Effective Online Coaching for Clinical Practice During COVID
Presenter:
Steve Chamberlain
Presentation Title:
Effective Online Coaching for Clinical Practice During COVID
Abstract:
From March 2020 to May 2021, the COVID pandemic forced schools to shut down face-to-face classes and move instruction to online platforms. Similarly, teacher preparation programs were forced to forego traditional clinical practice and move online. The engagement of teacher candidates with mentor teachers remained the centerpiece of clinical practice, however, a number of practices were necessarily altered to meet the demands of the learning environment. Communication and collaboration, central to the teacher candidate/mentor teacher relationship had to take place via different technologies. Creating time and space for feedback had to be reconceptualized since teacher and candidate were no longer in the same physical place. In addition, coaching, an essential component of clinical practice, took on different forms and required a creative response from educators. Coaching is often thought of as a process of providing direct feedback to candidates to help them improve their practice, but is more likely to be effective when mentors guide candidates toward self-reflective understandings of their own practices and how their practices influence the learning of their students.
This presentation discusses lessons learned from the STEP UP program when clinical practice went online during the pandemic. Drawing on professional development on the Coaching with CARE model (Wetzel et al., 2017) that was provided to mentor teachers across the spring 2021 semester, participants will learn about various tools used by teacher candidates that proved to be effective for online instruction and coaching practices that were adopted to ensure effective mentoring during clinical practice.
Participants will:
- Gain a better understanding of online instructional practices that were effective for clinical practice during COVID
- Gain a better understanding of effective coaching practices and how they were adapted for online environments
- Gain a better understanding of the reciprocal nature of learning between mentor teachers and teacher candidates.