The Effect of Pandemic Period on Student Teachers’ Professional Growth During Their Student Teaching Practice

Abstract

The sudden global pandemic period modified and transformed teaching and learning patterns in higher education. Challenges were also seen in the process of student teaching practice as a crucial component for preparing new teachers. Even though the attendance of student teachers in the school-based class was short, they tried to comprehend the basic parts of the teaching profession. The aim of the study was to reveal student teachers' perception of how they see mentor teachers' willingness to provide their experience in order to prepare them professionally and to what extent the student teaching practice helped student teachers on their professional growth during the pandemic period. The mixed method was used in this study. Data were collected through a survey with student teachers (n=167) from bachelor and master study programs, who were part of the school-based classes in primary schools during the pandemic period. A Chi-Square Test and Pearson Correlation were used to measure the correlation between mentor teachers’ willingness and readiness to cooperate and their level of pressure to collaborate during the pandemic period in order to share their experience with student teachers in their school-based class. A semi-structured interview was also realized with a group of primary teachers (n=10) who were assigned as mentors, in order to comprehend their perception about how student teachers can be prepared for the student teaching practice and how the pandemic period impacted in developing them professionally. The findings show that although mentor teachers were willing to collaborate responsibly and efficiently, student teachers found it impossible to improve their professional necessity for self-development due to the short teaching schedule. The research contributes to the knowledge by raising the awareness about the impact of the pandemic period as a serious impediment to student teachers in accomplishing the requirements to become teachers.