Continuing virtual observations: A situational review of student perspectives

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual observations were utilised in teacher education programmes internationally (Murtagh, 2022; Mynott et al., 2022; Ó Grádaigh et al., 2021). In Scotland, virtual observations have been continued as part of teacher education programmes and this article explores student perspectives on their continued use. A situative analysis (Clarke et al., 2018) was used to explore questionnaire and interview data from student teachers. The analytical process examined the data and utilised memoing to consider emergent themes against the situation of virtual observations in teacher education. There is a duality to the findings. On the one hand, students express preference for in-person observation when they consider the process to be assessment-focused. Conversely, when not considering virtual observations as assessment, the ability to reflect more deeply on their practice, increase their control and agency over the observation and reduce the stress surrounding observations are all themes that emerged from the data. Therefore, the data suggests that further innovation moving from summative to formative observations might increase the benefits of virtual observations. Limited research exists on virtual observations. The literature that is available often focuses on university staff. This article considers virtual observations from the student perspective and provides clear feedback on how a pandemic response has been developed for post-pandemic purposes. The findings of this article can be further explored and built upon, and this will enhance the use of virtual observations within teacher education.