PST Online: Meeting the Need for Teaching Innovation for Virtual Schools

Yvonne Masters, Sue Gregory, Stephen Grono

Abstract


Virtual schools are no longer a pipedream: they are already with us. Pre-service teachers need to be prepared for this alternate teaching medium. Unlike blended learning in the classroom, new virtual schools have no need for physical classrooms, and students can be geographically distant from both each other and the teacher. This change in education delivery in schools will necessitate a new approach to curriculum design accompanied by a reshaping of discipline-based courses in higher education institutions in regard to teacher education. Exclusively online teaching changes the teacher/student dynamics and new skills, techniques and strategies should be developed. While there has been some online teaching for many years, initial teacher education has not prepared students for this new way of teaching. The authors explore what new skills will be required in order to develop a suite of resources that can begin to redress the gap between current practice and the new skills required. Presented are the conceptual underpinning of the need for changes in teacher education and the perceptions of pre-service teachers in terms of their preparedness for virtual teaching. The data informs the development of the online resources which will be reported as the project reaches its culmination.


Keywords


Pre-service teacher education, Online teaching, Virtual schools

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References


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