چكيده به لاتين
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for the online teaching and learning has increased, requiring the teacher educators to provide the pre-service teachers with the instruction on the theories, methods, and strategies of online teaching. Online classroom management is one of the key aspects of online teaching about which the pre-service teachers should receive adequate training. The study thus investigated (a) the pre-service teachers' strategy use in managing online classes of young learners in terms of six categories of time, interaction, assessment, behavior, instruction, and content; (b) the extent to which their practice matched their beliefs about their strategy use; and (c) their strengths and weaknesses in the online classroom management. To collect the required data, the teaching practices of 26 pre-service teachers who were MA students of TEFL at the Iran University of Science and Technology were observed and then rated according to the 40 strategies defined in the rating scale. The student teachers were then asked to rate their own online teaching, and their scores were compared with those of the observers. Having submitted their rating, each participant took part in an online semi-structured interview to answer the three questions about their strategy use, strengths, and weaknesses in managing their online class in the Adobe Connect. The results revealed that the student teachers used time management more than the other categories in their practice and that the majority of whom overrated their strategy use. The results also indicated that their strengths in using the components of classroom management could be hierarchically ranked as time, interaction, content, instruction, behavior, and assessment. With regard to their weaknesses, assessment was found as the weakest component. This study can help the teacher educators to offer the pre-service teachers an appropriate instruction on their challenges of managing online classes of young learners.
