Abstract

In the era of high-tech advancement, the teachers are reflected as a tool to achieve development objectives through education and training. Education directly affects society's growth. Teachers' specialized capabilities' advancement represents a continuous constructive evolution process. This research aims at identifying the impact of a training program using virtual classrooms on the teaching competencies and the development of virtual classroom skills among female student-teachers in the practical education program. The research has used the semiexperimental approach to achieve this aim. The research sample consists of (40) female student-teachers from the practical education program in Basic Education Department at Qassim University. They are divided into two identical groups (experimental and control). The two groups are presented with the teaching competency notecard before and after applying the virtual classroom skills test. The results have found a dominance of the experimental group over the control group. It is evidenced by statistically significant differences between the averages of the experimental and control groups in the post-application of both the teaching competency observation card and the virtual classroom skills test. It is recommended to conduct training programs to develop teachers' virtual classroom skills before and during their service. It develops various capabilities in using educational platforms effectively and employing virtual classroom skills in the educational process.

Key words: Training program; virtual classroom; teaching competencies; virtual teaching skills