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Boosting Preservice Teachers’ Competence and Online
Teaching Readiness through E-Practicum during the
COVID-19 Outbreak
Pinar Ersin*
Marmara University, Turkey
Derin Atay
Enisa Mede
Abstract
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has caused disruptions in education in Turkey, as it has
in many parts of the world. Faculties of Education that require practice teaching (practicum) are
affected as well; due to the shutdown, pre-service English language teachers (PTs) are deprived of
the field experience and actual classroom teaching practices in authentic school settings. Practicum
constitutes an important part of teacher education and during practicum, “cooperating” teachers
(i.e. teachers at practicum schools) and university instructors as teaching practice supervisors play
crucial roles in equipping PTs with necessary theoretical and practical skills. The present study took
place in the English Language Education program of a competitive state university in Turkey. At the
university, all theory-oriented courses moved to synchronous platforms without much difficulty with
almost full attendance of the students. As for the practicum, Turkish Higher Education Council let the
University and Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey, we designed an alternative practice to meet the
needs of PTs and maintain the quality of the practicum: “e-practicum” under the supervision of the
university supervisor who acted as the “e-mentor”. The aim was to increase PTs’ teaching competence
and prepare them for online teaching. A virtual classroom consisting of twenty-five PTs was formed
and six PTs performed microteaching to their peers who acted as students by using Zoom. After the
e-practicum sessions, peers gave detailed feedback to the teacher PTs. The university supervisor
provided e-mentoring right after each session. Then, each teacher PT reflected on e-practicum
experience and e-mentoring. The findings revealed that PTs found the e-practicum useful because it
helped them overcome online teaching fears.
Keywords
E-practicum, e-mentoring, English language teacher education, pre-service teachers
Article
International Journal of TESOL Studies (2020)
Vol. 2 (2) 112-124 https://doi.org/10.46451/ijts.2020.09.09
*Corresponding Author.
E-mail: persin@marmara.edu.tr
© 2020 International TESOL Union.
All rights reserved.
113 International Journal of TESOL Studies 2 (2)
1 Practice Teaching in Teacher Education
Practice teaching constitutes an important part of teacher education (Wilson, 2006) and is highly valued
by pre-service teachers (PTs), cooperating/mentor teachers, and university supervisors (Beck & Kosnik,
2002; Graves, 2010). The main objective of the practicum is to provide PTs with hands-on experience in
teaching. This period oers the candidates the ‘‘experience to gain knowledge of how teachers go about
the many and complex tasks involved in actual classroom practice’’ (McGee, Ferrier-Kerr, & Miller,
2001, p. 1). For many PTs, the practicum experience is the most challenging, dicult, and frustrating
period of their teacher education program (Ferrier-Kerr, 2009; Huang & Waxman, 2009). Many lack
confidence in overcoming challenging classroom problems and experience difficulties in adjusting to
school life, including developing relationships with students and collaborating with school teachers,
especially at the beginning of the practicum (Broadbent, 1998; Fives, Hamman, & Olivarez, 2007;
Groundwater-Smith, Ewing, & Le Cornu, 2006; Hsu, 2005; Moore, 2003).
The practicum is an opportunity for PTs to link theory with practice in an authentic classroom setting.
It is not enough to read about teaching or to observe others teach, something students have done for
years. Knowledge about teaching means having productive knowledge, like playing an instrument (Eisner,
2002). PTs improve their teaching skills by engaging in teaching and by being guided through reection
and receiving feedback from their cooperating teachers and university supervisors (Murray-Harvey et
al., 2000). Lee et al. (2012) also found out that the eectiveness of student teaching experiences aected
teacher candidates in ve categories: (a) pedagogical content knowledge, (b) planning and preparation
for instruction, (c) classroom management, (d) promoting family involvement, and (e) professionalism.
Such practical knowledge and wisdom cannot easily be transmitted from person to person. PTs need
techné (knowing how) and by connecting the skills of teaching to episteme (knowing what) through
reection in practicum, they gradually start developing phronesis (practical wisdom).
During the practicum, PTs implement instructional strategies in authentic classroom settings and
experience the complexity and challenges to a great extent. Field experiences for PTs often include
weekly opportunities for observation as well as participation in daily classroom activities in school
settings. Cooperating teachers act as mentors and university instructors act as teaching practice
supervisors in this period. That is why the cooperation and partnership between K-12 schools and
education faculties have been highlighted by various scholars (Cochran-Smith, 2004; Damar & Salı,
2013; Maphalala, 2013; imek & Yıldırım, 2001).
As mentioned, an important role of the practicum is to provide a supported entry to the profession.
