Training School Professionals in a Global Pandemic: Insights From Elementary Education and Speech-Language Pathology

The purpose of this research was to explore the preparation of practitioners from two disciplines-speech-language pathology and elementary education-who often work together in a school setting to identify ways to best support future professionals in their educational practicum settings. The primary research questions guiding this investigation were as follows: Did the student teaching and supervision experiences of preservice K-6 teachers (PSTs) and their mentors and speech-language pathology graduate student clinicians and their supervisors differ during the COVID-19 pandemic, and if so, in what ways?

A total of 54 participants from one university participated in this study from four groups: 15 graduate student clinicians in a speech-language pathology program, 14 speech-language pathology supervisors, 14 PSTs, and 11 teacher mentors. Survey questions were designed to capture the perceptions of students and supervisors in the fields of speech-language pathology and elementary education who were in the school setting during the fall 2020 semester. Quantitative and qualitative questions were included to obtain information related to the following areas: planning, environment, supervision preferences, team experiences, professional development, and telepractice.

Speech-language pathologists and teacher mentors reported being able to successfully mentor and supervise students in the school setting despite significant challenges presented by the global pandemic. Findings also identified several significant differences in the experiences of PSTs and speech-language pathology graduate student clinicians who were in the schools for field experiences.

Overall, speech-language pathology graduate student clinicians and their supervisors as well as PSTs and their teacher mentors reported adequately navigating their field experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Implications for how these findings can inform professional preparation programs to optimize future educational and therapy outcomes for students are discussed.