Abstract:

Fostering digitization-related competencies among teachers represents an educational policy concern in the context of the digital transformation (e.g. KMK, 2016). Numerous models try to describe (pre-service) teachers' digital competencies, both from a more general perspective (e.g. Redecker, 2017) and from a more subject-specific perspective (e.g. Becker et al., 2020). A central challenge of teacher education is to develop learning pathways and learning opportunities that enable teachers to achieve the necessary competencies. Tondeur et al. (2012) propose 12 key themes for this purpose. Seven key themes relate to the individual level of pre-service teachers, while five others relate to the level of the institution. A major motive for the work of Tondeur et al. were findings that authentic experiences are particularly suitable for teaching digital competencies. Nevertheless, few studies exist to date that explicitly examine learning opportunities linking theoretical digitization-related concepts with authentic implementation in the classroom. The existence of pre-service teachers' semester internships in school provides an opportunity to explore this question in more detail.

To address the research gap, we developed a theoretically founded intervention to foster pre-service science teachers’ subject specific digital competencies focused on a specific media use: the production of explanatory videos regarding subject content by students. The intervention comprises a theoretical input, the development of lesson plans, teaching and reflection on the lesson held. It refers to six of seven key themes on the individual level of Tondeur et al. (2012) (aligning theory and practice, reflecting on attitudes, learning by design, peer-collaboration, process-oriented feedback, and scaffolding authentic experiences). We did not address the seventh key theme (teacher educators as role models) because in-service teachers in Germany only partially have the digital skills to act as favorable role models (Eickelmann et al., 2019).

At the conference the structure of the intervention will be presented in detail. The presented concept can contribute to bridging the gap between knowledge and skills in the field of teachers’ Technological Pedagogical And Content Knowledge (TPACK).

The intervention is already used in the internship. The following data will be collected: 1. pre-post surveys on teachers' attitudes toward digitization-related competencies, 2. written standardized lesson plans, 3. videographs of classroom observations, and 4. transcripts of classroom reflections. The data will then be analyzed using a mixed-methods approach.

Keywords:

Knowledge transfer, TPACK development, teacher education.