Preparing future teachers for Virtual Schooling: Assessing their preconceptions and competence

This dissertation presents three research articles in the area of preparing preservice teachers for Virtual Schooling (VS). The context of the dissertation is embedded in a Teacher Education Goes Into Virtual Schooling (TEGIVS) project under the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education. The first article presented TEGIVS curricula and its preliminary evaluation, the second article discussed the study on preservice teachers' perspectives and preconceptions about VS, and the third article described the development, validation, and implementation of a rubric to assess the preservice teachers' competence as VS facilitators. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from preservice teachers and three practitioners in the area of VS. The main findings of the articles indicate that preservice teachers are ready to learn about VS, but hold preconceptions about VS. The most commonly stated preconception was technology is becomes teacher's surrogate in VS. The TEGIVS curriculum was found helpful in preparing preservice teachers see the complexity of teaching and learning online. Lastly, the competence assessment instrument developed and implemented to assess preservice teachers' competence to facilitate in VS was found to be reliable and valid. Thus, this dissertation provides evidence for the need to integrate VS into teacher education, and further suggests that teacher education should identify and correct preservice teachers' preconceptions about VS. The competence assessment instrument that included a scenario and rubric was developed as part of this dissertation and has not been implemented outside the TEGIVS project. Teacher education programs can also use this very first competence assessment instrument to assess VS facilitator competence of preservice teachers in the three aspects of technology, mentoring, and collaboration.