Conference Agenda

In the Norwegian context, teacher education has evolved into a five-year Master’s degree course. The rationale for raising it to this level is based on the notion that school should be a research-informed workplace, and the knowledge base of the teaching profession should be research-based (Lillejord and Børte, 2017). Questions have been raised as to whether primary school teacher training is preparation for the profession in the way that it enables the teaching students to take part in career-long professional learning (Klette and Carlsen, 2012). One goal in this respect has been to develop the students’ knowledge base and their competence. In the evolution into a five-year teacher training programme, the Ministry of Education launched a national strategy for quality and collaboration in teacher education where emphasis has been placed on developing the student’s competence to reflect on pedagogical decisions. (Kunnskapsdepartementet, 2017). Professional quality is a key element in this regard.

Higher education has increased in importance for qualifying students for working life, achieving financial security and having good prospects (Kunnskapsdepartementet, 2017). However, many students leave higher education without having completed their education. Although higher education has, in recent years, made significant improvements in the quality of the studies programmes, many students still drop out of teacher training. Considering declining admission numbers in teacher education studies as a whole (Munthe & Huat See, 2022), and coupling this with the increasing need for teachers in schools (ssb.no), the consequences of students dropping out of their studies must be seen as disturbing. As more men than women drop out of teacher education (Munthe & Huat See, 2022), the desire to have diversity in the teaching profession is another important aspect in this context.

Several research studies explore non-completion of studies in higher education (e.g. Grau & Minguillon, 2013, Nemtcan et al., 2020, Tinto, 2017). Examining the various departments’ support to encourage students to persist in their studies and prevent non-completion, Tinto (2017) presents a model that highlights goals, motivation and persistence. This model covers the connection between such different aspects in play as self-efficacy, sense of belonging and perception of the curriculum. Of special interest for our research is the steps the universities can take to keep students in their studies. Tinto investigated the students’ perspective on what institutions can do to promote inspiration and increase their persistence to achieve completion. Motivation is a crucial factor for them deciding to continue with their studies despite the challenges they face and the doubts they have. The interaction of student goals, self-efficacy, sense of belonging and perceived value or relevance of the curriculum are found to be critical to persistence (Tinto, 2017:255).

The research presented in this paper will focus on student decisions to drop out of teacher education and how the institutions deal with this challenge. The aim is to investigate and discuss the extent to which procrastinatory behaviour and self-efficacy influence drop-out decisions and students’ motivation to continue with their education.

To date, little research has been carried out in this area. Increasing our knowledge on this issue could have consequences for the teacher education programme and how it is designed by the universities.

As schools in many regions of the world struggle to employ highly qualified and effective teachers in every classroom, governments are experimenting with different strategies to increase the supply of new teachers. One of the most popular strategies being attempted is to allow people to become teachers with either no training or with training that is faster and cheaper than degree-based teacher preparation programs (TPPs; Author, 2022). These new, faster and cheaper TPPs are non-degree-based programs. Like teacher candidates enrolled in the original French École Normale Supérieure (Normal School), established in 1794, candidates in these new TPPs are only prepared to teach and do not earn an academic degree. These new TPPs are non-degree programs just like the majority of TPPs that existed around the world from the 1700s through the 1960s. Despite this long history of TPPs being non-degree-based, these new TPPs are called “alternative.” Some state governments in the United States, like Texas, have been experimenting with these alternative programs for several decades, and as a result, Texas now prepares over 50% of the alternatively prepared teachers in America. There is evidence that these alternative programs are effective at preparing large numbers of teachers and at preparing a greater diversity of new teachers (more male teachers, more teachers of color; Author, 2019). Unfortunately, these alternatively prepared teachers are also more likely to leave the profession soon after entering the classroom compared to traditionally prepared teachers (Author, 2019).

One of the primary differences between traditional, degree-based TPPs and alternative, non-degree-based TPPs is the type of clinical teaching experience they provide (Darling-Hammond, Chung, & Frelow, 2002). The vast majority of alternatively prepared teachers complete an internship during which they serve as the official teacher-of-record employed by the school, and they receive a full teacher’s salary. By contrast, the vast majority of traditionally prepared teachers complete an unpaid student teaching clinical experience under the mentoring and supervision of a teacher-of-record employed by the school, and the teacher candidate must successfully complete their TPP before they themselves can become an official teacher-of-record.

