Prospective teachers who subscribed to an electronic discussion list during the Spring semester of 1995 were surveyed during the Summer of 1995 to determine what they learned as a result of subscribing to the list which was a part of a science methods course in which they were enrolled. The written statements provided by the fifteen prospective teachers in response to the question "What are some of the things you learned as a result of completing this assignment?" are analyzed and the findings are reported in this paper. A qualitative analysis of the fifteen prospective teachers' written responses revealed that they learned quite a few science related ideas and information as well as other ideas and information which they could someday use in their own classrooms, learned how to use computers and e-mail, and also learned the value of communicating and sharing ideas.
Teachers of the future will undoubtedly have many opportunities to communicate with other teachers all over the world simply by subscribing to electronic discussion lists or groups. According to LaQuey (1994, p.60), there are "literally thousands of different mailing lists" on various topics and subjects. These discussion lists or discussion groups can, and indeed do facilitate communication among teachers with similar interests by enabling them to exchange information and discuss ideas with each other without ever having to leave the confines of their own homes or classrooms. However, unless prospective teachers are given opportunities to use discussion lists when they are enrolled in teacher education courses, they may be less likely to pursue opportunities to subscribe to lists and to participate in electronic discussions with their peers after they become teachers. This was one of the reasons why an electronic discussion list was established in Fall 1993 for use by prospective teachers who enrolled each semester in an elementary science methods course taught by the author.
Students who enrolled in the author's science methods course each semester were given the choice of subscribing to and posting messages on the discussion list in order to complete one of their optional assignments for the course. Several prospective teachers have subscribed to the discussion list every semester during the first two academic years of its operation and have posted hundreds of messages. During the semester of Spring 1995, fifteen prospective teachers subscribed to and regularly posted messages on the list. In the Summer of 1995, the author conducted a survey of the fifteen prospective teachers who had subscribed to the list during Spring 1995. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the fifteen prospective teachers' written statements regarding what they learned as a result of subscribing to the electronic discussion list and to report the findings.
The use of electronic mail has been shown by Downing, Schooley, Matz, Nelson, and Martinez (1988) to improve the quality of interaction between engineering students and their instructors. A study by D'Souza (1992) has also shown that using e-mail in a course resulted in increased communication. The use of electronic mail in a teacher education course has also enabled an instructor to gain a better understanding of her "students' concerns and learning experiences" (Cooper, 1996, p. 701). Suggestions for establishing discussion list in conjunction with courses have been offered by Thirunarayanan (1995) and Espinoza and Yeager (1995). The positive impact of electronic networks on the professional development of teachers has been studied by Watts and Castle (1992). It has also been documented that beginning teachers who belonged to a computer network and who were also participants in a research study "were most impressed by the network's ability to provide moral support" (Merseth,1991, p. 145). A mailing list has also been used in a teacher education program "to keep current students, faculty, and graduates in touch with one another" (Roddy, 1996, p. 711). One of the reasons why Dow and Geer (1996) used a Listserv list in their course was to enable their students to gain "confidence to make use of computers to meet their professional information needs" (p. 702). Their analyses of the messages posted to the list led them to conclude that at the end of the semester, students recognized the value of e-mail and lists "as distribution media for sharing information and discussing ideas" (Dow and Geer, 1996, p. 705). It is true that the literature contains quite a few articles and studies on the use of electronic mail and discussion lists in teacher education courses. However, there is a gap in the literature on the topic of incorporating electronic discussion lists into science methods courses for prospective teachers. While there is reason to believe that more and more science educators are beginning to incorporate telecommunications technologies into methods courses for prospective teachers, very little research has yet been conducted to determine what prospective teachers learn as a result of subscribing to discussion lists. This study is thus a very small step in filling a void in an area where much research is needed but has not yet been conducted.
