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Experiential learning as the ‘new normal’ in teacher education

Article  in  European Journal of Teacher Education · October 2020

DOI: 10.1080/02619768.2020.1836599

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Anja Swennen
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
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 European Journal of Teacher Education

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cete20

Experiential learning as the ‘new normal’ in

teacher education

Anja Swennen

To cite this article: Anja Swennen (2020): Experiential learning as the ‘new normal’ in teacher
education, European Journal of Teacher Education, DOI: 10.1080/02619768.2020.1836599

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2020.1836599

Published online: 14 Oct 2020.

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EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF TEACHER EDUCATION
https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2020.1836599

EDITORIAL

Experiential learning as the ‘new normal’ in teacher education

This is the last issue of the European Journal of Teacher Education of 2020. And what
a year it was. It is almost difficult to remember how we were teaching at our
universities and colleges, visiting students in schools, wishing we had fewer meetings
and meeting our international colleagues in places all over the world. All this came
‘to a screeching halt’ as the authors of one of the articles in the Special Issue of EJTE
formulated it (Ellis, Steadman, and Mao 2020). All articles in the Special Issue were
related in one way or another to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and how to
deal with these effects.
I think I speak for many teachers and teacher educators (and many other profes­
sionals) that we experienced a huge learning curve over the last year. As we went
along, we learned how to develop distant teaching and assessment. We uncovered
the secrets of online programmes and became skilled in using break out groups and
how to use the online whiteboard in a creative way. And, again, I am sure most
teachers and teacher educators learned like I did: by trial and error, from informal
conversations with colleagues and, more often, with students and we looked for the
information we needed on the Internet. And we reflected all the time on our own
and with others and improved our teaching in the ‘new normal’ step by step and
sometimes in giant leaps. It was one giant and collaborative experience in experi­
ential learning.
While the pandemic lasts, but more so after it disappear (and it will) I hope all
educationalists remember these experiences and the strength of experiential learning
and are able to apply pedagogies of learning by doing in real and on-line
classrooms.
Interestingly, the first article in this issue ‘First steps in a second career: characteristics
of the transition to the teaching profession among novice teachers’ Smadar Bar-Tal, Nurit
Chamo, Drorit Ram, Zohar Snapir and Itzhak Gilat from Israel is about teachers for whom
teaching is a second career. Based on their life experiences these teachers feel they are
able to provide children with new perspectives, apply innovative pedagogical methods,
and help children apply school knowledge to the real world. The researchers gathered
data from questionnaires filled out by 80 novice second-career teachers and a comparable
group of 82 First-Career Teachers. They also conducted interviews with eight second-
career teachers. The findings show that the most powerful predictor of high job satisfac­
tion among second-career teachers is the availability of support whereas the most power­
ful predictor among first-career teachers is workload. The qualitative analysis suggests
that experience acquired by second-career teachers before they start teaching provides
a repertoire of helpful strategies, thus improving their ability to cope with stressful
experiences. The findings of the study support teaching as a second career for experi­
enced professionals.

© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
2 EDITORIAL

From the beginning of teacher education, it was acknowledged that field experi­
ence (internship, school-based education) is vital. As all experience-based education
learning to become a teacher in the school context is a complex and demanding
task. Not only for the students but also for the supervisors of the student-teachers.
The focus of the German researcher Benjamin Dreer in his article ‘Towards a better
understanding of psychological needs of student teachers during field experiences’
focuses obviously on the students. Dreer studied the specific psychological needs of
the teaching workforce and the fulfilment of student teachers’ psychological needs.
The article presents a four-dimensional theoretical framework incorporating both
basic and specific psychological needs. In total, 106 student teachers were surveyed
in a longitudinal study. The average fulfilment rates and development trends show
differences among the four dimensions, suggesting the presence of lower- and
higher-order needs. Significant correlations between need fulfilment and success
indicators, such as learner satisfaction, learning gain, teacher self-efficacy and level
of self-reflection, were found. The results highlight the relevance of high rates of
need fulfilment right from the start of the field experience.
The title of the third article reveals what also the authors of the former articles
emphasis: the pressure under which student-teachers work in school when learning to
teach. The paper of the Dutch researchers Michelle Gemmink, Marjon Fokkens-Bruinsma,
Ietje Pauw and Klaas van Veen has been given the title ‘Under pressure? Primary school
teachers’ perceptions of their pedagogical practices’. Their assumption is that primary
school teachers’ pedagogical practices are under pressure in the current educational
context. The aim of this study is therefor to explore Dutch primary school teachers’
perceptions regarding their pedagogical practices, and, specifically, the pressure teachers
experience. The researchers conducted a survey among 261 primary school teachers from
115 schools. The data show that a lack of coherence between teachers’ personal vision
and the school’s vision influences the extent to which teachers experience pressure. The
study showed that pressure on teachers’ pedagogical practices is a general problem in
primary education.
Despite all the pressure, complex learning contexts and problems that student-
teachers experience, student-teachers have a lot of ideals that help them become the
teachers they want and need to be. The Dutch researchers, Heleen Simonsz, Yvonne
Leeman and Wiel Veugelers, wrote an article with the title ‘Beginning student
teachers’ educational ideals’. The aim of this study is to gain insight into the content
and sources of the educational ideals of beginning student teachers. The data were
gathered from interviews of twenty-four beginning student teachers. The findings
show that beginning student teachers have educational ideals about the personal,
interpersonal and societal development of their students. The sources of their educa­
tional ideals were meaningful experiences in the context of school, family, jobs and
voluntary activities and societal issues.
Teacher educators are able to use former experiences of student teachers to form and
strengthen their ideals, the can create new experiences to support the learning of new
pedagogies and they have to immerse the future teachers in authentic learning context of
schools. Experiential learning will challenge the student teachers and perhaps even more
the teacher educators.
 EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF TEACHER EDUCATION 3

Reference
Ellis, V., S. Steadman, and Q. Mao. 2020. “’Come to a Screeching Halt’: Can Change in Teacher
Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic Be Seen as Innovation?” European Journal of Teacher
Education 43: 559–572. doi:10.1080/02619768.2020.1821186.

Anja Swennen
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
j.m.h.swennen@vu.nl

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