Pre-Service Teachers as Creators and Students as Viewers of Children’s Literature-Related Digital Stories: A Formative Experiment


Ulusoy M.

International Journal of Progressive Education, vol.16, no.6, pp.365-389, 2020 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)

Abstract

The goals of this formative experiment were to help pre-service teachers (PSTs) create children’s literature-related original digital stories (DSs) and use these DSs to receive elementary school students’ and in-service teachers’ reflections. In this study, the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework was used. In total, 71 PSTs, 544 elementary school students, and 21 in-service teachers participated in the study. The results revealed that the PSTs wrote original stories that were mostly from their own personal experiences, drew illustrations, used their own voices by following the prosodic speaking rules, and, finally, created original DSs to convey to the students important didactic or informative messages. The digital storytelling creation process improved the PSTs’ children’s literature-related TPACK knowledge and practices. In this study, the majority of the PSTs tried to create parallel DS, which means that the pictures, texts, and recorded verbal messages told the same story for the same setting. In addition, the majority of the students gave viewer/reader-centered oral responses to the DSs. The results also showed that the PSTs, in-service teachers, and students had positive reflections about the DSs. These results confirmed that the goals of this formative experiment were achieved.