The use of digital stories in science education in pre-school period: An investigation in the context of technological pedagogical content knowledge

In this research, it is aimed to examine the digital story integrated activity plans prepared by prospective pre-school teachers for the teaching of science concepts for 36-72 months old children in the context of technological pedagogical content knowledge - TPACK. The study group consisted of prospective teachers (N: 35) who continue their education at Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University, Department of Pre-school Education in the spring semester of the 2020-2021 academic year. The design of the research was designed to be an embedded single case design. Data collection tools consist of activity plans, digital stories and focus group interview forms. The data obtained and the analysis of the activity plans and digital stories of all participants were analyzed thematically in the context of TPACK components. Content analysis of digital stories was made based on the Rubric for Evaluating the Process of Digital Storytelling in an Educational Context (Çıralı Sarıca & Koçak Usluel, 2016). In the research, it was concluded that while the variety of programs/software used in preparing digital stories in the context of technology was observed, preliminary preparations should be taken into account in the process of preparing digital stories, in the context of pedagogy, technology affects pedagogy and there are deficiencies in vocabulary and evaluation sections in preparing activity plans and in the context of the field, science activity plans with integrated digital stories were prepared for the contents and concepts of different science fields. In addition, prospective teachers stated that they were motivated during the digital story preparation process and enjoyed it and that the process was fun. In the light of these findings, digital stories are found to be an effective method in science concepts in pre-school education and to offer alternative ways to users in concept teaching. Keywords: Science concept in pre-school education, Technological pedagogical content knowledge, Digital story, Prospective pre-school teachers