Increasing digital awareness of pre-service teachers (an experimental research)

Abstract

With the 21st century, the skills expected from people have changed. Expectations in this process have also affected the concept of the ideal human profile. Creative thinking, critical thinking and digital skills can be counted among the skills expected from an ideal person in this period. This transformation manifests itself in many areas. There is no doubt that education systems that can adapt to digital transformation, especially in the field of education, will be the education systems of the future. In this process, it is essential to increase the awareness of teachers towards digital transformation. As a matter of fact, in this study, it was aimed to increase the awareness of pre-service teachers about digital transformation. The research utilized a single group pretest-posttest model from experimental designs. In this context, 30 randomly selected 3rd and 4th grade pre-service teachers studying in the Department of Classroom Education were included in the sample. Within the scope of the research, the awareness scale for digital transformation in education developed by Yurdakal (2024) was used. Alpha value of the scale consisting of 50 items and 3 dimensions is 0.957. Within the scope of the research, an 8-week curriculum was prepared first. The curriculum was applied to the sample for 8 weeks, 4 online and 4 face-to-face. Pre-test and post-test data were collected before and after the implementation. During the process, diaries were distributed to the sample and they were asked to write their thoughts about the whole process. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS 22 and dependent groups were analyzed with T test. The qualitative data obtained within the scope of the research were analyzed by content analysis and codes were obtained and themes were reached by bringing the related codes together. The themes were presented by supporting them with quotations. Looking at the results of the research; it was determined that the participants' awareness of digital transformation post-test (134.96) scores were significantly higher than the pre-test (99.56) scores. In this context, the training process on digital transformation awareness was successful.