When asked about the most important and inuential components of their teacher education programs,
recent graduates said that they recognized student teaching and early direct interactions with students as
being most benecial (Conderman, et al., 2013).
2 Practicum in Teacher Education Programs in Turkey
The practicum period consists of two phases in teacher education programs in Turkey: PTs take the
School Experience course in the Fall semester (October to January) and Teaching Practicum course in
the Spring semester (February to June) of the senior year. In both courses, PTs are required to spend
a full day at practicum schools assigned by their university supervisors. Practicum schools are K-12
schools in partnership with the teacher education programs. The practicum partnership involved
elementary, secondary or high schools, which were either public schools under the supervision of Turkish
Ministry of National Education (MoNE) or private schools run by foundations. In Turkey, both school
administrations are accredited by and follow the MoNE principles and regulations. At practicum schools,
cooperating teachers are appointed to PTs to guide and assist them. For the last three years, only teachers
with a mentorship training certicate are allowed to become a cooperating teacher.
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Pinar Ersin, Derin Atay and Enisa Mede
In the ‘School Experience’ course, during their school visits, PTs observe classes of dierent grades
and become familiar with the school system. On the basis of their observations, PTs write reports
and submit them to their university supervisors for feedback. Apart from the observations, they write
reflections on articles about professional development. Finally, they prepare and implement a fifteen-
minute micro-teaching lesson in one of the classes they observe. During the micro-teaching, the PTs’
university supervisor and one of their peers observe them and provide feedback using a rubric.
In the ‘Teaching Practice’ course, PTs prepare lesson plans and hold macro-teaching sessions several
times during the semester. While macro-teaching, they are observed by their university supervisor,
cooperating teacher, and peers, and their lessons are evaluated via rubrics. By the end of the course, PTs
submit a Teacher Portfolio to their university supervisors, including all the assignments, materials, lesson
plans, and evaluation rubrics.
3 The Coronavirus Outbreak and Changes in Education in Turkey
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has caused disruptions in education in Turkey, as it has in
many parts of the world. At the same time with primary and secondary schools, both private and public
universities first announced a break and then shifted to synchronous online teaching until the end of
the Spring semester. The pace of the shift varied from one university to the other, depending upon the
infrastructure of the institution and the level of instructors’ digital literacy. The Higher Education Council
asked the universities to take initiative and provide courses on both synchronous and asynchronous
platforms. Instructors were told to enrich their courses with additional materials and be in close
communication with students, especially those who had problems accessing the Internet.
In the rst weeks of the shutdown, all theory-oriented courses in Turkish universities moved to the
online platform without much difficulty with almost full attendance of the students. However, it took
a while before the policy-makers could reach an agreement on practice-based courses, one of which is
the practicum of the English language education programs. In the rst week of April, it was ocially
announced that PTs would only be graded on their performance in the rst weeks of the Spring semester.
For the first five weeks of the semester, from February to mid-March, PTs had gone to the assigned
practicum schools and only a few of them performed one macro-teaching session. Many, however, did
not have the chance to engage in even one macro-teaching before teaching went online, which would
mean that they could not be graded at all.
In summary, almost all PTs in the country did not have a chance of experiential, hands on teaching in
an actual classroom and were deprived of receiving any feedback on their teaching performance.
4 E-Practicum and E-Mentoring
In keeping up with the perceived importance of the practicum, the authors, who come from two
universities, Bahçeehir University and Marmara University in Istanbul, Turkey, a private and state
university respectively, had a number of discussions about what form the practicum should take during
the period of online education. We wanted to act quickly to engage as many PTs as possible in the
practicum period. As university instructors and researchers, we had to decide how to compensate for
the “loss” of the practicum. We could upload articles for PTs to read and reect on or videos taken from
dierent actual classes, which they could watch and analyze. However, these were the tasks they had
already done in other courses. Many PTs felt “incomplete” without being able to get sucient feedback
from the university supervisors.
Many reported that they felt unprepared and not ready to teach in the eld for their future career. They
felt disappointed at not being able to engage in macro-teaching to get feedback from their mentors. One
of them said:
115 International Journal of TESOL Studies 2 (2)
“The first thing I think of about not being able to go to practicum is sorrow. Practicum was
going to be our rst real teaching experience, but we lost this chance. I feel like this created a
huge lack of experience.”
The lack of mentoring generated disappointment for the PTs. One PT commented as follows:
“I could have learned a lot from my mentor. She was not a young teacher who used new
methods and techniques. But she was very good at classroom management. She was good
at planning the lesson. She knew how to involve students into the lesson. She asked eective
questions to urge student participation. She was good at it.”