The impacts of these two types of clinical teaching experiences on teacher self-efficacy has been examined and the results are generally mixed with a few studies showing traditionally prepared teachers have higher self-efficacy than alternatively prepared teachers (Darling-Hammond et al., 2002; Zientek, 2007), but the majority shows no differences (e.g., Fox & Peters, 2013; Griffin, 2022; Jackson & Miller, 2020). Given that teaching self-efficacy is positively correlated with student learning and that these results are mixed, we cannot draw a firm conclusion about the impacts of clinical experience types on student learning. Direct comparisons of these different clinical teaching methods on secondary students’ academic growth have not been examined. Our primary research question is, are first-time teachers-of-record equally effective at impacting secondary student academic growth in English/Reading and Mathematics regardless of the type of clinical teaching they experienced? Our secondary question is, are new teachers-of-record with no teaching preparation or with preparation but in a different subject area as effective as the new teachers-of-record who engaged in either clinical teaching experience?

If governments are moving to allow alternative TPPs and these programs result in similar student academic growth as traditional TPPs while also being faster and cheaper, then governments are prudent to move towards allowing alternative TPPs. If, however, the alternatively prepared teachers are harming the academic growth of students, then caution is certainly warranted, and changes to the alternative TPP curricula should be strongly encouraged or mandated. Similarly, if unprepared people can become teachers who are equally effective, then why require any teacher preparation at all?

From the mid-1990s, education policy in Ireland has sought to realise the potential of ICT in education / digital learning (Conway & Brennan-Freeman, 2015), as evidenced through a number of strategy documents and ICT policies published from this time onwards. This includes, for instance, The ICT framework for schools (NCCA, 2007) and the Digital Strategy for Schools 2015-2020 (Department of Education and Skills, 2015). In tandem, Irish ITE (Initial Teacher Education) policy has, for over a decade, recognised the significance of embedding digital skills in preservice teacher education, and has continued to develop in this regard (The Teaching Council, 2011, 2017).

In March 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe, education institutions in Ireland ceased in-person teaching and made an abrupt transition to online delivery. This shift represented an unprecedented challenge, with teachers quickly pivoting to online platforms and tools to deliver content and stay connected with their students. The closure of schools highlighted that preparing future teachers for fully remote teaching had heretofore not been recognised at either policy or practice levels in Irish ITE (Power et al., 2022). The need therefore arose for a rapid response to equip student-teachers with the requisite technological, pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) to facilitate teaching and learning in fully online and hybrid scenarios at school levels.

A flurry of global research during this time captured educator and student experiences of emergency remote teaching and learning (Hodges et al., 2020), with some studies detailing interventions that helped teachers and students cope with the new realities. There is, however, less discussion around what happened in Ireland, specifically from the perspective of teacher education and its various stakeholders. Mindful of this, the current paper adopts a multi-pronged approach to address this deficit.

We begin with the policy landscapes of digital learning and teacher education to date, critiquing developments regarding the place and use of digital technologies in Irish schools; this serves as a contextual backdrop against which to situate the pandemic responses of 2020 and 2021. This is followed by a desk-based literature review which captures several initiatives (such as Donlon et al., 2022; Tiernan et al., 2021) which were designed and delivered by Irish ITE providers; it reports on the challenges and successes of the period, and the lessons learned by teacher educators, student-teachers, and teacher education institutions. Drawing on these learnings, the paper turns to the future and considers the place (if any) for such programmatic developments, which were designed as emergency responses during a global crisis. At that time, schools in Ireland were required “to put in place arrangements to facilitate […] Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning”, and to ‘”develop the skills set of the teachers and support staff” for this (Department of Education and Skills, 2020b, p. 4). This includes, for instance: 1) Questions around the potential transferability of skills (interpersonal as well as digital) developed within these initiatives between fully online, hybrid, and traditional face-to-face teaching scenarios; 2) Considerations around the most relevant theories of learning that pertain to online/remote teaching and learning at primary and post-primary (K12) levels; 3) The optimum design for such ITE initiatives; 4) The learnings from research emerging from Irish schools regarding school closures and emergency remote teaching; 5) The potential contributions that student-teachers and Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) who have been equipped with this skillset for remote teaching and learning might make to their schools; 6) The potential continuity of remote/online teaching beyond the Covid19 crisis for challenges such as forced school closures due to adverse weather events and as possible (partial) solution to teacher supply issues (Department of Education and Skills, 2020a).