Student Teachers’ Experiences in an Emergency Remote Microteaching Course: Lessons Learned for the COVID-19 Era and Beyond

Emergency remote Microteaching Initial teacher education COVID-19 This case study, within the qualitative research paradigm, aimed to focus on the student teachers’ experiences in an emergency remote microteaching course that was offered as an undergraduate course at a university in Northern Cyprus during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The qualitative data, that were gathered from 10 volunteering student teachers through written feedback forms and semi-structured interviews, revealed that the student teachers improved their instructional knowledge and skills. They also stated that they developed self-awareness on their teaching skills. However, the data also indicated that the student teachers felt lost, overwhelmed, and disappointed during this emergency remote microteaching course. The lack of interaction during synchronous lessons, problems and shortages concerning digital devices and skills, and the lack of appropriate learning environments for remote learning led the student teachers to feel lost. Also, the demanding nature of the course with a high number of assignments, as well as its focus on course completion, proved to be overwhelming for the student teachers. Additionally, the data indicated that the lack of authenticity in learning practices and the mismatch between the student teachers’ pre-COVID expectations from the course and the realities of emergency remote education led to disappointment. The study suggests improvements, and recommends further research on remote microteaching courses in initial teacher education. Article Info: Received Accepted Published : 30-09-2021 : 07-05-2022 : 18-06-2022


Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns across the world had tremendous effects on education, particularly during the first wave of the pandemic. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) report (2020), more than 1.58 billion learners in 192 countries have been affected by school and university closures. The report prepared by the Economist (2020) on the effects of the pandemic on higher education confirmed that this global-scale crisis has pushed educators to digital learning platforms, often prematurely without sufficient preparation for remote teaching.
Like many higher education institutions, the University where this study took place had to go through the spring term of the 2019-2020 academic year. In this period, the University managed to switch all of its education to emergency remote education in about ten days after the complete lockdown of the country in March 2020. This was a significant challenge for many, particularly for students and educators. The undergraduate course that is entitled 'Microteaching' was offered to sophomore year student teachers in the spring semester of the 2019-2020 academic year. This course was an elective course in the Faculty of Education's English Language Teaching (ELT). The pre-COVID-19 version of the course included microteaching practice during the course tutorials and in authentic settings in the language classrooms of the University. The course also involved authentic classroom observations. However, due to the sudden lockdown and the total closure of the University campus, like all the other courses, this course was shifted to a digital platform. Consequently, in this period, the University hierarchy decided that all the remote courses had to maintain their original pre-COVID course objectives, course structure, assessment, and evaluation procedures without making substantial changes.
Microteaching is a form of teaching that lasts between 5 to 20 minutes, in which student teachers practice their teaching skills, improve classroom performance and experiment with innovative teaching ideas in safe environments. Essentially, it is "… a system of controlled practice that makes it possible to focus on specific teaching behaviors and to practice teaching under controlled conditions" (Allen & Eve, 1968, p. 181). It is true that microteaching is not an authentic act of teaching and that it cannot replace actual teaching in real classrooms (Shi, 2020;Wallace, 1991). Nevertheless, it is a highly beneficial learning process as it provides a worthwhile opportunity for prospective teachers to teach, learn and develop themselves (Kleinfled & Noordhoff, 1988;1990, as cited in Hatton & Smith, 1995). Furthermore, microteaching provides valuable practices such as close supervision, immediate guidance, diagnostic feedback, and self-evaluation (Allen & Eve, 1968).
Recording microteaching, which is accepted as part of the microteaching process, allows opportunities for teacher candidates to observe, analyze, and reflect on their teaching (Wallace, 1991); therefore, it helps to progress their instructional skills (Kpanja, 2001). Reflection on recorded microteaching is regarded as a valuable strategy to encourage collaborative inquiry among prospective teachers (Weiss & Weiss, 2001). Watching and reflecting on self-teaching and on peers' teaching help to create a collaborative learning environment for prospective teachers (Taggart & Wilson, 2005). An empirical study revealed that observing own recorded teaching and engaging in dialogue enabled student teachers to improve their reflection on their teaching practice and to become aware of their professional skills and competences (Kuter, Gazi, & Aksal, 2012). Teachers' reflective learning stimulates their engagement in professional learning and the development of teacher competences that includes pedagogical knowledge, skills, and attitudes (Caena, 2013). In addition to reflection on own teaching, in teacher education, video excerpts are also used to enable student teachers to observe others' teaching and to engage in reflective dialogue with peers (Bampfield, Lubelska, & Matthews, 1997).
Engagement in collaborative inquiry, which is the key in reflective practice, is regarded as a process of transformation, in which student teachers evaluate and reconstruct their conception of instruction (Miller, 1990, as cited in Sanal-Erginel, 2009. Dialogue with competent friends as in Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (ZPD) maximizes growth (Yost, Sentner, & Forlenza-Bailey, 2000). An empirical study revealed that involvement in continuous selfreflection enabled student teachers to develop self-awareness towards their teaching styles and to understand their preferences in teaching (Sanal-Erginel, 2009). Self-inquiry and selfawareness as part of the dialogic process empower students to look critically and to become conscious of their personal and social reality about their teaching competences. This enables them to overcome their ignorance and dependence so that they could break the "culture of silence" (Freire, 2005, p. 30). However, during the emergency remote education in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the collaborative and dialogic learning environment has been affected. A recent study on an online practicum course revealed that the teacher educators in this period helped student teachers to learn "about practice" rather than "in practice" while emphasizing the absence of reflective learning in this process (Kidd & Murray, 2020, p. 552).
Darling-Hammond and Hyler (2020) explained that, in the first wave of the pandemic, more was needed to meet the students' academic and social-emotional needs and prepare them for unpredictable learning conditions. This was confirmed by another study on prospective teachers saying that the student teachers were struggling with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity that occurred due to the pandemic conditions (Hadar, Ergas, Alpert, & Ariav, 2020). This study highlighted the need for social-emotional preparation of future teachers. Another study  emphasized that during the crisis period, the teacher education curriculum needed to be responsive and dynamic to meet student teachers' well-being and social-emotional needs. Similarly, Bozkurt and Sharma (2020) urged educators to prioritize building emotional support mechanisms instead of focusing on the course content completion in this period. Flores and Gago (2020) explained that the transition from face-to-face to online education during the COVID-19 lockdown period was sudden and unexpected. They stated that the biggest challenge in initial teacher education was experienced in practice-based courses. White and Mcsharry's (2021) empirical study confirmed that the transition to remote education in initial teacher education created challenges for student teachers in their school placements. Rice and Deschaine (2020) also agreed that the shift from traditional teacher education to remote was not straightforward. They argued that this type of transformation required substantial pedagogical alterations in instructional design and delivery. Also, it was emphasized that gaining digital competences were crucial in adapting to online teaching (Flores & Swennen, 2020). Bozkurt and Sharma (2020) warned that the COVID-19 era version of online education, particularly in the first wave of the pandemic, should be considered separately from distant education. Accordingly, these scholars referred to this particular period of online teaching that emerged during the first wave of the COVID-19 as "emergency remote teaching" (p. i), which is mainly a rushed solution to meet the immediate needs without time to prepare.
During the emergency remote education that took place in this period, the digital divide among students has become more visible (Blackenberger & Williams, 2020;Bozkurt & Sharma, 2020;Flores & Gago, 2020). Educational inequalities due to disparities in access to technology seem to play a significant role in this divide (la Velle, Newman, Montgomery, & Hyatt, 2020). A recent research paper that analyzed numerous studies on emergency remote education found that the digital divide was one of the major areas that created challenges in education in this period (Sezgin, 2021). Bozkurt and Sharma (2020) also stated that the digital divide was a threat affecting access to education in the pandemic period.
This paper aims to shed light on the experiences of a group of student teachers who took a course entitled 'Microteaching' during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the study focuses on what student teachers went through during this course, which was adapted from face-to-face to emergency remote education due to the pandemic conditions. The research question that guided this study is the following: What did the student teachers experience in the emergency remote microteaching course that was offered during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic?
This research is valuable as it aimed to shed light on what a group of student teachers experienced in an emergency remote microteaching course in the context of Northern Cyprus. In this period, Flores and Swennen (2020) encouraged research in initial teacher education to explore how teacher education handled the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. They underlined that empirical research that focused on this period could support innovation and improvement of traditional and online teacher education. Consequently, although the study is limited to its context, the findings could be helpful in similar situations and challenges in the COVID-19 pandemic period and beyond.

Research Design
This is a case study, within the qualitative research paradigm, that aimed to portray what student teachers experienced in an emergency remote microteaching course within a timeframe. In qualitative research, perceptions of local actors are captured "… 'from the inside', through a process of deep attentiveness, of empathetic understanding…" (Miles & Huberman, 1994, p.6). A case, within the qualitative paradigm, is a complex phenomenon that includes real and constructed elements that are in connection with the environments surrounding them (Byrne & Callaghan, 2014, as cited in Schwandt & Gates, 2018. Miles and Huberman stated that in case studies, "the emphasis is on a specific case, a focused and bounded phenomenon embedded in its context" (1994, p.10). They considered the collected data to be locally grounded since it is collected in close proximity to the specific situation. In case studies, indepth data is obtained through multiple methods of inquiry such as interviews, document analysis, and observations to make meaning of the situation within its context (Bogdan & Biklen, 1998;Marshall & Rossman, 1999;Patton, 1987;Robson 2002;Schwandt & Gates, 2014). Ragin (1992) clarified that a case could be an object, a person, or an event. Accordingly, "casing" is a research operation that includes linking theory to evidence (as cited in Schwandt & Gates,p.602). In this research paper, the phenomenon of interest, i.e., the case, is the student teachers' experiences in an emergency remote microteaching course that was transformed into the digital platform in the lockdown period.