Thus, we felt that it was absolutely necessary to offer an alternative to meet the needs of PTs and
maintain the quality of the practicum. During the COVID-19 outbreak, the only option was “e-practicum”,
under the supervision of the university supervisor who would act as the “e-mentor” on behalf of the
cooperating teacher.
E-practicum is a new concept in pre-service teacher education but the transformation of education
means that practice-based courses might have an online component as well. With the increasing use of
online education and computer technology, interaction between mentors and PTs need not be conned
to any specific geographical location. E-mentoring offers new possibilities for teacher support and
guidance from a distance that eliminates space and time constraints (Penny & Bolton, 2009; Quintana
& Zambrano, 2014; Redmond, 2015; Spanorriga et al., 2018). E-mentoring includes any type of
mentoring that incorporates information and communication technology (ICT) through synchronous or
asynchronous courses. E-mentoring programs often use e-mails, bulletin boards, forums, chat features,
or other text-based communication methods. Some use video conferencing platforms (e.g., FaceTime or
Skype), while others oer proprietary software systems that combine many of these features.
According to Spanorriga et al. (2018), e-mentoring is expected to create an informal, participatory and
interactive environment which oers continuous communication and interaction of individual mentees
with their mentors, without space and time restrictions, to provide guidance, advice, support, protection,
encouragement and assistance as well as peer support among teachers by sharing common interests,
educational experiences, teaching material, knowledge, and resources.
An and Liscomb (2010) argued that the quality of communication increases with e-mentoring. The
participants become more intentional in their communications and spend more time collaborating and
reflecting rather than exchanging information with one another. E-mentoring also provides a record
of correspondence providing both the mentor and mentee with the opportunity to keep track of their
interactions and refer to them when needed (Headlam-Wells et al., 2005).
The present study attempted rst to compensate for the lack of knowledge and skills PTs might have
lost because of the COVID-19 outbreak. We also believed that e-practicum would foster PTs’ familiarity
with digital integration. The studies conducted in Turkey in the times of the COVID-19 outbreak showed
that most teachers struggled to integrate technology in online classes and they encountered problems in
shifting their material to online platforms. In teacher education programs, PTs receive teaching through
technology courses in which they are trained with the skills and knowledge to integrate digital devices
into teaching in face-to-face courses. Yet, they do not practice integrating digital resources into teaching
in virtual classrooms. Teachers’ lack of experience and expertise in using digital materials and platforms
resulted in a struggle of digital integration. E-practicum would be of great help to PTs in familiarizing
them with virtual instruction on a digital platform and gaining experience with such instruction. Thus, the
aim of the present study is to explore the e-practicum and e-mentoring from the perspectives of the PTs.
5 Methodology
The study took place in the English Language Education program of a competitive state university,
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Pinar Ersin, Derin Atay and Enisa Mede
Marmara University, in the Spring semester of 2019-2020 academic year. In this section, three major
phases of the study, (i) preparation and construction phase before the e-practicum, (ii) the e-practicum
itself, and (iii) the e-mentoring provided to teacher PTs afterwards, are explained in detail.
5.1 Before E-practicum
Prior to the e-practicum, one of the researchers of this study as the university supervisor sent a
detailed e-mail to eighty senior PTs asking for volunteers. Twenty-five PTs volunteered. Since they
missed the practicum, they expressed that they saw the e-practicum as a valuable opportunity. The
university supervisor, henceforth the e-mentor, created a WhatsApp group with the volunteering PTs
for communication. As a result of message exchange, a convenient time and date for everyone was set.
Then, a virtual classroom consisting of twenty-five PTs was formed using Zoom, a web-based video
conferencing tool. Six of the PTs, henceforth ‘teacher PTs’, two males and four females, all at the age
of 21, volunteered and were assigned to micro-teach their peers for twenty minutes each. The teacher
PTs prepared their English teaching lesson plans which target their students’ age and prociency level
that they had in their practicum schools to which they were assigned in the Fall semester. The topics
and content of the lessons were also based on the syllabus of those practicum schools. They shared
their lesson plans with the researchers and received detailed feedback in return. The remaining PTs,
henceforth ‘student PTs’, were asked to act like students in the virtual classroom. Student PTs were also
asked to take notes about their peers’ teaching skills and strategies to give feedback afterwards. The
e-mentor would also attend the e-practicum micro-teaching sessions and take notes about the teaching
methodology exactly the same way she would do in the real classroom, practicum setting. Therefore,
a mini e-practicum group was constructed. Each of the PT was assigned a number (PT1, PT2, etc.) for
reference purposes, and the teachers PTs were PT1 to PT6.
