engleski

Being Serious about Comics: Teacher Education Students’ Perceptions about the use of Digital Comics in Teaching and Learning

In this study, we explore how teacher education students perceive possibilities for use of digital comic strips in their future teaching. The literature review indicates that digital comics represent a very promising and rich material that may provide unique benefits for students. The study participants were 22 teacher education students, double majoring in pedagogy and humanistic field (languages, history, art history or philosophy). The study participants were attending a graduate Distance education course at large university at the south of Croatia. The research was conducted during the first 8 weeks of the course that was taught in the blended format. As a part of the regular course assignments, the students were required to participate in online discussions on different features of comic strips and ways in which digital comics could be utilized in their future teaching. The students participated in two online discussions prior to which they received guidelines on the expected frequency and type of their discussion posts. Both online discussions were moderated by the course teacher. The first discussion was focussing on two digital comic strips. The students were asked to analyze their characteristics related to the desirable pedagogical features. Prior to the discussion, students were provided with the guidelines on features of comic strips that facilitate learning (Lazzarich, 2013 ; Liu, 2004). The second discussion focused on the use of digital comic strip in their area of teaching. More specifically, the teacher education students were provided with the lesson plan structure and exemplary lesson plan incorporating comic strip. They were asked to create a single lesson plan in their area of studies and discuss each other’s work under the online discussion forum. For the purpose of the second discussion, the students were grouped into two discussion groups. One group consisted of language majors and another of history, history of arts and philosophy majors. In this study, we were trying to answer the following research questions: How teacher education students perceive possibilities for use of digital comic strips in their future teaching? What phases of knowledge construction are reached in the online discussions? In order to answer the research questions, the discussion posts were analyzed. For the content analysis purpose, the researchers were using the Interaction Analysis Model – IAM. This model is based on a constructivist paradigm and was used to identify evidence of knowledge construction in a collaborative online discussion environment. The data is analyzed within a specific context in a view of meaning that participants attribute to (Krippendorff, 1980). The two independent researchers analyzed the data, discussed the data and agreed on the present phases of the knowledge construction. In the discussion, the researchers’ reflected on the main study findings, the methodological framework of the study, and linked the study findings to the prospects for implementation of digital comics in the national curricula.

digital comics ; pre-service teachers ; online discussions ; knowledge construction

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