Telecommunication as an Aid for Concept Development among Student Teachers

Abstract

This study was motivated by the need to understand how student teachers build concepts in telecommunication environments. The study aimed at determining how student teachers develop concrete concepts and defined concepts. The purpose was to develop a repertoire of what constitutes classes of lesson plans in technology-based learning environments and determine their significance to instructional design. The goal was to expose student teachers to AskEric Database. The objectives were to demonstrate the role of intellectual skills in developing conceptualizations, compare and contrast elements of a lesson plan, and define the role of telecommunication in learning. An elaborate scheme of activities was developed for student teachers to process materials in the AskEric database. These activities included students examining the various lesson plans in the content areas featuring mathematics, science, language arts, social studies, art, geography, and history. Lesson plans were characterized as concepts, and individual elements. The telecommunication was perceived as an integrated whole, and was evaluated on the criteria embedded in the student's interaction with the lesson plans as a context. Data shows that student teachers generated their own examples of how to identify concepts and characterize them as “concrete concepts.” They classified the instructional events to develop “defined concepts” and characterizations of the given materials. The individual elements of lesson plans were identified and listed in the following order of hierarchy: grade level, topic sentences, goals, objectives, activities, evaluation procedures, resources, and level on the Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Two roles found to support the teaching and process learning were enhancement of learning, and instructional depth. “Enhancement of learning” is defined as a learner's competency to recruit cognitive strategies for the purpose of determining whether lesson plans are structurally meaningful to promote the teaching and learning among children. “Instructional depth” is defined as the capability of the technology to facilitate the dissemination of information in a sequential manner for the purpose of promoting the effective organization of information among learners. Cognitive strategies, competency, constructing a knowledge base, and growth were five factors found to initiate concept development among student teachers. These data have implication to instructional design, program improvement, and evaluation of instruction in computer-based learning environments.