Research Context
The current study focuses on a group of student teachers who took an undergraduate course entitled 'Microteaching' as part of their initial teacher education during the lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Spring of 2019-2020 academic year. The course was offered as an elective course as part of the English Language Teaching (ELT) program in the Faculty of Education of the University that is located in Northern Cyprus.
In the emergency remote education process, all the coursework was transferred to the University's digital learning management system (LMS), which was Moodle in this case. The 'Big Blue Button' (BBB) program, which was integrated into LMS, facilitated online live lessons that allowed synchronous lessons to be recorded for asynchronous access. The students' access to synchronous lessons was through the 'viewer' mode by default. Interaction between the course instructor and the students took place via the integrated written chat mode. Besides the online synchronous lessons, LMS could accommodate access to all the course materials and assessment procedures. When all the courses were shifted to the online platform, it was requested by the University administration that the courses should be provided in two major paths: a) synchronous path, which was mainly live online lessons lasting about 50 to 60 minutes; and b) asynchronous path that included all the work to be completed outside the synchronous lessons. Originally, the course was scheduled two hours per week with 3 ECTS and with no prerequisite courses. Initially, the course was envisaged to combine theory with practice through microteaching and observations to be conducted in tutorials and real language classrooms. Also, it was aimed to build on the student teachers' knowledge in language teaching.
As illustrated in the Figure 1, the emergency remote microteaching course involved four major phases: pedagogical input, observations and assignments, microteaching, and course assessment.
Pedagogical input was provided before the online live lessons asynchronously via reading materials and other multimedia on LMS. During the course, synchronously, the course instructor provided a short introduction on the weekly topic with reference to these reading materials. The authentic classroom observations, which were originally envisaged to be conducted in language classrooms of the School of Foreign Language (SFL) of the University, were replaced by video excerpts that were openly available on the world wide web. These excerpts, which lasted between 10 to 30 minutes, were selected by the course instructor based on their lesson structure (presentation-practice-production format) and their language teaching methodology (communicative language teaching -CLT). They were used as part of synchronous lessons as well as observation assignments to be completed asynchronously. During the course, the first round of observation was done synchronously. This was followed by completing an assignment asynchronously, which focused on drafting the lesson plan of the teaching video. To do this, the student teachers used a lesson plan template containing presentation, practice, and production format given to them in advance. They were requested to upload their assignments onto LMS within a given deadline for instructor feedback. Once the instructor provided feedback, the student teachers were requested to revise their lesson plans accordingly. The same excerpt was analyzed during the subsequent synchronous lesson. While doing so, the teaching video was paused several times to allow the student teachers to share their opinion on their observations in the chat mode and to verify their lesson plans.
Based on the language teaching skill that was covered in the synchronous lessons, observations, and assignments, the student teachers received a microteaching task with detailed instructions on LMS. The instructions were also clarified in the synchronous lessons. Afterward, the student teachers worked individually to prepare the first draft of their lesson plans and uploaded it on LMS. After the course instructor's feedback, the lesson plans were revised and if necessary, another feedback was received from the instructor. When the lesson plan was ready, the student teachers did their microteaching individually. While doing so, they self-recorded themselves using their smartphones. After recording, as part of their microteaching task, they self-observed their teaching and wrote a self-reflection report using the guiding questions. At first, the student teachers uploaded their microteaching videos on the university's shared drive so that they could share their experience with the course instructor and with their peers to facilitate peer-observations. However, as the course progressed, a YouTube channel was opened by the course instructor for easier upload and access to the microteaching videos.
As for the assessment procedures, the course included both continuous assessment and mid-term and final assessment procedures as requested by the University administration. Accordingly, all the assignments and microteaching practices were part of the assessment, each one bearing a value as stated in the original course description. The mid-term and final exams were conducted synchronously. Both of these exams were individualized exams aiming to avoid cheating and plagiarism during the online examinations. In these exams, similar to the observations, the student teachers were given a teaching video excerpt and they were asked to draft a lesson plan, and they were also asked to devise their lesson plan based on a given task.

Participants
In this study, purposive sampling method was employed, as the focus was on the experiences of a group of student teachers who took a course entitled 'Microteaching' as emergency remote education in the first wave of the pandemic. Purposive sampling strategy, which refers to an intentional choice of participants, allows the selection of information-rich cases, due to their qualities and experiences, which are important for research purpose (Patton, 1990).
In this case, the research participants were selected based on the purpose of the study, and due to their unique experiences regarding the research question. The purposive sampling method enabled to access information-rich student teachers who were undergoing experiences during the emergency remote microteaching course in the first wave of the pandemic.
The total number of the student teachers who took the course was 13; and the total number of the student teachers who volunteered to participate in the study was 10. The table below provides information about these participants.

