A study of the transfer impact of online course participation on constructivist practices in preservice teacher performance

The purpose of this study was to examine the transfer impact of online course participation on constructivist practices in preservice teacher performance. Measuring constructivist practices in student teacher performance was completed by analyzing lesson plans, by analyzing preservice teacher reflections on the lesson planning process and teaching, and by analyzing the discussions of student teacher supervisors as they reflected on the lesson plans they observed for the purpose of evaluation. The study's outcomes demonstrated that online learning exposed preservice teachers to constructivist learning models that were transferred to their classroom practice. Data is presented to show that increased exposure with constructivist practices in online coursework gave rise to the transfer of constructivist practices in preservice teachers' classrooms. Recommendations include purposeful efforts in online teacher education courses to capitalize on the constructivist strategies modeled in order to help learning transfer of constructivist practice occur more readily for preservice teachers.