Source: European Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 33, No. 1, February 2010, 79–98.
(Reviewed by the Portal Team)
This study investigates the attitudes of a sample of English, Maltese and German teachers toward the training they received to teach media education, as well as their attitudes about whether and how it should be taught in schools.
This study had three goals.
One goal was to compare the different ways media education is integrated into the educational system of primary and secondary schools in three very different countries with the same European objectives for promoting and achieving media literacy for all students.
The second goal was to find out the type of training in media education teachers are offered in their initial teacher training.
The third and major goal was to find out the attitudes of teachers regarding media education.
Participants
The sample was consisted of 132 participants, 33 teachers from the England, 52 teachers from Malta and 47 from Germany.
Of the total sample, 43 respondents taught at primary level, 72 taught at secondary level, eight respondents taught at post-secondary level and another eight taught in other types of institutions.
As many as 123 of the respondents in the sample taught in state schools.
Although media education should be taught in all schools in England, Malta and Germany, 70 respondents said that they do not teach media education at all.
While 10 participants teach media education as a specialist subject, 49 participants teach media across the curriculum.
Some teachers acquired their knowledge of media education through personal reading and interest. Only 50 respondents received training to teaching media education.
The tool used to collect data was an online questionnaire.
Results
The analysis of participants' confidence in teaching a range of aspects of media revealed a general lack of confidence.
Television production, radio production, and website design were the areas that Maltese, English and German participants felt least confident teaching.
The study also highlighted the little time devoted to media education in initial teacher training courses as well as in schools.
The authors suggest that media education should become a compulsory component of the initial teacher training courses as well as advanced training for teachers.