Data Collection Instruments
In this study, data was collected through a written feedback form, and a semi-structured interview guide. While designing the data collection instruments, immense importance was given to ensure validity and reliability. Validity and reliability are considered vital for a trustworthy study which could lead to reliable findings (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Henceforth, the following steps were taken to contribute to trustworthiness of the study: The feedback form was prepared taking into account the course components (microteaching, pedagogical input, observations, assignments, feedback, and assessment) and the implementation process so that the student teachers could provide detailed information about their experiences and express their feelings about the process. Similarly, the semi-structured interview guide was designed considering the student teachers' experiences and feelings throughout the course process. Both of these instruments were pilot tested for clarity with volunteer student teachers.
The feedback form contained two sections: The first section included five questions that aimed to seek information on the student teachers' learning context -where they were living (home or dormitory), which country they were connecting from, the electronic device they were using to connect to the lessons, and if they had an internet connection and how fast it was. The second part of the student feedback form focused on the course, its components, structure, and its implementation. This section contained 22 open-ended questions. The semistructured interview guide contained four open-ended questions and sub-questions on student teachers' feelings, opinions, and suggestions on the course.

Ethical Approval
The researcher obtained ethical approval from the Ethical Committee of the University, in which this research was conducted. Based on this, the researcher informed the course participants on the details of this study both in writing and orally. The course participants were informed that participation was voluntary; nonparticipation would not affect their success in the course, and that their responses would be used only for research purposes. Those willing to participate signed a written consent form for the feedback form and the interview separately. The consent form openly explained the purpose and ethical agreement underlining that those who volunteered could withdraw from the study at any moment. During the analysis and the reporting stages, the participants' names were omitted and replaced with a code for anonymity and confidentiality purposes.
This study is limited to the student teachers who volunteered to participate in this study and to their experiences in an emergency remote microteaching course in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Northern Cyprus context.

Data Collection Process
Once the ethical approval was received from the Ethical Committee, data collection was carried out over a sustained period. Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña (2014) stated that the fact that qualitative data is collected over a "sustained period makes them powerful for studying process (including history)" (p.30). Before the collection of the data, the student teachers were informed that the written feedback form was uploaded on LMS, and that those who volunteered to complete it needed to sign the written consent form. Those who signed the consent form completed the written feedback form and uploaded it on the system. A similar process was carried out for the interviews as well. At the end of the course, the student teachers were informed that interviews were to be conducted with volunteers. Those who volunteered signed a consent form allowing the researcher to audio-record the interview for the research purpose. In addition, at the beginning of the interview, the researcher read out loud the research purpose and how the data was to be used. All the interviews were conducted in the English language.
Although the total number of the student teachers who volunteered to participate in the study was 10, this number varied per data collection instrument. That is to say, written feedback form was completed by eight, and interviews were carried out with seven volunteering student teachers. As participation was based on voluntary basis, the student teachers' decision to whether or not to complete the written feedback form or attend the interview was not interfered based on ethical considerations.
The written feedback forms were available on LMS for their voluntary completion. Those who volunteered to complete the form uploaded their completed responses on LMS. The interviews were scheduled in advance and all were done online, each taking around 20 minutes. Five of the interviews were conducted individually. Additionally, one interview was done as a focus group interview including two student teachers. Both of the students in the focus group had no other time available for them to participate in the interview so they were scheduled to be interviewed together at the same time. This could be regarded as a limitation in this study as most interviews were conducted individually. However, focus group interview method is regarded as an effective technique in obtaining rich data on the participants' experiences (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2005); and group interviews are regarded appropriate in cases where a homogenous group of participants is involved in a study (Patton, 1990).

