Is Digital Storytelling Functional in Socioscientific Issues? Pre-Service Teachers' Experiences

Abstract

This study sought answers to the following question: “Is digital storytelling functional in teaching socioscientific issues?” In the framework of the study, digital stories were prepared individually by nine pre-service teachers on nine different socioscientific topics to find the answer to this question. The data of the present study, which was conducted with action research, were collected by using two different methods: pre and post-interviews and digital stories. Content analysis was used to analyze the interviews and the digital stories were analyzed by using the "digital story evaluation rubric". According to the results obtained during pre-interviews, the participants did not have digital storytelling experience before and did not have much knowledge about digital storytelling. After the implementation, the participants had predominantly positive views towards digital storytelling and that the digital storytelling could be a functional method in teaching socioscientific issues. When the participant products (digital stories) were evaluated in line with the criteria in the literature, it was concluded that the digital stories were prepared at a very satisfactory level, but the content part in the digital stories prepared by the participants lacked discussion questions about the selected socioscientific issues and the issues could not be addressed in an impartial way.