Challenges in the Implementation of Students’ Professional Practicum in a Virtual Environment

The coronavirus pandemic has introduced a new discourse into the reflections on the teaching process. Teaching shifted from a real-life environment to a virtual one, and teachers at all levels of education were faced with new challenges that depended largely on teachers’ digital skills, but also on their creativity and ingenuity. Professional practicum, as an integral part of the teaching process in higher education, proved to be a particularly challenging problem. The aim of the research presented here is to investigate teachers’ attitudes and experiences regarding students’ professional practicum in a virtual environment and to provide guidelines for organizing and conducting the professional practicum in a virtual environment in order to improve it. Using a questionnaire containing closed-ended and open-ended questions, 80 teachers involved in the implementation of students’ professional practicum in a virtual environment were interviewed. The results of the research show that teachers in all surveyed segments prioritize a professional practicum in a real-life environment (communication, “transfer” of competences, dynamism, assessment of learning outcomes, methodological pluralism$\ldots$), and although they do see several advantages of online learning, they believe that the professional practicum should be carried out in a real-life environment. The main disadvantage is the impossibility of face-to-face interaction, the incomplete experience of teaching as a complete process combining cognitive, affective, and psychomotor aspects of personality, and the impossibility of following non-verbal communication and elements of the hidden curriculum.