Data Analysis
The qualitative data that was obtained through the feedback form and interviews were analyzed using the content analysis that "… aims at describing, with optimum objectivity, precision, and generality, what is said on a given subject in a given place at a given time" (Lasswell et al., 1952, as cited in Macnamara, 2018. Miles et al. (2014) described this process as the analysis of words that "… can be assembled, subclustered, or broken into segments. They can be reorganized to permit the researcher to compare, contrast, analyze, and construct patterns out of them" (p.28).
In this study, prior to the data analysis, the researcher transcribed the interviews. While doing so, the participants' names were omitted; and each participant was given a code as ST (as in a student teacher). Therefore, while reporting, 'ST1FF' referred to 'ST' as student teacher, '1' as the number given to the student teacher during the analysis, and 'FF' for the 'feedback form' which was the data collection instrument; and ST1Int -'ST' and '1' as explained earlier, and 'Int' for the 'Interview', which was the data collection instrument.
During the data analysis, firstly, the data were read several times and organized as negative and positive experiences and feelings. At this stage of the analysis, the data from the feedback form and the interviews were analyzed separately using the same method. Next, the analysis of the data from the feedback form and the interviews were merged and combined into one matrix. This was followed by a further reading and rereading to construct the interpreted meaning of the data. In this process, coding continued for extensive detailing to indicate interrelationships (Miles et al., 2014).
Next, a further coding was conducted as pattern coding to gather the associated codes and sub-codes under broader thematic categories which reflected relations among these codes (Miles et al., 2014;Patton, 2002;Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2005). This phase was followed by the verification of the categories and codes against the raw data. The thematic categories that reflect the student teachers' experiences are displayed in Table 2 and Table 3 in the following section on the results of the study. This analysis was reported below using a narrative description that is supported by direct quotations from the student teachers, to allow their voices to be heard directly, and also to enable the reader to have direct access to the original raw data.
During the research process, the following methods were employed to enhance the trustworthiness of the study: Reflexive journal, peer-debriefing, and critical friend (Erlandson, Harris, Skipper, & Allen, 1993;Miles et al., 2014;Sparkes & Smith, 2014, as cited in McGannon, Smith, Kendellen, & Gonslaves, 2019. Throughout the study, the researcher, who was the instructor of the microteaching course, kept a regular reflexive journal in which she recorded the study process, the steps that she took throughout the course, and her methodological decisions. These journals were incorporated in the peer debriefing process. The peer was a competent teacher educator and researcher outside this study context. As part of this process, the peer debriefer asked inquisitive questions, 'played devil's advocate' (Erlandson et al.,p.140), and questioned the researcher for her analysis and interpretation. This process is considered valuable since it could allow the researchers to release any frustration or emotions that could overshadow the research. Additionally, the debriefer acted as a critical friend who read the whole study report along with the raw data which enabled her to cross-check the findings. This was followed by engagement in a critical dialogue on the analysis process, understandings, and interpretations. Miles et al. (2014) stated that engaging a critical friend who could respond to the research work could compensate for the problem of working alone, which is often the case in qualitative research.

Results
This study aimed to find out about the student teachers' experiences in the process of an emergency remote microteaching course during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the study revealed that the student teachers improved their instructional knowledge and skills, and they developed self-awareness, as part of their pedagogical experiences during the emergency remote microteaching course. Also, the data indicated that the student teachers experienced emotional difficulties in this process. Accordingly, they felt lost, overwhelmed, and disappointed in this process of emergency remote microteaching course. The below section reports and elaborates on these research findings.

Experiences at Pedagogical Dimension
As displayed in the Table 2, the research findings revealed that the student teachers developed their instructional knowledge and skills, and improved their self-awareness towards their strengths and weaknesses in teaching through engaging in various tasks and activities in the course.

Development of Instructional Knowledge and Skills
As part of the experiences within the pedagogical dimension, many student teachers (ST2FF, ST3FF, ST5FF, ST2Int, ST4Int, ST5Int, ST9Int ST10Int), both in the feedback forms and in the interviews, explained that in this course process, they developed their instructional competences as future teachers. This included gaining more knowledge and skills on selecting effective teaching tasks and activities, writing learning objectives, and designing lesson plans. The student teachers underlined that practicing microteaching has been effective in helping them gain more teaching competences. For example, one student teacher said "At the beginning, I had no idea of classroom control, I had no idea of lesson plans or methods; but now, I believe I can do everything in my class…" (ST5Int).
Some of the student teachers (ST4FFF, ST8FF, ST3FF) stated that the pedagogical input that was provided as background reading also helped them gain more knowledge and skills on classroom instruction. Several of them (ST4Int, STFF7, ST3Int, ST2Int) viewed that these reading materials were well-structured which provided easy access on the LMS. For example, one student said "I am happy with the whole materials on LMS …. There are good reading materials which can support our knowledge about the course and its context" (ST7FF).
Several student teachers (STFF2, ST3FF, ST4FF, ST5FF, ST7FF, ST8FF, ST9Int, ST2Int, STInt3, ST5Int, ST10Int), both in the feedback form and in the interviews, stated that they developed their instructional knowledge and skills through observation of the teaching video excerpts and by drafting the lesson plans of these videos. For example, one of the student teachers (ST2FF) explained "Under these conditions, I think this method that we use currently is a very suitable and effective way for us. Video observations and analysis are the most important parts of our lesson for me". Some students (ST3FF, ST8FF, ST9Int, ST3Int) also considered that the video excerpts were accessible as they could watch them multiple times, unlike in real-time classroom observations which happen in real-time. Also, some student teachers (ST1FF, ST3FF, ST5FF, ST10Int) thought that observing peers helped them to learn from friends and develop their instructional knowledge.
Furthermore, the data from the interviews revealed that some student teachers (ST2Int, ST3Int, ST10Int) considered that they gained new knowledge and skills through regular and detailed feedback from the course instructor. Many of them (ST3FF, ST4FF, ST7FF, ST2Int, STInt3Int), both in the form and in the interview, mentioned that drafting lesson plans and receiving feedback on the lesson plans also helped them to learn.

