Practically every academic institution and official body that is involved in the preparation of teachers of every educational grade and orientation regarding didactic practice in class, has included “Microteaching” in its academic curriculum as a basic subject. However, what is the attitude of students themselves towards this subject? What are their expectations? Does it eventually meet these expectations? What kind of knowledge and skills does it provide them with? This current research attempts to give insight to such queries, as it aims at researching the views of 115 student teachers on the subject “Microteaching”. These views have been documented in short texts that students were asked to produce both in the beginning of the academic semester-after receiving initial information – and in its end - after their training was completed. This study makes use of a double perspective: it focuses on the one hand on their expectations from this subject, while on the other on their critical overall assessment, in order to formulate a thorough and rounded picture regarding the subject “Microteaching” through the viewpoint of the students who are trained in it.

No abstract

The suspension of the educational process imposed in all educational levels in many countries due to the rapid spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, together with the need for access to safe teaching, imposed an emergency and massive turn towards online education. This new condition came as a surprise to teachers, who were obliged to use new technologies for the design and the implementation of their teaching, as well as for the communication with and support to their students, changing thus not only the manner of teaching and learning but also the roles they were asked to respond to. The present paper, using semi-structured interview as a tool, studies the views of ten Greek teachers of primary education regarding their role in remote education in the emergency caused by this pandemic, the skills that helped them respond to these roles, the obstacles but also the assistance they encountered in their efforts. The research findings demonstrate that the teachers, with their patience and their persistence, utilized the limited knowledge they had and the ex post facto-acquired training they received, and - in cooperation with students, parents, but, above all, colleagues – made an effort to respond to the various roles they were asked to play.