Designing a media literacy curriculum for preservice teachers

This study aims to develop a media literacy curriculum design to be implemented in preservice teacher education programs. This study is designed as sequential exploratory mixed method and consists of two phases which are identification of prospective teachers' levels of media literacy skills and development of curriculum design. In the first phase, data were obtained from 865 prospective teachers selected by multistage cluster sampling with the aid of a newly developed scale and semi-structured interviews were held with five prospective teachers selected by maximum variety sampling strategy. Based on the needs analysis, the second phase included development of media literacy skills curriculum design by the curriculum development team and evaluation of the curriculum design. In the curriculum development process, needs analysis was conducted based on deficiency needs analysis approach. Demirel Curriculum Development Model in Education was adopted as the curriculum development model and life situations design was adopted as the curriculum design model. The curriculum design is based on progressivist philosophy and constructivist learning approach. Instructional objectives were developed in compliance with Bloom taxonomy and the content was arranged based upon linear programming approach. The curriculum design was evaluated via a focus group interview held with curriculum development specialists and written feedback from media literacy, educational philosophy and psychology specialists. The curriculum design was finalized based on the obtained feedback. The curriculum design includes 6 goals, 22 objectives, 166 indicators, and content, teaching-learning experiences and evaluation elements that are compatible with objectives, guidelines for practice and sample lesson plans.