THE STUDENT-TEACHER IN THE 21ST CENTURY CLASSROOM AND THE USE OF OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES: THE CASE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD INTERNS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA

As new technologies continue to advance, and the learning process becomes information-rich, new types of instructional opportunities exist for teachers to adapt to improve their classroom practices. This paper seeks to capture the experiences of student-teachers’ adaptation and integration of open educational resources (OERs) in their classroom-based teaching internship. The student-teachers who had been exposed to OERs produced by the Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) consortium and course designs with these resources were engaged as respondents in this study. The issue is that teachers are expected to master several creative ways of engaging pupils in teaching and learning, be conversant with new skills in teaching and adapt to the fast growing needs of pupils. But the question is: are student-teachers employing the potential of new pedagogical strategies to improve their classroom practices? Or how do student-teachers use OER in their teaching? Mixed methods of survey and interviews using questionnaires and semi-structured interview guides were used in collecting data from 30 student teachers who carried out their internship in six basic schools around the University community in Winneba. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software was used in analyzing the quantitative data while the qualitative data were analysed manually. It emerged from the study that most respondents have positive attitudes towards the use of OERs in lesson preparation and delivery as interns found them to be adding value to the learning and teaching environment. Again, the resources had positive impact on learners as they participated, shared ideas and got involved in the learning process. Respondents also found themselves as reflective practitioners during the use of the resources. However, the lack of support structures such as internet access, limited scope of modules and funds for material development, lack of continuous staff development and the absence of lecturers to monitor them in the schools during their practice posed as a challenge. Respondents requested that there should be opportunities for them to learn, relearn and use new approaches and strategies in teaching and learning as new technologies emerge. They should also be encouraged to adapt and adopt best practices from other contexts.