Media Pedagogy in German and U.S. Teacher Education

Abstract

Various research works and practitioners conclude that media pedagogy should be integrated in teacher education in order to enable future teachers to use media for their lessons effectively and successfully. However, this realization is not necessarily reflected in actual university curricula, as preservice teachers at some places can still finish their studies without ever dealing with media pedagogical issues. To understand, assess and eventually improve the status of media pedagogical teacher education, comprehensive research is required. Against this background, the following article seeks to present a theory-based and empirical overview of the status quo of preservice teachers’ pedagogical media competencies focusing Germany and the USA exemplarily. To form a basis, different models of pedagogical media competencies from both countries will be introduced and the extent to which these competencies have become part of teacher education programs and related studies will be summarised. Afterwards, method and selected results of a study will be described where the skills in question were measured with students from both countries, based on a comprehensive model of pedagogical media competencies that connects German and international research in this field. The international comparative perspective will help broaden the viewpoint and understand differences, but also similarities. These data serve to identify different ways of integrating media pedagogy into teacher training and draw conclusions on the consequences these processes entail for preservice teachers and their pedagogical media competencies..