Enhancing student teachers’ motivation and well-being: A teacher educator’s journey into online course intervention

ABSTRACT Given the difficult and unforeseen circumstances due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to transition from face-to-face instruction to digital instruction. This paper provides a teacher educator’s autoethnographic account of implementing the pedagogical intervention of digital learning and student teachers’ reactions to its effects on their motivation and well-being. More precisely, it attempts to explore (1) student teachers’ perceptions of the effect of digital learning on their motivation and well-being in teacher education, (2) their understanding of active learning, (3) their preferred format of teacher training courses both in normal and emergent circumstances, and (4) the instructor’s perceived efficacy of digital learning on teacher education courses. The participants were one instructor (the author) and nine third-year university students taking an English Language Teaching Methodology course, which is a requirement for obtaining a license to teach English at secondary schools in Japan. I conducted a closed and open-ended questionnaire as well as a follow-up questionnaire survey and the instructor’s observation. The findings confirmed the benefits of online lessons on student teachers’ motivation and their sense of well-being (physical and psychological), suggesting the necessity of carefully selecting the instruction format that meets course objectives.