Reflections of University-Institution Cooperation on Personal and Professional Development of Pre-service Teachers: The Sample of Community Service Applications Course

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine the opinions of pre-service teachers about the activities they performed within the scope of the “Conscious and Safe Internet Use Project”. The research, which was designed as a case study, was carried out in the Public Service Practices (A-B) course in the Department of Computer and Instructional Technologies at a public university. For the Community Service Applications (CSA) course, in cooperation with the Provincial Directorate of National Education, a project was planned and implemented to increase the awareness of middle school and high school students and their parents about conscious, safe and ethical internet use. During the project process, teacher candidates prepared visual materials, made presentations on the subject in middle schools and high schools, and took part at the stands set up in two shopping malls. They distributed brochures and informed people who visited the stands. The data were collected through the online questionnaire consisting of open-ended questions. The opinions of the participants were gathered under two themes as the preparation and implementation process of the project. Participants were particularly satisfied with the application process, where they transformed their theoretical knowledge into practice. It was concluded that the activities contributed to the professional development of the participants, they also developed communication and collaboration skills, and improved their sense of social commitment.

Keywords

• School-university partnership
• community service practices
• ICT pre-service teachers

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