Training physics teachers for effective online lessons: A virtual school experience

We report about a project called “Virtual School”, developed in 2022 within a collaboration between the University of Padua in Italy and Monash University in Australia. The project involved preservice STEM teachers in the design and implementation of online lessons for secondary school students. The twofold goal was to enhance the range of training options for preservice teachers while also reducing educational disadvantage among students. In this paper we discuss the design and development of the Italian side of the project, aligned with the already existing Monash experience, although tailored for the Italian context. A group of eight preservice teachers were involved in a digital community of practice, assisted by staff from both universities and by teacher tutors from two secondary schools. Divided into two subgroups, the participants co-developed and co-taught a cycle of eight classes for each secondary school (summer revision course). To better understand the role of the Virtual School in initial teacher training, preservice teachers were involved in pre-post semi-structured online interviews designed to explore their perceptions of the different roles and competencies of online teachers. The interviews were analyzed according to the Epistemic Frame Theory. The results suggest a significant change in the group’s epistemic frames in terms of a more articulated view of the teachers’ profession, open to collaboration and innovation.