Examining pre-service teachers’ cognitive conditions and how this shapes their cognitive operations and metacognitive adaptations during emergency online practice teaching (PT)

Abstract

This descriptive qualitative study examined pre-service teachers’ cognitive conditions, cognitive operations, and metacognitive adaptations during emergency online practice teaching. It further examined the intricate interplay between these components. Using pre- and post-open-ended questions and weekly reflections, qualitative methods were employed to examine participants’ cognitive conditions and processes in detail. The findings uncovered a cognitive paradox: pre-service teachers exhibited less sophisticated beliefs, negative emotions, low self-efficacy, and limited task knowledge while simultaneously holding high outcome expectations and mastery goals. Their cognitive operations revealed a similar cognitive paradox, highlighting the tension between the desired outcomes and the processes employed to attain them. They used both primitive and acquired cognitive operations. Their primitive cognitive operations were predominantly characterized by monitoring and assembling, whereas the acquired processes involved seeking and using feedback and observing. Like cognitive operations, their metacognitive adaptations were reactive and superficial, mainly focused on error identification and rectification. Although their cognitive and metacognitive engagement evolved with time, the presence of simultaneous paradoxical elements accentuates the complexity of the interplay between pre-service teachers’ cognitive conditions, cognitive operations, and metacognitive adaptations, making it a non-linear, complex, and multi-dimensional process driven by contradictory forces. These findings have important implications for teacher education programs, suggesting tailored interventions and support mechanisms.