Digital Pedagogical Competence in Teacher Education: Insights from Student-Teachers’ Classroom Performance

Abstract

In the 21st century, there is a huge applicability of the technology in every field of the society. ICT in education is the evolving landscape with respect to pedagogy, teaching – learning and assessment and evaluation. Digital pedagogy has been trending in the field of teacher education, although it’s rooted in the learning interest of the students but there is a question arise how do the student-teachers utilizing or experiencing the digital pedagogy in the classroom. Therefore, the present study explores the digital pedagogy based- competencies of student-teachers as experienced by their classroom performance during their internship program. This study has adopted a qualitative method through open-ended questionnaire. For the present research the participants were selected by following purposive sampling design. The sample size was 30 student-teachers, who were pursuing 4- year integrated B.Ed. course (8th semester) and has completed their internship program. The collected data were analysed by qualitative thematic analysis. The result found that most of the participants were experienced good during internship program. Some of were followed digital pedagogy in their class room including various digital tools like multimedia, MS Word, and interactive aids were utilized by the student-teachers, with many employing diverse assessment tools. Challenges included classroom discipline and digital equipment shortages, mitigated through blended learning approaches. Overall, majority of them acknowledge the significance of digital competence and strive to adapt to innovative educational technologies. This study has its implication for curriculum designer, educationists, teacher education, teachers and students. The further studies can be conducted in in-service teacher education, on large number of representatives of sample and by adopting mixed method design.