Study of Experiences of Teacher Educators and Students about Online Teacher Education

Abstract

Online mode of teacher education was adopted as a compulsion during COVID-19. The teacher education institutions have adopted such strategy for last two years irrespective of constraints related to their preparedness, willingness, conviction, infrastructure, competencies of teachers and students and scientific evidences about effectiveness of online mode preparatory teacher education. Such practices were executed with full spirit countering the recommendation of Justice M Verma Commission report (2014)and its discouraging remarks about open distance learning mode teacher preparation programme. The recommendations were based on perceptual reality as exaggerated by conservative teacher educators without taking into consideration research evidences.  The present study was conducted to explore the feasibility level of online curriculum transaction of B.Ed. programme and perception of teacher educators and students about the effectiveness of online mode in development of competencies of would be teachers. The sample represents consisted of 50 teacher educators and 50 B.Ed. students of five teacher education institutions of Prayagraj, UP. Data were gathered through closed end and open end questionnaire. The evidences revealed utility of different components of online learning, online discussion, online presentation by students, online demonstration of teaching skills and its practice in simulated situations, online test and assignments, online assessment and feedbacks. There was moderate response about coverage o f course contents and practicals through online mode. The logistics of operation and integration of various learning experiences through online mode evolved through trial and error experiences at institutional level. The teacher educators and students expressed moderate response about the utility and effectiveness of online system, which requires systematic planning and management at institutional level. There is a lot of scope for evolving strategies for Blended Learning based teacher education during the post covid era.