PRE-SERVICE BIOLOGY TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS PODCAST-BASED LEARNING
PETYA SAVOVA-FILIPOVA
Ph.D. Student, Faculty of Biology, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”
1164 Sofia, 8 Dragan Tsankov Blvd.
* Corresponding author: psavova@yahoo.com
Keywords: biology teachers, educational podcasts, podcasts' usege survey,remote electronic education, vocational training
Abstract: Covid-19 and the limitations resulting from it have led to changes in training in secondary and higher education institutions. This type of training is associated with specific problems (lack of direct visual contact, lack of concentration, and rapid loss of interest) that encourage the search of other alternatives. One possible solution is to utilize educational podcasts. For their successful implementation in secondary education, it is important to familiarize and initially train pre-service biology teachers with the educational podcast. The topic of using educational podcasts in training is new and not well studied. There are reports of its successful implementation in the field of foreign languages in the USA, Singapore, China, and Korea. To the best of our knowledge, there is no information about such studies being conducted in Bulgaria at this stage. The article presents and discusses the results of a survey conducted among 99 pre-service biology teachers full-time students at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski". The responders are from the three binary specialties "Biology and Chemistry", "Geography and Biology" and "Biology and English" being in 1st, 3th and 4th year of education.
Only a small percentage of respondents were aware of the term "podcast", types, and method of their application. Less than one percent of respondents participated in the creation of a training podcast. The results obtained have been processed statistically and conclusions and recommendations have been drawn on the pedagogical effectiveness and learning opportunities of the students through the inclusion of podcasts. Pre-service biology teachers were convinced that the podcast, as an educational tool, has high potential to be applied to university learning.