Development of Self-awareness
Within the experiences at pedagogical dimension, the data that was obtained from the feedback forms and the interviews indicated that many student teachers (ST5FF, ST7FF, ST8FF, ST5Int, ST2Int, ST3Int, ST9Int) felt that they developed self-awareness in this process through self-reflection, which was part of the microteaching process. It was mentioned by several students (ST2FF, ST3FF, ST5FF, ST7FF, ST8FF) in the feedback forms that they became aware of their strong and weak points in teaching through self-reflection. Having said this, some (ST1Int, ST2Int, ST9Int) demanded more direct guidance for self-awareness. For example, one student teacher (ST9Int) explained "… I learn when you give feedback because you are the expert …. if I watch myself again without your feedback, I just see what I know. It would be better if you give feedback and then we watch it".

Experiences at Emotional Dimension
In addition to the experiences at pedagogical level, the student teachers underwent experiences that were categorized as emotional dimension. As displayed in the Table 3, they felt lost, overwhelmed, and disappointed in this emergency remote education process. This is explained below in detail.

Feeling Lost
As part of the emotional experiences, several student teachers (ST1Int, ST3Int, ST4Int, ST9Int) expressed that they felt lost especially at the beginning of the course. Some (ST1Int, ST3Int) felt that they were not heard, seen, or cared for due to the limited opportunity for interaction during the synchronous lessons as their access to these lessons was restricted; they could only attend the lesson as 'viewers'. One student teacher (ST3Int) explained "Sometimes mimics can make a difference. We can't do that because we cannot see each other. It affects our connection and communication… If we could see each other, we would be able to join the lesson more willingly".
Many student teachers (ST1FF, ST4FF, ST5FF, ST6FF, ST7FF, ST8FF, ST1Int, STInt2, ST9Int, ST10Int), both in the feedback form and in the interviews, explained that they felt lost and thought that online course was a disadvantage. They explained that due to technological problems such as slow, irregular, or no internet connection their access to the lessons was affected. Some of the student teachers reported interruptions due to slow or distorted internet connection during online lessons or assignment completions. For example, one student teacher (ST1FF) explained "Recording video is the hardest part. To be honest, I don't want to record and upload a video because it is really hard for me since my internet connection is too bad".
Also, some student teachers did not have the appropriate technological devices, and some stated that they had difficulties as they did not have adequate digital competences. For example, a student (ST1Int) expressed "Most of the time I feel lost because I am not effective in technological stuff; so sometimes, I was not even able to find the class online to attend it." Another student teacher (ST6FF) who lived in a village and who only had a smartphone to connect with irregular access to the internet voiced his frustration about his problems in accessing remote education in this period: … the conditions of every student are not the same. Somebody else from the class is more advantageous than me while doing homework or taking the exam…. In my opinion, teachers have to behave equally to everyone. Students do not have the same opportunities…. It is unfair.
Also, the results obtained through the feedback forms and the interviews showed that many of the student teachers (ST1FF, ST4FF, ST1Int, ST3Int, ST10Int) felt lost due to their additional obligations and responsibilities in their home environment, such as helping with chores or helping at the family store during the lockdown.
Another challenge was that some student teachers (ST1Int, ST3Int, ST9Int, ST10Int) did not have an appropriate learning environment at home for remote learning saying that this affected their concentration on the course, therefore, on their learning. For example, one student (ST3Int) reported: Sometimes I cannot focus on the lesson. I have a lot of noise around me. But if I focus, I can get 100 percent advantage or benefit from the lessons and this lesson especially. It's my only down point I must say. If I had a study room or a quiet environment it would be much better for me.

Feeling Overwhelmed
As part of the experiences at emotional level, the data analysis revealed that many of the student teachers felt overwhelmed during the course. Several of them (ST3FF, ST5FF, ST8FF, ST1Int, ST4Int, ST5Int, ST10Int) were stressed due to the demanding nature of the course, particularly concerning the number of assignments. For example, one student teacher thought that the course was overwhelming because it was online believing that if it was face-to-face most work would have been covered during the tutorials instead of getting assignments. She said, "If we were in the actual classroom, then we could have done verbal reflection in the classroom, but at the moment, it is not possible so we have to write assignments" (ST3FF).
In addition, some students (ST4FF, ST7FF, ST8FF) felt anxious while teaching, recording and uploading teaching videos, as they thought that they did not have the necessary digital skills, or as they experienced technological problems. For example, a student (ST7FF), despite that he was known in the group for his advanced digital competences, explained that he was stressed because of the problems related to technology. He recalled his experience of recording, and uploading microteaching on the shared drive was "… a really stressful process since it was very troublesome. I have faced several difficulties..." (ST7FF).
Furthermore, student teachers (ST6FF, ST8FF, ST10FF) explained that they were overwhelmed as they thought the course expectations were prioritized over their needs in this period. They explained that there was a need of receiving care from the course instructor during this particular time of the pandemic. One student teacher (ST6FF) criticized that in this period people's lives and feelings were more important than completing the course content. The students thought that the course instructor should divert her attention from the course assignments and course completion to the actual pandemic conditions and their emerging needs of care. For example, one (ST8FF) said "You don't have to give very difficult assignments and lessons because it is an online course. We are in the pandemic …. We are having a hard time doing these assignments." Another student (ST10Int) explained that he was having sleeping problems as he was worried, he could catch the COVID-19 virus. He further explained that he was suffering psychologically as he was worried about the elderly in his family.

