Media Education in Theory and in the Field

An Interdisciplinary Research-Based Study Programme in Pre-Service Teacher Training

Abstract

Using the example of the supplementary study programme “Media Education for Pre-Service Teachers” at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, this article shows how media education in teacher education works both as a starting point for a university’s organisational development and for interdisciplinary cooperations between the academic disciplines and the media-related didactics. The four-semester study programme involves media and communication studies, computer science, public law, educational sciences, and the subject-specific didactics of the faculties of philosophy, mathematics and natural sciences as well. The article then explains one of the teaching and research cooperations between media science and media-related didactics in more detail: In project seminars, students first analyze concepts of media education that have been modelled on the basis of media and didactis theories and second, investigate how those models are implemented in media pedagogical practice by professional practitioners of media education. By means of research-based learning, the students gain practical insights, theoretical knowledge, methodological skills, and empirical findings to be used for their own later didactic activities in media education. Thirdly, students apply and reflect their learning progress by designing and testing their own (digital) media education products. The study programme pilots the cross-sectional task of multi-perspective media education for pre-service teachers by cooperation between academic disciplines and teacher training in media-related didactics at the university.