Abstract:

With the outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020, schools and higher education moved online, including teacher education colleges where the research was conducted. The rapid transition required adaptation of learning (Gorev, Margaliot & Vaisman 2013).

We examined students’ readiness to learn online currently and teach online in the future - after one semester of online academic studies. This research took place under the assumption that in the foreseeable future, online learning in higher education in general, and in teacher training in particular will clearly continue to expand.

The study is based on Cognitive Orientation (CO) theory, with a questionnaire designed to measure motivation to engage in online learning (Kreitler, 2013). CO theory discerns four types of relevant beliefs: about oneself, about how things happen; about how things should be, and about one’s goals. In this study, we focused on the first and the last beliefs: Students' beliefs about functioning as online learners and about their future teaching.

Participants were 378 students at a teacher education college who experienced massive online learning during the pandemic. The online questionnaire provided triangulated qualitative and quantitative data.

Findings show a moderate level of willingness to engage in online learning, and for most statements the response was “Sometimes true”. Four statements showed unusual results: nearly half the participants claimed it is important for them to interact with others during online learning; about one-third claimed it is hard to develop curiosity in online learning; nearly half felt the direct contact with the lecturer in online learning does not provide an opportunity to improve their learning skills; and the majority claimed they try to give the most of themselves in online learning.

The level of students’ readiness to engage in online teaching in the future was also found to be moderate, and for most statements their response was “Sometimes true”. Three statements showed unusual results: most participants claimed that in online teaching it was important that their future pupils be able to get the most out of themselves and that their pupils would be able to ask questions during the online lesson. Just over half claimed that online learning will prepare their pupils for the job market in terms of 21st-century skills.

These initial findings indicate a gap between the learning experience and the readiness to teach online in the future. Online teaching and learning has undergone a significant change this past year, but despite the difficulties reported, students recognize the importance of this transition for the future.

Keywords:

Willingness to engage in online learning, Readiness to engage in future online teaching.