When the Cheese Moves: How Arab and Jewish Education Students Perceive the Transition to Distance Practical Teaching During the Covid-19 Crisis

The goal of the current study was to examine teaching students' positions and perceptions regarding the transition to an online format for practical teaching during Covid-19, and whether differences exist between Jewish and Arab students' positions. The study also examines teaching students' technological and pedagogical self-efficacies for distance teaching and the extent of differences between the Arab and Jewish students' self-efficacies. In addition, the study examined which background and personality variables predict positions and perceptions. The findings are based on a questionnaire completed by 279 Arab and Jewish teaching students from two Israeli teacher education colleges that transitioned to online practical teaching as a result of the Covid-19 crisis. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted to gain a deeper understanding of the questionnaire findings and to expand on topics not referred to in the questionnaire. The study reveals that teaching students accept the importance of the distance teaching experience during training in order to prepare them for the changing reality. Nevertheless, this cannot fully replace field experience because of the need for support and the limited ability to learn from the distance experience about face-to-face teaching.