Right before the e-practicum micro-teaching sessions began, the e-mentor conducted a focus group
interview with all the PTs in Zoom. In this informal interview, she asked how the PTs felt about not being
able to go to practicum, if they felt anxious about the lack of practicum experience and supervision, and
if e-practicum was possible or could be an alternative solution. PTs expressed that they felt upset and
anxious about the lack of practicum experience and supervision. They also added that e-practicum could
be a useful alternative in this case.
5.2 E-practicum
The e-practicum micro-teaching consisted of three forty-minute Zoom sessions. The sessions were held
in a row with ten-minute breaks in between. During the sessions, four teacher PTs conducted reading
lessons and two of them speaking lessons to teach English as a foreign language. Teacher PTs shared
various teaching materials. They conducted warm-up activities by asking brainstorming questions
to the whole class. They set up pair work activities. For instance, they asked student PTs to answer
comprehension questions in pairs after reading a text. They provided wait time for student PTs to think
and answer. They allowed student PTs to give their answers by using digital facilities. They made the
e-practicum micro-teaching as interactive as possible. They did their best to give the virtual classroom
the feel of a physical classroom.
In the rst reading lessons, two teacher PTs used a restaurant menu as a reading text for a group of 7th
graders with A2 prociency level based on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR),
which was the profile of their students at the practicum state schools that they attended in the fall
semester. Teacher PT1 used the screen-share feature to present dierent menus in English on the screen
and asked the student PTs to comment on the genre, so as to make the class interactive. He then showed
an accompanying vocabulary matching worksheet that included pictures and the names of dierent food
items in English such as ‘cheeseburger’, ‘grilled sh’, and ‘roast chicken’ and asked the student PTs to
117 International Journal of TESOL Studies 2 (2)
match every food item to a correct name. The student PTs participated in the lesson by answering the
questions and doing the exercise. Student PTs typed their comments and answers in the chat box. PT1
then read aloud the answers and gave feedback. PT2 continued the English teaching reading lesson by
presenting a menu from an imaginary restaurant and checked the student PTs’ comprehension using true/
false questions and ll-in-the-blanks activities. He also asked the student PTs to say which food items
and drinks they saw in the menu also exist in the Turkish cuisine. In this way, an interactive and fun class
discussion was facilitated. PT2 ended the lesson by asking what a seafood lover, a vegetarian, or a person
who had only £5 might choose from the menu. While PT2 was teaching, the student PTs interactively
took part in the lesson like they did in PT1’s session. They did so by raising hands and PT2 unmuted
them one by one, giving each student PT an opportunity to present their answers orally.
In the subsequent reading lesson, teacher PT3 and PT4 used a passage about the body clock for 11th-
graders with B1 level of CEFR, in accordance with their students’ prole at the practicum state schools
that they attended. The teacher PTs prepared a PowerPoint presentation and shared it with the student PTs
on screen. PT3 started the lesson with a warm-up activity and asked the class about their usual wake-up
time. Then, she presented the next slide, which features a man with clocks all over his body, and asked
the class to predict the topic of the reading text entitled “Can you feel the rhythm?”. She then showed
the reading text and gave the student PTs time to read. PT4 proceeded to the next part of the lesson by
showing a matching activity in which the class had to match incomplete phrases with appropriate endings
to form meaningful sentences according to the text. After this post-reading activity, the lesson was over.
The student PTs actively participated in the lesson like they did in the rst reading lesson.
For the speaking lesson, the nal two teacher PTs used the topic of sightseeing in Istanbul and giving
directions to target at 8th-graders with B1 level as suggested by CEFR. PT5 started the lesson with a
trendy topic. She told the audience how she felt about the coronavirus lockdown, and asked the class
how they felt and how they spent time in the lockdown. She also asked them if they missed wandering
in the streets of Istanbul and what parts they missed the most. PT5 especially asked the student PTs to
give answers orally because the objective of the lesson was speaking. She unmuted the ones who wanted
to speak. The student PTs participated in the lesson by telling others woefully how much they missed
the city. After this pre-speaking activity, PT5 screen shared a video commercial called “Flow through
the City of Tales” of an airlines company in Turkey, which shows the tourist attractions of the city. She
asked the class to take notes of the historical places and the transportation vehicles while watching it.
She had a technical problem with the sound system for a few minutes during screen sharing but she
sorted it out calmly. After replies were given orally, PT6 carried on with the lesson. She shared a map of
the historical quarter of the city on the screen and demonstrated a sample role-play with PT5, with one
asking for directions to a specic touristic place and the other giving the directions. After this sample
demonstration, the student PTs were asked perform a similar role-play in pairs. PT6 gave them five
minutes for preparation. When the student PTs were ready, they wrote their pair’s names in the chat box
and PT6 allowed each pair to speak by unmuting them. After the pair-work, the lesson ended.
