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This study compared the academic literacy outcomes of preservice teachers in a course that switched from print to digital instruction. Results indicated similar skill development between print and digital cohorts, with higher confidence in digital students’ reading and writing. However, digital learners were more accurate in evaluating their writing than their reading comprehension, highlighting the need for strategies to enhance digital academic writing skills and awareness of metacognitive biases in digital learning for future educators.
Digital learning has become prevalent in both higher education and schools, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic. Policymakers are urging educational institutions to integrate more digital-based teaching, despite concerns about its cognitive load and disorienting effects. However, many newly qualified teachers feel inadequately trained in digital skills. Teacher education programs are thus urged to enhance future teachers’ digital proficiency and confidence. Research in teacher education is exploring methods to train preservice teachers for 21st-century classrooms, such as providing hands-on digital learning experiences. Studies suggest that many students struggle with effective digital learning, leading to inferior comprehension compared to print materials, known as ‘digital-text inferiority’. Therefore, it’s crucial for teacher training programs to equip preservice teachers with digital learning skills. To address this need, we modified an undergraduate academic literacy course from traditional print-based materials to digital ones, aiming to assess their impact on student learning outcomes.
The EU’s digital competence framework and educational policies emphasize the necessity of honing digital reading and writing skills in schools. Modern education requires the ability to comprehend digital texts and synthesize information from various sources for deeper understanding. The abundance of online information has led to a rise in digital plagiarism, underlining the importance of teaching students strategies for original digital writing. Utilizing graphic organizers aids in integrating information from multiple sources, enhancing memory retention and inference-making, and facilitating the planning of writing tasks. Effective use of digital graphic organizers may require teacher guidance and computer-based instructional support.
Contemporary learning models highlight the importance of metacognitive strategies in enhancing reading comprehension. Effective learning relies on learners’ ability to utilize these strategies to monitor their performance accurately. Studies often use Likert scales to gauge learners’ confidence in their performance, with findings indicating that learners tend to overestimate their abilities. This overconfidence, particularly prevalent in digital text comprehension, can lead to premature learning termination and inferior outcomes. However, interventions such as deep processing strategies and emphasizing task importance have shown promise in reducing these discrepancies between print and digital reading comprehension.
We assessed the transition of an academic literacy course for future teachers from traditional print-based to digital-based instruction, aligning with global trends in technology integration in education. The modified course retained original modules but taught students to apply print-based strategies to digital text comprehension and writing. Results from comparing learning outcomes between digital and print cohorts showed no difference in academic skill development, with the digital cohort exhibiting greater confidence. Factors facilitating this transition, students’ metacognitive assessments, and implications for teacher education are discussed.
During the planning phase of a digitally-modified course, instructors raised concerns about students’ unfamiliarity with studying on screens despite being considered digital natives. Surveys showed undergraduates prefer reading print materials. In the study, a quarter preferred print for academic reading, with half spending less than an hour studying digitally daily. Concerns also arose about the potential negative impact of screen reading on comprehension, known as the ‘digital-text inferiority’ effect. However, the course’s transition to digital teaching did not hinder student achievement, likely due to strategies such as modeling digital text comprehension and using graphic organizers for essay planning. These findings have practical implications for teacher education in promoting digital literacy. Graphic organizers facilitated deep processing of digital materials and essay planning by visually organizing key ideas, aiding comprehension and written expression, which could inform future teaching practices in digital settings.
Despite students’ limited experience with digital learning, they showed high confidence in understanding digital text and evaluating the quality of their digital academic writing. Interestingly, those in digital courses expressed more confidence in their academic skills than those in traditional print-based courses. However, calibration scores revealed that while digital learners were less calibrated for reading comprehension, they were better calibrated for writing quality. This aligns with previous research indicating elevated metacognitive evaluations of digital reading comprehension. The ease of editing in digital platforms may contribute to better calibration for writing quality. Additionally, high school experiences with digital writing may surpass digital reading, impacting undergraduates’ skills. These findings suggest a need for teacher educators to address metacognitive biases in digital learning, potentially through tailored writing assignments following digital reading tasks.
On a global scale, higher education institutions are shifting towards a blend of digital and traditional teaching methods. A study comparing digitally-modified courses to print-based ones found similar academic outcomes in reading and writing. It highlights the importance of deep processing strategies for digital materials to improve academic writing skills. Despite this, students in digital courses reported higher confidence levels in their abilities, with better calibration in self-evaluating writing but not reading comprehension. Overall, the study underscores the necessity of raising undergraduate awareness about how learning mediums affect metacognitive evaluations of reading and writing quality.
Source:
(2024) Developing digital academic skills in preservice teachers: performance and metacognitive perspectives, Journal of Education for Teaching, DOI: 10.1080/02607476.2024.2323583