Evaluation of a university seminar on the use of digital media in the physics classroom

Abstract

Fostering digital competencies is an important aspect of pre-service teacher education. However, for physics, there is a lack of systematically surveyed and evidence-based seminars that specifically take into account relevant research findings. Thus, we developed a research-based seminar on the effective use of digital media in physics classrooms and investigated its effects on pre-service teachers (PSTs) professional competencies in a mixed-methods design. Our quantitative analyses of different competence components surveyed in a pre-post-design indicate that the seminar leads to an increase in motivation to use digital media in the physics classroom. Nevertheless, no significant increase in digital-media PCK was found, which could be due to the small sample. The seminar design, however, was predominantly evaluated positively by experts and PSTs in guided interviews. Based on the results, it is planned to further refine the original seminar using a Design-Based Research approach.