Right after the e-practicum micro-teaching sessions, the student PTs shared their reections, detailed
feedback, and comments about the teacher PTs’ micro-teachings in the WhatsApp group that was created
by the e-mentor at the very beginning of the study.
5.3 E-mentoring
The e-mentoring was provided by the e-mentor to the teacher PTs one day after the e-practicum micro-
teaching sessions. The e-mentor organized three forty-minute Zoom sessions for this purpose. The
sessions were held in a row with ten-minute breaks in between. The six teacher PTs attended all three
sessions.
A framework for e-mentoring was established by the three authors of this study after having examined
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Pinar Ersin, Derin Atay and Enisa Mede
the guided principles from the literature (An & Liscomb, 2010; Spanorriga et al., 2018). The aims were
to (i) develop the skills and confidence of the teacher PTs, (ii) develop their professional identity by
asking them to reect on their own micro-teaching, and (iii) pinpoint the importance of mentor-mentee
collaboration by asking them to reect on the e-mentoring experience. The guidelines to reach the aims
of the framework were as follows. First, e-mentoring had to take place in an informal and participatory
ambiance. Second, to support and encourage the teacher PTs, the e-mentor would emphasize the
noticeable, strong points of the micro-teachings. Then, the e-mentor would provide guidance and
advice by sharing knowledge and experience pointing out aspects of the micro-teachings that needed
improvement. Afterwards, the e-mentor would give the teacher PTs an opportunity to think through
questions and to reect on their own micro-teaching experience. Finally, the teacher PTs would share
their insights about the e-mentoring.
The e-mentoring sessions took place in an interactive and collaborative atmosphere. The e-mentor
gave detailed feedback to each PT individually. All the other teacher PTs were present in the sessions and
they listened to the e-mentor’s feedback to their peers.
The e-mentor used a sandwich technique so she rst talked about the positive aspects of the teacher
PTs’ micro-teaching, which were mainly as follows: repeating the course content several times to ensure
that the student PTs understood what they were supposed to do; paraphrasing themselves using simpler
English words and sentence construction; showing appreciation to the student PTs by saying “good”,
“thank you” and the like; giving aective feedback in addition to cognitive feedback to signpost that they
were really listening to what was said; showing genuine interest; giving personal examples to internalize
the topic; and using an up-to-date topic to make the course content as authentic as possible. This did not
happen in a planned, monological fashion. While the e-mentor was sharing her observations, the teacher
PT in question interacted with the e-mentor, agreed or disagreed, asked clarication questions to more
fully understand the e-mentor’s comments.
The e-mentor further commented on aspects of the teacher PTs’ micro-teaching that needed to be
improved, such as matters pertaining to instructions like giving time limit; insuciency of teacher wait
time; and not identifying the purpose of the reading activity. While giving feedback, the e-mentor gave
advice to the teacher PTs on how to improve these problematic areas by sharing her own experience.
The e-mentor also guided the teacher PTs by transferring knowledge and information from the relevant
literature in the field. Again, this did not occur in a monological manner; on the contrary, it was an
interactive exchange of ideas. One after another, each teacher PT asked questions to clarify vague parts
in the e-mentor’s feedback and made comments.
Before ending the e-mentoring session, the e-mentor asked the six teacher PTs to write their thoughts
and feelings about the e-mentoring to her through WhatsApp. They did so. That was the end of the
e-mentoring sessions that were held to maximize PTs’ learning and to facilitate one-on-one consultation.
6 Results
PTs’ reections, i.e., outcome of the e-practicum experiences, were categorized according to Miles and
Huberman’s (1994) conceptual categories. The results are presented below.
6.1 PTs’ thoughts about e-practicum experience
All PTs (teacher PTs and student PTs) thought that they beneted immensely from the e-practicum. This
was their main feedback. The benets include the feasibility of the e-practicum, their ability to overcome
technical problems with abundant online teaching experience, and the advantages of digital integration.
Most PTs thought e-practicum was doable with real students as long as the practicum schools have
119 International Journal of TESOL Studies 2 (2)
sucient technical infrastructure. In particular, after having experienced e-practicum, they believed that
the practicum could be done online as long as there was equal opportunity in education for everyone.
PT18 mentioned that online education did not start at her nephew’s school since the beginning of the
coronavirus shutdown because the school lacked the facilities. On the other hand, PT3 said that her elder
sister worked as a math teacher at a private foundation high school and they started online classes right
away, as soon as the shutdown started.
The PTs realized that the technical problems were not something to be afraid of and that such problems
could be overcome with the attitude and experience of the teacher. They saw it in the e-practicum:
“We witnessed in PT5’s presentation that there could be some technical problems in online
education, but we also witnessed that these could be handled when approached calmly. I think
that these problems could be overcome with the calm attitude and experience of the teacher.