Feeling Disappointed
Within the experiences at emotional dimension, the data analysis revealed that many student teachers (ST1FF, ST4FF, ST6FF, ST1Int, ST5Int, ST7Int, ST10Int), both in the feedback form and in the interviews, felt disappointed and nostalgic during the course. Part of the disappointment was related to the observation practices in the emergency remote microteaching course. The student teachers complained that observations were not authentic and that they preferred real classroom observations. Similarly, there was disappointment among the student teachers concerning the lack of authenticity in microteaching practices; as in most cases, they had to teach by themselves. For example, one student teacher explained that her lesson plan was not authentic as she did not have access to a real classroom environment. She said "I need a real class to do my lesson plan because I don't know how the students would react to my teaching. If they do not understand what I teach, what would I do? I don't have any experience with it. I am doing it but it seems it's not real" (ST5Int).
Furthermore, some students (ST1Int; ST10Int) expressed that they felt disappointed as their pre-COVID expectations have not been met. This was particularly concerning the lonely experience of emergency remote education. Accordingly, the student teachers explained that they had envisaged being involved in active learning by conducting observations and microteaching in actual classrooms; whereas, they were isolated since they had to do the course all alone in their homes in the lockdown conditions due to the pandemic. One student teacher (ST1Int) said "… at the beginning of the class, we were talking about going to real language classes. I was dreaming about it actually. But right now, I am alone in my room and making lesson plans. That's all. This was not my dream...".

