Presence accounted for? student-teachers establishing and experiencing presence in synchronous online teaching environments

ABSTRACT

In Ireland, as around the world, the Covid-19 pandemic necessitated that Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) adopt innovative approaches to ensure the continuity of placement-related components of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes. One post-primary concurrent ITE programme conceptualised and developed the Teaching Online Programme (TOP), a multifaceted initiative to introduce student-teachers to the theory and practice of synchronous and asynchronous online teaching via a structured and tutor-supported online peer-teaching experience. Drawing upon the Community of Inquiry framework as a lens, this paper considers how pre-service student-teachers facilitated and experienced ‘teaching presence’ while peer-teaching in a synchronous online environment as part of their TOP. The paper finds that design and organisation, facilitating discourse, and direct instruction, were viewed as relevant and helpful for teaching in online settings, and that overall there was agreement about the importance of establishing a strong sense of teacher presence when teaching in synchronous videoconferencing environments such as Zoom. It concludes by considering how these findings may be of relevance for future development of ITE programmes.

KEYWORDS:

• Community of inquiry
• teaching presence
• teacher education
• online teaching
• synchronous

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Enda Donlon

Enda Donlon is an Associate Professor in the school of STEM Education, Innovation and Global Studies at the Institute of Education, Dublin City University. His research interests include digital learning and teacher education, with a particular emphasis on where the two intersect.

Marie Conroy Johnson

Marie Conroy Johnson is an Assistant Professor and Director of School Placement in the School of Policy and Practice in the Institute of Education at Dublin City University. Her research interests include Initial Teacher Education, School Placement, Leadership and Management in Education, Education and the Law, and Faith-Based Identity in Religious Schools.

Audrey Doyle

Audrey Doyle is an Assistant Professor in the School of Policy and Practice in DCU. Her area of interest is curriculum and the agency of teachers in becoming curriculum makers and assessors.

Elaine McDonald

Elaine McDonald is an Assistant Professor in the School of Policy and Practice at the DCU Institute of Education. She lectures in the areas of professional development, teacher identity, and teaching methodology.

P. J. Sexton

P. J. Sexton is an Assistant Professor in the School of Policy and Practice at the DCU Institute of Education and is currently the Director of CREATE21 (Centre for Collaborative Research Across Teacher Education for the 21st Century). His research interests include teacher education, reflective practice, mentoring, supervision, religious education, and lifelong learning.