Teacher Learning in a Virtual Field Experience

Abstract

This study aims to explore how teaching assistants (TAs) respond to students’ written texts through a virtual field experience. Five prospective teachers served as TAs to revise 20 college student writers’ texts in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context in an online virtual field experience. This study draws on the notions of hard and soft scaffolds to conceptualize the way TAs provide and reflect on their written support. It was found that TAs’ preconceptions of effective scaffolding in text revision were challenged and reexamined. An online virtual field experience nurtured teacher learning with efficient support.