Online Involvement for Georgia Student Teachers During Covid-19.

Area of Science:

• Education
• Music Education
• Online Learning

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic caused a rapid shift to distance learning across all educational levels in the United States.
• Preservice teachers (PSTs) faced unique challenges, balancing their roles as students and educators in a remote environment.
• Music PSTs and their cooperating teachers (CTs) experienced disruptions in traditional co-teaching and mentorship models.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the impact of the shift to distance learning on the involvement of music PSTs and their CT mentors.
• To investigate how PSTs were involved in planning, instruction, and assessment synchronously and asynchronously.
• To identify the subdomains of music instruction and learning activities PSTs engaged in, and the challenges and solutions reported.

Main Methods:

• A survey was emailed to music PSTs in Georgia at the end of the Spring 2020 semester.
• Thirty-seven participants responded, representing approximately 32% of PSTs in Georgia.
• Thematic analysis was used for open-ended survey questions to identify common themes and categorize experiences.

Main Results:

• Twenty-one PSTs lacked access to their placement school's online teaching platform.
• PSTs with platform access primarily created assignments, recorded videos, participated in Zoom meetings, and assessed student work, often viewing these as positive experiences.
• Many PSTs reported a lack of knowledge in online music instruction planning and implementation, with varied levels of CT interaction and support.

Conclusions:

• The shift to online learning presented both challenges and opportunities for music PSTs, with a noted preference for face-to-face interaction.
• Teacher preparation programs must integrate technology and online teaching strategies into music curricula.
• Future music educators need to be equipped to flexibly incorporate both in-person and distance learning modalities.