GATEways to Teacher Education

April 2023: Volume 33, Issue 1

Contents

Letter from the President Page 1

By Dr. Don Livingston

Thoughts from the Editors Page 2-3

By Drs. LaTashaAdams and Jennifer Curl

Becoming a Teacher During a Global Pandemic: Navigating Field Experiences During Covid-19 Page 4-11

By CharlotteA. Mundy-Henderson

The shift to online and remote learning in the spring of 2020, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, led teacher educators to put classes online and adjust field experiences to meet an ever-changing need. This study explores the experiences of nineteen elementary education pre-service teachers who entered the field during a global pandemic and were completing their second semester of elementary education coursework and field experiences. Findings highlight increased technology integration and the ability of pre-service teachers to adapt and be flexible as positive learning opportunities brought about by Covid-19. Building and maintaining meaningful teacher-student relationships (both at the college level and in elementary school placements) was one of the biggest challenges. Is Lecture a Four-Letter Word? A Study of Graduate Teacher Educators’ Perspectives on Page 12-30

Lecture as an Instructional Method in Social Studies

By Katherine Perrotta, Erica Warren, and Michael Champion

The large-scale shift to online teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic ignited widespread reflection among social studies educators about how to adjust instructional methods to promote engaged learning. Through the application of the National Council for the Social Studies Powerful andAuthentic Framework, the purpose of this study is to examine in-service and pre-service middle and secondary social studies teachers’views on lecture as an instructional method in order to ascertain how the COVID-19 pandemic impacts their decisions on which teaching strategies to implement in virtual, blended, or in-person settings. Major findings show that in-service and pre-service middle and secondary social studies teachers lecture because of 1) their familiarity with the instructional method from their experiences as students, 2) the efficiency of the method due to the breadth and depth of the social studies curriculum, and 3) the adjustment to teaching in online or hybrid formats due to the pandemic.

“Why Do I have to Do This?” Strategically Connecting Course Content to Authentic Page 31-40 Contexts Beyond the Classroom

By Erin Fl. Klash, Gilbert Dueñas, Shelly H. Bowden, Tami Shelley, Laura Wildman Kelli Smith, andAustin B. Klash

Frequently, educators hear questions from their students, such as, “Why do we have to do this?” or “When will I ever use this in the real world?” Questions such as these are legitimate and should be of utmost importance to educators at all levels because it directly addresses the relevancy of their course content. Educators should know and be able to communicate the “real world beyond the classroom” value of course content to their students. This paper describes systematic and deliberate approaches used by six faculty members at a regional, four-year university to promote authentic learning which educators can easily adapt and implement in a variety of educational contexts to help bridge the authenticity gap between theory and practice.