I do believe that by and large e-practicum is feasible and with the teacher’s approach and
meticulousness it can be made more eective.” (PT15)
“Some technical problems can occur during e-practicum, that is a fact, we saw this in some of
our friends’ micro-teaching sessions, but from time to time we encounter technical problems in
the real classroom setting, too. For example, in our normal, actual classrooms, while making
a presentation to our classmates, the overhead projector shuts itself down! Our friends calmly
straightened out the technical problems during e-practicum micro-teaching and they are
totally and utterly inexperienced! It was their rst e-practicum experience. As we gain more
experience in online teaching, we can get better. I think like this. I do believe in this.” (PT7)
A large number of PTs emphasized the advantages of online teaching. They added that they would
not have thought about the benefits of online teaching if they had not experienced e-practicum. The
following quote illuminates the matter:
“In my opinion, adding a virtual background makes the lesson more attractive. This technical
detail can be achieved in e-practicum. For instance, PT4 used a forest background and
that attracted us because we can’t really go outside and go to the woods in this time of the
coronavirus outbreak. Virtual backgrounds can be interchangeably used based on the topic
of the lesson. This can be really interesting for the students. This can be achieved in a virtual
classroom. One more thing is the recording option. This is a technical advantage of a virtual
classroom. Students can re-watch the recording of the class to repeat it. Most importantly, as
PTs, we can re-watch our own e-practicum session and see what went well and what went
wrong. Technical devices such as Zoom provide this, who gives what reaction and when can be
seen individually. In normal education system, we don’t have such a chance like watching our
own teaching over and over again. This is an additional advantage of e-practicum.” (PT19)
However, a few PTs mentioned the disadvantages of the e-practicum and online education. One student
PT put forward her ideas as follows:
“I never nd online - distance education as eective as the real classroom context. It can be
applied in circumstances such as the current one (pandemic) as an alternative project to be able
to provide students with the opportunity to continue their formal education and to graduate
on time. However, I do not believe that this process or the online education project should be
kept applying as teaching, especially language teaching, requires interaction, communication
and group/pair work a lot. Yet, distance education cannot supply this atmosphere as much as it
should, and this puts the learning process in a dicult position. For instance, it is suggested that
teachers should prepare and bring colorful, three-dimensional objects or create activities that
the students move around the classroom in order to complete them. With online education
(or
practicum) it is almost impossible since the teachers cannot utilize even audio or video
resources.
This issue is actually valid for all school sections and grades.” (PT11)
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To sum up, the PTs had overall positive attitudes toward e-practicum. They thought they gained a lot
from the e-practicum experience and such an experience raised their awareness on the issues that they
would not be considering otherwise. They realized that practicum was achievable in online education.
The technical challenges could be overcome by the virtual skills and virtual experience of the teacher.
Teachers could make use of the virtues of online tools to facilitate the learning process.
6.2 Teacher PTs’ reflections on e-practicum and e-mentoring experience
The six teacher PTs were asked to reflect on their e-practicum micro-teaching and e-mentoring
experience. The four major e-practicum areas on which the teacher PTs reected were (i) the challenges
of e-practicum and the unique experience that comes with them, (ii) learning how to overcome online
technical problems, (iii) classroom management in a virtual classroom, and (iv) the necessity of such an
experience for their future career. For e-mentoring, they reected on the benets of the experience.
The teacher PTs expressed that they saw e-practicum micro-teaching as a challenge before they taught
and they were really anxious about this at the beginning. However, they added that they saw it as a great
opportunity to help develop their teaching skills. The e-practicum experience was not as bad and scary
as they had expected. They all agreed that it was a unique experience although it was almost their rst
teaching experience. They said that this experience helped them overcome their anxiety. PT6 said that
she was “anxious at the beginning but then things happened spontaneously” and she would not know
how to use the space in the classroom but she “kind of liked lecturing while sitting”. They said that there
was a fun atmosphere and they were able to feel as if they were in a real classroom. They all added that
this might have stemmed from their peer PTs’ cooperative behavior.
All of the teacher PTs mentioned the unprecedented technical problems that occurred during the
e-practicum, such as not being able to broadcast the sound of the video recording, not being able to see
the chat box when they shared their screen or not being able to unmute the students PTs on time. They
said that this experience-based learning taught them how to overcome the online technical problems.
