Investigation of the digital stories developed by pre-school teacher candidates, their experiences in this process and their self-efficacy beliefs towards creating digital materials

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of a 5-week intervention provided within the scope of the Early Childhood Literature course attended by third-year students majoring in Preschool Teaching during the spring semester of the 2021-2022 academic year, focusing on the creation of digital stories. The research aims to investigate the qualitative aspects of the digital stories developed by these students and the influence of this intervention on teacher candidates' self-efficacy in creating digital materials, considering various variables such as gender, age, parental education level, employment status, family income status, ownership of digital technology, and participation in courses related to creating digital materials. Finally, the study aims to evaluate the process of digital story development from the perspective of preschool teacher candidates. The research employed a mixed-methods design, and the sample was selected through purposive sampling using the criterion sampling method, consisting of 139 preschool teacher candidates. Quantitative data were collected through a "Single-Group Experimental Research Design" with an intervention program created within the content planning of the "Early Childhood Literature" course. The "Teachers' self-efficacy in creating digital materials" scale developed by Uzun and Akay (2021) was administered before and after the intervention to 106 participating teacher candidates, and the data were analyzed using paired samples t-tests with SPSS 26 statistical software. Additionally, the digital books created by the teacher candidates (n=137) were evaluated using the "Graded Assessment Scale for Digital Stories" by Özcan et al. (2016) and a researcher-developed "Graded Assessment Scale for Measuring the Appropriateness of Digital Books to Children's Literature." Percentage and frequency values of the digital books were provided and analyzed. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews using a researcher-developed form, involving two groups of teacher candidates (ne = 6, nk = 6), and analyzed using thematic content analysis. The results of the research revealed a significant difference in the self-efficacy of teachers post-intervention. While no significant differences were found in pre-test and post-test scores regarding gender, parental education level, and family income status, meaningful differences were identified based on tablet ownership and participation in courses related to creating digital materials. Preschool teacher candidates expressed that digital books can be used to impart concepts and achievements in all developmental domains and that they can use digital books as instructional materials in their future teaching careers. The created digital books were found to have average scores in terms of digitization and suitability for children's literature, with identified areas for improvement.