Cross-phase collaboration through service learning

Evaluation of courses related to digitalization for pre-service biology teachers

Abstract

The orientation framework DiKoLAN enables the derivation of curricula for the university teacher education and provides a theoretical background for the evaluation of pre-service teachers’ competences and their development. At universities, a corresponding abundance of teaching-learning scenarios based on science didactics and teaching ideas for the use of digital media is emerging, which does not reach in-service teachers as "today's innovators" to the same extent. In the projects MuM and MeBiDi, pre-service biology teachers were able to gain experience with digital tools in courses at the universities of Kassel and Hamburg and test how methods of their subject can be implemented or supported digitally. The students passed on their knowledge and the corresponding tips on the methods’ implementation to in-service biology teachers via explanatory videos, micro training courses and papers on practical teaching. The educational programme Service Learning is behind this didactical concept: Students of biology teacher education combine their theoretical learning at the university with the implementation of practical projects that serve the common good. At the same time, they offer a service to practice partners from the field of education, which has met a real social need, especially in times of distance and hybrid teaching. In the study presented here, two variants of implementation of a service-learning course related to digitalization were examined in a one-group pretest-posttest design (N = 78) using quantitative research methods. In both groups, positive effects on self-assessed competences as well as on self-efficacy expectations were found at the level of learning success.