Curricular adaptations and impacts of COVID-19 in the Pedagogy Practicum of the University of Barcelona: Satisfaction and learning during the pandemic

Abstract

This study explores the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on the performance of external internships for the Pedagogy degree at the University of Barcelona. By means of 3 questionnaires, as quantitative techniques for collecting and analyzing information, a sample of 192 students, 167 tutors from the internship centers and 27 teachers from the University of Barcelona was obtained. The aim of this study was to answer two main questions: a) Did the measures applied as a result of the  COVID-19 lockdown affect the students’ perception of the quality of external internships?; and b) Did the public health crisis have any effects on learning? The results of the study show that the evaluations of the external practicums of those students who were affected by the lockdown are not very different from the evaluations of the students who completed the external internships with no pandemic impact, and the minor differences followed a positive trend in the group of students affected by the lockdown. Both groups of students (affected and unaffected) gave very high ratings to each of the items in the questionnaires, and they also received very positive evaluations from their professors. These results reflect the students’ efforts,  the coordination of the internship centers, the efforts of the teaching staff to accompany the students throughout the months of uncertainty, and the efficiency of the model of external internships applied in the Pedagogy degree studies at the University of Barcelona.

Keywords: COVID-19, practicum, pedagogy, learning outcomes, virtual teaching.