Improving Student Teachers’ Digital Pedagogy through Meaningful Learning Activities

Abstract

Purpose – This study aims to examine the attributes of meaningful learning that student teachers perceived as enabling them to improve their digital pedagogy. It is concerned with how the meaningful learning activities help to prepare student teachers to successfully integrate digital technologies in their future teaching practice. Methodology – This study adopted a qualitative research design and was underpinned by a meaningful learning theory as the theoretical and analytical framework. A total of 24 final year student teachers participated in this study. Data were mainly collected through student teachers’ reflections regarding their learning experience. Thematic analysis was utilized to analyze and present the findings. Findings –The findings offer some important insights into how the learning activities carried out in this Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) project have directly and indirectly accelerated the acquisition of all the five attributes of meaningful learning. The findings of this study reveal that meaningful learning activities contribute to the improvement of the student teachers’ knowledge of and skills in using Web 2.0. This improvement has boosted their confidence to integrate digital pedagogy in future teaching practices. The findings also indicate that although student teachers value their experiences in meaningful learning activities, they have some concerns regarding firstly, their capacities in applying digital pedagogy and secondly, the practicality of integrating Web 2.0 tools in the school setting because of several inherent limitations. Significance – Meaningful learning activities when incorporated into teacher training programmes will expose student teachers to authentic experiences which will be beneficial for their own learning and future teaching practice.

Meaningful Learning Experiences in Learning Islamic Science and Technolgy Via Online Method

“…A safe environment also facilitates learners to engage in discussions with the lecturer during the different phases (before, during and after) completing the assignment. (Anderman & Wolters, 2006;Sailin & Mahmor, 2018).…”

“…It also encourages collaborations, expressions of view and ideas, as well as promotes learners to get involve completely in the learning process. (Emmer & Evertson, 2013;Sailin & Mahmor, 2018).…”

Impact of Youtube and Video Podcast on Listening Comprehension Among Young Learners

“…There is a growing body of literature that recognizes the benefits of technology in teaching and learning [21]; [22]; [8]; [9]; [10]; [30]; [31]. YouTube is one of the technological tools that contains the elements of audio and visual learning environment [32].…”

“…Therefore, teachers tend to pay more attention to reading and writing, and less emphasis is given to listening. Besides, the use of technology in teaching English is still low [21] [22]. Taking into consideration the challenges in acquiring listening comprehension skills among ESL learners and acknowledging the benefits of social media on students' language learning, this paper reports the findings of the study that investigated the impact of YouTube and Video-Podcast in enhancing Primary Year 4 pupils' listening comprehension skills.…”

Development of research capacity of a future social pedagogue in the face of digital technologies

“…The education of the 21st century is witnessing a gradual shift of learning activities from a traditional teacher-centered approach to a more constructivist one oriented toward students. Under such conditions, knowledge is actively constructed through meaningful learning experiences gained in self-directed and personalized learning practices enabled by digital technologies and pedagogical innovations (Sailin & Mahmor, 2018 ). Modern digital technologies open up excellent opportunities for ensuring constructive social interaction (Greenhow & Askari, 2017 ), improving collective learning, offering more learning flexibility and personalization, and making it more student-centered (Zidoun et al, 2019 ).…”