Online and Offline Internship Experiences of Science Pre-Service Teachers in Delhi: Implications for Teacher Education

Abstract

The advancement of web technologies and their applications is tremendously changing education around the world, which requires teachers to acquire techno-pedagogical competencies and experiences of it. The present study explored the secondary science pre-service teachers (PSTs) lived experiences of both online and offline teaching in their internship during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. This phenomenological research conducted semi-structured interviews with 14 science PSTs just after their internship. The analysis revealed that participants got oriented and familiarised with using the technologies to explore more ways of teaching and had meaningful experiences despite the challenges they faced. The study highlighted the significance of school students’ interaction in developing participants’ pedagogical competencies and for the effective teaching and learning process both online and offline. The study recommended the strategies of blending online and offline internships to develop the science PSTs’ techno-pedagogical competencies to facilitate the digital transformation in education.