now?’; ‘I don’t understand what that is’; ‘We can’t see the blackboard’ … And she would say ‘she’s put some slides on the whiteboard’; or ‘she’s written on the whiteboard’…” (IE FG2).
“I’ve had a few examples where the [in classroom observer] picks up on things that I certainly wouldn’t have picked up on” (AU FG1).
“Somebody might notice something that someone else hasn’t noticed” (IE FG2).
“I might be writing a note about something that I’ve observed and miss something else that’s happening. [I can] ask the team what I missed” (IE FG2).
4.2. Theme 2: Enabling Enriched Feedback Practices
“I love having the second person there all the time. I think it’s very rich … we could actually discuss what was happening in the classroom ourselves on the other side and start forming opinions and start refining our advice and feedback to students [teachers]” (IE FG2).
“It would be really beneficial for a subject specific teacher [tutor] to be able to Zoom into this [post-lesson session]. If I had had somebody there virtually with me, that [post lesson] conversation could have really helped the student [teacher]” (IE FG1).
“We would have a professional [online] conversation from start to finish [of the lesson]. So, by the time it came to us giving feedback to the student [teacher], we knew exactly what supportive feedback we were going to give, how we were going to give it, and how that was going to work” (IE FG1).
“It [synchronous hybrid approach] is a tool that can be used when we feel the student [teacher] is struggling and needs … extra support and an extra bit of advice” (IE FG2). Support for the tutor providing feedback for student teachers was also identified: “I think in difficult cases, there [are] advantages of having two people involved” (AU FG1) and “It is an extra level of support, especially if … [you] know it’s going to be a difficult visit and the feedback is going to be tricky” (IE FG2).
4.3. Theme 3: Facilitating Rigorous Assessment Procedures
“It [synchronous hybrid approach] really helps us to standardise our practice… we’ve seen that when we do collaborative cross marking or corrections … we’re on the same page” (IE FG2).
“It’s very validating for the tutor to know that another tutor has the same opinion. They’ve seen the same thing, and especially when you want to be critical… or there’s something that wasn’t great in the past, and it’s great that somebody else has seen that, too. And it takes the whole personal bias out of it.” (IE FG2).
“It really is the validation of what you think and your own opinions as a tutor. I think that’s really powerful for the tutor and very valuable to know that, because sometimes we do have personal bias one way or the other towards a student [teacher] …” (IE FG2).
“I think from the student [teacher] point of view, it would also come across that they were being treated fairly so that there wasn’t any bias as far as one tutor is concerned” (AU FG1).
“I felt that maybe I was being a bit harsh on the student [teacher]. It was reassuring for me that I wasn’t doing the student any injustice … because we [tutors] came to the same agreement” (IE FG1).
“The thing that I grapple with when I’m giving feedback to students [student teacher] is … their pedagogical approach. [For example, if] I’m trying to get them to move away from a chalk and talk kind of transmission of information [approach] to a more transactional, ‘getting the [school] students involved’ [approach]. And then I’m like, ‘is this my bias? Is this something that I’m just interested in?’ … It’s your bias that you kind of focus on …” (IE FG2).
“Two people at the back of the classroom is very difficult for a student teacher and for the [school] students because they can see that there’s two adults here, there’s two adults watching … It changes the atmosphere within the classroom where you take one of those people out … The atmosphere of the classroom is much more natural [with a synchronous hybrid approach], and you see the student teacher in a more realistic sense” (IE FG1).
“It’s a bit of pressure to have two people watching them. They seem to be far more comfortable with the person who’s contacted them and had a few conversations on the phone … they feel comfortable with one person” (AU FG1). Tutors felt that both the student teachers and their school students in the classroom quickly became comfortable with the camera in the room, and “quickly forgot that the camera was there” (AU FG1).
4.4. Theme 4: Supporting Novice Tutors’ Professional Learning
“In terms of my own context starting out, … it ended up being a very affirming process… there’s learning for everyone. I think when you’re doing it [supervision] collaboratively, it makes sense on so many different levels” (IE FG2).
“Initially for me, I was very nervous that I wouldn’t have the same opinion as the other tutor and that I’d be wrong. And as it turned out, I have found it only helpful” (IE FG2).
“It’s very encouraging that I might have the same opinion or that I can add to somebody else’s opinion. That really made me feel more competent in my own opinion and more confident when I was learning how to do supervision” (IE FG1).
“So, for me it was really helpful as somebody who’s starting out in my first year working in initial teacher education and looking at preservice teachers … I observed them online on Zoom and I was able to hear from more experienced colleagues the feedback and the comments that they had” (IE FG2).
“Just to listen into the conversation after the class and the feedback session [was beneficial]. And since then, this has just been building and building on that to give me more experience and more confidence and feel more competent” (IE FG1).
4.5. Theme 5: Improved Formal Guidelines and Policies Needed
“It’s a pity that we don’t have a very straightforward policy… so that we’re not trying to manage the leadership community from school to school and be unsure as to how they may react when we suggest that we’re going to have a Zoom streamed lesson happening. The lack of understanding of exactly what we’re doing in some cases can be difficult” (IE FG1).
“I think sometimes schools still see … ‘Zoom may equal video recording’. And sometimes our students [teachers] have sometimes said that as well. They’re going: ‘Are they going to film me?’ We’re going: ‘no, we’re not. We’re going to Zoom in…” (IE FG1).
“The main issue I’ve seen is schools that have been pessimistic about… the children being filmed. No, they’re not. All that’s happening is I’m watching them [teachers] teach. Their parents are worried that their faces will be public. No, they won’t” (AU FG2).
“I would just fear that if we were openly allowed to do it [hybrid supervision] without really strict guidelines and policies, that a lot of the students’ [teachers’] lessons would end up being observed via Zoom instead of it being used as a hybrid model, if that makes sense” (IE FG2).
5. Discussion
6. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
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Agnew, A.; Kearney, M.; Ó Grádaigh, S.; Mac Mahon, B.; Connolly, C. Exploring a Synchronous Hybrid Observation Approach for Supporting Student Teachers during School Placements. Educ. Sci. 2024, 14, 991. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14090991
Agnew A, Kearney M, Ó Grádaigh S, Mac Mahon B, Connolly C. Exploring a Synchronous Hybrid Observation Approach for Supporting Student Teachers during School Placements. Education Sciences. 2024; 14(9):991. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14090991
Chicago/Turabian StyleAgnew, Annie, Matthew Kearney, Seán Ó Grádaigh, Brendan Mac Mahon, and Cornelia Connolly. 2024. "Exploring a Synchronous Hybrid Observation Approach for Supporting Student Teachers during School Placements" Education Sciences 14, no. 9: 991. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14090991