They highlighted the importance of practice. PT5 reected on her experience as follows:
“I was not able to start the video recording properly, it was not heard for a while. I could have
sent its link to the class members before in my lesson. PT10 mentioned it in her feedback to
me too. She is right. Normally nothing like this happened, in the share screen mode, you click
on ‘use the computer sound’, that’s it, it starts right away. In my micro-teaching, it just did not
start! But by this was, I learned that I needed to take precautions, anything unexpected can
happen during an online class. This was a great and a sample lesson for me, it was literally ‘a
lesson’ to be learned for my future teaching life. I hope it serves as an example to all of us.”
The teacher PTs also said that they found that classroom management could constitute a problem
in online teaching. For them, a teacher, during online teaching, should know how to keep the students
engaged, how to prevent daydreaming, and how to control students’ attention span. The teacher PTs
reported that their peers also raised this topic in their reections and feedback. The teacher PTs found
their peers’ viewpoints about classroom management useful. PT2 pointed out:
“My friend PT8 wrote a fruitful feedback to me, for my micro-teaching. She said that we
experienced the disadvantages of online education in our own classes too. She meant the classes
we attended as students nowadays. She said that it was never like the classroom atmosphere
we were accustomed to. She confessed that she sometimes felt sleepy! She added that in her
opinion, in online education some extra eort was required to get the attention of the students,
to make them focused on the lesson because they got distracted very easily even in actual
classrooms. She saw this in her practicum school in the Fall semester. She wrote me that as she
observed in the e-practicum, none of us, I mean none of the teacher PTs did anything to avoid
this in our micro-teaching sessions. PT8’s comments about my micro-teaching overlapped with
121 International Journal of TESOL Studies 2 (2)
my own concerns about dealing with classroom management problems on online teaching. I
have no clue about that!”
The teacher PTs said that they had been thinking how to overcome the classroom management problems
since they read their peers’ reflections and feedback as WhatsApp messages. PT4 commented on the
issue:
“I think the biggest missing part and the biggest problem of online education is not being able
to see who is doing what, I mean not being able to see who is reading the text or who is taking
notes, not being able listen and not being able to see… That’s why I hesitated for a while in my
e-practicum micro-teaching. I mean I was hesitant and nervous while I was talking. I did not
know what to do and I still don’t know. This is digital world after all!”
The teacher PTs further added that they understood the necessity of e-practicum experience for their
future career. They said that this practice should denitely be part of either pre-service education or in-
service training to equip them. PT1 expressed his views on the topic:
“It was a great experience, it was very enjoyable. We are now moving to Internet based, digital
platforms. For example, a teacher in England or in the U.S.A. can give private tutoring through
using digital, online systems. We should denitely practice this. We should be trained on this.
Plus, teaching is not something that is carried out only at school. We should have contact with
our students and their parents outside the school. If we have such training, we can reach our
students when they are on holiday, in their winter break, or in 7-8 –day periods on their summer
holiday. We can conduct online teaching and practice sessions to answer our students’ and their
families’ questions or to help them out with their language problems.”
PT5 added:
“If we have such training, it will be our second chance, our plan B in times of disasters,
earthquakes, or like this – disease and outbreak situations. We don’t know which digital
platforms are available to us, we don’t know which methodologies to use in online teaching,
we don’t know how to use them, and we don’t know when to use which methodology. I can’t
say such teaching will be denitely useful for the students, I am not sure about that, it is so
new. But I know one thing, I am sure about that, training about online teaching would denitely
be our plan B and this type of training will be very beneficial for us, for our professional
development.”
The teacher PTs found the e-mentoring benecial and their reections on it were quite positive. They
thanked the e-mentor repeatedly for providing such an opportunity to improve their teaching skills. They
found the e-mentoring condence-building as the e-mentor highlighted the “good stu” in their micro-
teaching. They said that the e-mentor helped them see the problematic parts of their teaching and they
even started thinking on ways to improve them. They said that the e-mentoring was collaborative because
they brainstormed on some points together. They also said that the e-mentor provided theoretical and
practical support, which was very helpful for their developing practice. PT3 expressed that the e-mentoring
answered all the questions on her mind and motivated her. She felt at least a little bit more ready for
teaching in general and for online teaching in particular.
To wrap up, the teacher PTs found the e-practicum helpful to compensate the lack of practicum and to
overcome online teaching fears. To them, e-practicum was challenging but an irreplaceable opportunity.
Although they encountered some unexpected technical problems, they overcame them. They held the
strong belief that by practicing they would be better problem-solvers. They were neither anxious nor scared
about online teaching any more. Their awareness about the classroom management in a virtual classroom
was developed and they felt the need of being more skillful in this area. They saw the necessity of an
e-practicum and e-mentoring for their future career. In short, the ndings revealed that PTs found the
e-practicum helpful to compensate the lack of practicum.