Discussion, Conclusion and Implications
This study aimed to shed light on the student teachers' experiences in the process of an undergraduate course entitled 'Microteaching' which was offered as emergency remote education at a University in Northern Cyprus during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the study revealed that the student teachers gained instructional knowledge and skills. It was found out that the student teachers believed that in this course they developed self-awareness towards their strengths and weaknesses in teaching. However, at the same time, they felt that they were lost, overwhelmed, and disappointed throughout the course process.
Although the student teachers did not have the opportunity to practice microteaching with their peers in a physical classroom environment or to conduct classroom observations in authentic language classrooms, they reported on several occasions that they developed teacher competences since they reported that they improved their instructional knowledge and skills in this course process. This could lead to understanding that this emergency remote course on microteaching provided the student teachers with the learning opportunities for their development (Allen & Eve, 1968;Kelinfled & Noordhoff, 1988;1990, as cited in Hatton & Smith, 1995;Kpanja, 2001). This is worth noticing as the course was rushed to be delivered on the digital platform as emergency remote education due to the sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic (Bozkurt & Sharma, 2020). In this regard, the data revealed that despite the challenging conditions, professional learning and development of teacher competences that are essential for effective teaching have been attained (Caena, 2013: Karababa & Çalışkan, 2012 Having said this, the student teachers on several occasions expressed that they were disappointed due to the lack of authenticity of learning practices. They also stressed that the social and interactive aspects of education were absent in this emergency remote learning process. It is established in the literature that diagnostic feedback and guidance are important in microteaching as they facilitate prospective teachers' instructional competence and development (Allen & Eve, 1968). During the emergency remote microteaching course, the microteaching practices and observations were not followed by interactive reflective dialogues since such an opportunity did not exist during the synchronous lessons. The participation of the student teachers' during the synchronous lessons was limited to written chats only. The lack of opportunity for reflective learning during an online practicum course in the pandemic period has been indicated by Kidd and Murray (2020) as well.
In the study, several student teachers expressed their frustration as they felt isolated and demotivated. This was confirmed by another empirical study that was conducted on online school practice in this period with student teachers (White and Mcsharry, 2021). It was stated that the student teachers felt isolated and detached as a consequence of the removal of social human contact in learning.
Reflection on recorded teaching is regarded to be a valuable method in teacher education since it enables collaborative inquiry and learning (Weiss & Weiss, 2001). This enables them to progress their teaching skills (Kpanja, 2001;Kuter, Gazi, & Aksal, 2012;Wallace, 1991). In the current study, the fact that the student teachers recorded their microteaching and reflected on their teaching created an opportunity for their learning, and this helped them become aware of their strong and weak points in their teaching. In addition, the student teachers were engaged in observation and analysis of video excerpts, which are accepted to facilitate reflective dialogue (Bampfield, Lubelska, & Matthews, 1997). However, it should be noted that in this process, the collaborative aspect of reflective learning was absent. It could be argued that the deficiencies concerning technology had an important role in this respect. For example, the student teachers could not collaborate or carry out a reflective dialogue with one another as their participation was restricted to viewing mode and written chats only during the synchronous lessons.
Furthermore, due to the aforementioned conditions, the student teachers did not have the opportunity to engage in social interaction orally with friends during the course process. It is possible to say that this situation could have affected the student teachers' professional development and growth (Yost, Sentner, & Forlenza-Bailey, 2000). It could be argued that the lack of an appropriate environment for reflective dialogue and collaborative inquiry may have created a disempowering environment for the student teachers as in a "culture of silence" (Freire, 2005, p.30).
In this study, several student teachers expressed that they needed attention and emotional support in the course process. They complained that the course was demanding with many assignments and that there was an emphasis on task completion and course content completion. Bozkurt and Sharma (2020) recommended that in times of crisis, emotional support should be prioritized over course completion. This was also confirmed by other researchers (Hadar, Ergas, et al., 2020; stating that the well-being and socialemotional needs of prospective teachers should be put first as they struggled in uncertain and ambiguous pandemic environments. Carillo and Flores (2020) also emphasized that social interaction, through regular discussions and authentic experiences, was vital in achieving social presence in learning. Also,  underlined the need for having a responsive and dynamic initial teacher education curriculum to meet the social and well-being needs of the student teachers during the unprecedented times of the pandemic.
The growing need among novice teachers to have adequate digital competencies made itself more visible in this crisis period (Dvir & Schatz-Oppenheimer, 2020;Mumford & Dikilitaş, 2020). A study that was conducted in the German context showed that digital teacher competences and teachers' opportunities to learn digital competences were essential in adapting to remote education during the school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic (König, Jäger-Biela, & Glutsch, 2020). This was also true in this case as well, as several student teachers explained that they had problems while engaging in the course and while completing the course assignments as they did not feel technologically competent. The problems that the student teachers experienced with regard to the access to the internet, the lack of possession of appropriate digital devices, and their perceived inadequate digital competences led them to feel lost and frustrated during the course process.
The insufficiencies in the technological infrastructure and the difficulties in access to technology have created awareness towards the digital divide in emergency remote education in this context (Blankenberger & Williams, 2020;Bozkurt & Sharma, 2020;Flores & Gago, 2020;la Velle et al., 2020). Likewise, an extensive study on the research on emergency remote education in the pandemic era confirmed that the digital divide created challenges in access to remote education in this period (Sezgin (2021).
To conclude, this study revealed that the student teachers gained instructional knowledge, skills, and self-awareness; however, they felt lost, frustrated, and disappointed during the process of the emergency remote course on microteaching, which was offered as an undergraduate course at a University in the context of Northern Cyprus.
The study showed that it is important that the curriculum is responsive to the immediate needs and conditions of the pandemic era. Reducing the curriculum content and adjusting instructional delivery could allow appropriate time and space to attain the student teachers' social-emotional and well-being needs in times of crisis. Also, as far as the curriculum is concerned, the student teachers could benefit from additional support and opportunities to attain digital competences as part of their initial teacher education. This could enable them to feel more competent and confident in their involvement in remote learning and teaching both as student teachers and as future teachers.
Despite that the student teachers were engaged in self-reflection, collaborative inquiry and reflective dialogue, which are regarded fundamental in microteaching practice, were missing in this process mainly due to the digital inadequacies. It is essential that in a remote microteaching course, opportunities need to be created for student teachers to teach interactively in a digital platform and to engage in reflective dialogue that could maximize their development and growth. For this purpose, appropriate technological conditions and infrastructure need to be provided. Also, innovative instructional strategies and delivery methods need to be incorporated in remote teacher education (Rice & Deschaine, 2020). This could help to facilitate a collaborative learning environment. Additionally, such an environment would enable the student teachers to have social interaction which could contribute to improving their well-being and growth.
Based on the findings and discussions, further research is suggested on remote online microteaching practices focusing on their design and implementation. Such research could include other stakeholders, such as teacher educators, cooperating teachers, and administrators. This type of research could also focus on opportunities for reflective interaction and collaborative inquiry within online microteaching courses. Additionally, it is recommended to research the initial teacher education concerning its role and efficiency in preparing future teachers for online learning and teaching in terms of equipping them with digital skills. Also, more research could be conducted on the extent to which the initial teacher education process considers student teachers' social-emotional and well-being needs particularly during practicebased courses in the COVID-era, and beyond.