Reflecting on the Smart City: How Student Teachers Learn to Teach Smart Pupils

Abstract

Smart cities, despite their supposed benefits, also pose challenges to inhabitants. The promised improvements of quality of life, sustainability and efficiency are accompanied by a lack of data security and privacy, and a loss of spontaneous and chaotic but enjoyable urban life. School has to prepare pupils for life in the smart city, and therefore universities have to equip pre-service teachers for this task. This paper seeks to examine how portfolio work supports pre-service teachers in this undertaking. Portfolios compiled in a teacher-training seminar for geography and interviews with participants were analyzed and categorized. The results demonstrate that students created complex images of the smart city. The images widely agree with attributions assigned to smart cities by experts. Additionally, the study revealed abilities which the students developed through portfolio writing and identified tasks that supported them in this. For example, one student visualized his ideal city in an essay and thereby identified his own interests. The students described their learning process precisely and reflected on their opinion forming. The findings indicate that portfolio work is valuable in the learning field of smart cities in particular, as well as in the domain of the digitalization of society in general.