122
Pinar Ersin, Derin Atay and Enisa Mede
7 Discussion and Conclusion
Due to the sudden COVID-19 breakdown, the face-to-face education shifted to online education. The
theory-oriented courses were moved to online platforms like Skype or Zoom. However, the move took
place gradually. The present study attempted to design a practice-oriented course, Teaching Practicum,
offered at the English Language Education program of a state university in Turkey through online
education. Specically, this study was designed as an alternative for the Teaching Practicum course in the
English language teaching undergraduate program conducted in physical classrooms during PTs’ senior
year in Turkey. This course was converted to an e-course by the researchers and the university supervisor
acted as the “e-mentor”. The aim was rst to mitigate PTs’ anxiety about their lack of sucient practice
opportunity and then to increase their teaching competence and prepare them for online teaching which
they would most probably be involved in future. The e-practicum aimed to familiarize PTs with dierent
aspects of distance education, like use of student engagement strategies and integration of technology
into their teaching.
Findings of the study revealed that the PTs shared positive feelings about the online teaching
experience. After their online sessions with their e-mentor and peers, they said that although they
felt anxious at the beginning of e-practicum, they got used to this new experience quickly and found
it unique. They enjoyed the e-classroom atmosphere and felt as if they were in the real classroom.
Additionally, they felt the support of their peers and e-mentor, which helped them overcome their anxiety
and felt more competent with eective classroom practices. Although they experienced some problems
related to classroom management and infrastructure, suggestions from their peers and guidance from
their e-mentor aided them to provide solutions to such problems during the online lessons.
Based on these ndings, though limited in scope, we conclude that e-mentoring can be used as an
eective alternative for teachers to connect with peers in order to ask and receive advice and support
online (Redmond, 2015; Quintana & Zambrano, 2014). Likewise, e-mentoring created an informal,
participatory, and interactive environment which helped the PTs share their feelings and experiences
as well as exchange ideas both with their peers and e-mentor without time and space restrictions. They
created a community of practice to develop common meaning, strong ties and enhance professional skills
in a participatory and collaborative way (Spanorriga et al., 2018).
Although PTs stated that they preferred having their practicum/teaching experience in a physical
classroom, they also highlighted the importance of the e-practicum and e-mentoring, dening the process
as a unique experience. The finding which is about the uniqueness of e-practicum process is in line
with Göker’s (2006) study, which emphasizes the importance of student teaching experiences/teaching
practica as mastery experiences, which potentially benet teacher candidates’ self-ecacy in teaching.
Similarly, as stated by Korthagen et al. (2006), what PTs experience during their practicum aects their
view of teaching. Therefore, teaching practicum has a crucial eect on the professional development of
PTs.
As universities are moving to Internet-based, digital platforms, transforming the practicum course
(or a part of it) to e-practicum under the guidance and support of e-mentors seems to be a valuable
addition to teacher education programs. Reports shared during the COVID-19 outbreak revealed that
teachers all over the world had problems with technology integration and student engagement in online
classes. Although PTs take a number of technology-related courses in the four-year teacher education
programs, the online education experience during the COVID-19 outbreak has shown that technology
integration and material preparation for online courses should be part of any course in the existing
program. The present study, therefore, contributes to the existing literature by providing a sample of
planning-implementation stages of an e-practicum course, and help teacher education programs improve
mentoring practices with the integration of technology.
123 International Journal of TESOL Studies 2 (2)
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Pinar Ersin (Ph.D. in Foreign Language Education, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul) is a lecturer in the
Department of English Language Teaching at Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey. She holds a BA
degree in English Language and Literature, an MA degree in English Language Teaching, and a Ph.D.
degree in Foreign Language Education. Her professional interests include teaching foreign languages
and the relationship between teacher/learner identity and sociocultural theory, identity approach,
postsructuralist identity, and English as a Lingua Franca.
Derin Atay (Ph.D. in Language Education, Boğaziçi University) is a professor in the Department of
Foreign Language Education at Bahçeehir University, Istanbul, Turkey. Her research interests include
teacher research, culture in language education, pre- and in-service teacher education and critical thinking
in education. She has authored numerous articles in indexed journals and book chapters and conducted
teacher professional development seminars.
Enisa Mede is an Associate Professor at the English Language Teaching Department (ELT), Bahçeehir
University, Istanbul, Turkey. She has been oering undergraduate courses such as Teaching Language
Skills, Teaching English to Young Learners and Teaching Practicum as well as graduate courses such
as Syllabus Design and Second Language Acquisition courses in ELT. Her chief research interests are
pre- and in-service teacher education, program design and evaluation in language education, rst/second
language development in young learners and bilingual education. She has collaborated in various projects
such as Designing Digital Materials for Teaching Turkish as a Foreign Language and Developing
Content and Language Integrated books.