A two page survey was mailed in the Summer of 1995 to all fifteen prospective teachers who subscribed to the list during the Spring 1995 semester. The survey contained questions which were designed to determine the nature of the prospective teachers' experiences with the discussion list. One question asked the prospective teachers why they chose to subscribe to the discussion list in order to complete one of their assignments in the course. A second question asked them about the positive aspects of their experiences with the list while a third was designed to find out the negative aspects of their experiences with the list. The responses provided by prospective teachers to these questions have been analyzed and reported elsewhere (Thirunarayanan, 1996). It is true that over a two year period, many prospective teachers have opted to subscribe to the discussion list and have posted numerous messages. But did they learn anything as a result of completing this assignment? To find an answer, the question "What are some of the things you learned as a result of completing this assignment?," was also included in the survey. Before continuing with a description of the data analysis procedures which were followed, some background information about the assignment is provided. This will also serve the purpose of explaining the context in which the study was conducted.
As noted earlier, subscribing to the discussion list was one of the optional assignments which prospective teachers could choose to complete in order to earn their grades in the science methods course in which they were enrolled. The science methods course was a part of a block of four courses. Prospective teachers enrolled in this block attended classes at the university during the first half of the semester, and were then placed in local elementary schools for their internships during the second half of the semester. Since these prospective teachers did not have the opportunity to interact frequently with their peers during the second half of the semester, the electronic discussion list offered them a way to keep in touch with their classmates. The requirements for the discussion list assignment was kept quite simple. Prospective teachers who chose to subscribe to the list were expected to send at least one message to the list each week beginning with week six of the semester and ending with week sixteen of the semester. Prospective teachers were allowed to practice using e-mail to send and receive messages to and from the list during the first few weeks of the semester. Suggestions regarding the kinds of messages which they could send to the list were included in a welcome message which was sent to all prospective teachers who subscribed to the list. Extensive excerpts from the welcome message are reproduced below after removing the name of the list:
Please LIST to communicate and share ideas with your peers in the science methods course. Please do not use LIST to send personal messages to each other. Personal messages should be sent directly to the person you wish to communicate with. Some of the ideas and information you may share with your peers on LIST could include, but need not be limited to, the following:
o News related to science and science education which you hear on radio or TV.
o Gist of science and science education related newspaper articles.
o Comments on and reactions to reports, journal and magazine articles, and books related to science and science education. o Your thoughts and ideas about science education.
o Questions you may have about science education. Once your internship begins, you will have a lot more to share with your peers on topics such as: o Science curriculum materials used in your classroom.
o Field-trips and special events in which your students participated.
o Ideas for bulletin boards and learning centers.
o Classroom Management strategies you learned from your teacher.
o Descriptions of science lessons you taught.
o Other science related internship experiences
The excerpts reproduced from the welcome message show that the prospective teachers were given the freedom to post messages on a wide variety of topics related to science and science education. In order to find out what these prospective teachers learned as a result of posting messages on the list and reading the messages which were posted by others on the list, the question "What are some of the things you learned as a result of completing this assignment?" was included in the survey. The prospective teachers' written statements which were provided in response to this question could be considered to be data of the type of "personal documents," albeit solicited, as described by Bogdan and Biklen (1992, p. 132).
The written statements provided by the fifteen subjects were first computerized. A copy of these written responses was printed out and read several times to get a feel for the entire data. Following Bogdan and Biklen's (1992) suggestion, the data were then read twice in one sitting. During this undisturbed session of reading of the data, "a preliminary list of coding categories" (Bogdan and Biklen, 1992, p. 176) were identified. This preliminary list consisted of the twenty-one coding categories:
For example, the categories of "discussion," "experiments," "facts," "science," "science experiments," "science facts," "science lessons," and one of the units of data under the category "information" were combined to form a broader category labeled "Science Related Ideas and Information." The units of data included in this category consisted of statements such as "I learned about all kinds of scientific facts," "Fascinating facts," "Many science experiments, suitable for elementary students," and "I learned how to use everyday materials in science." In a similar vein, the categories of "computers," "e-mail," and "internet," were combined to form another broad coding category which was labeled "Computers and E-mail."
Some of the statements included in this category were
"I learned another computer program that was unfamiliar to me,"
"I learned how to send and receive messages on the computer by using the LIST program,"
"How to use E-mail so that I would be able to use it when I have my own classroom," and
"I GAINED MORE CONFIDENCE USING E- MAIL (THIS WAS MY FIRST TIME & I WAS VERY EXCITED TO READ MY MESSAGES)."
The data also yielded two other categories which were labeled "Value of Communicating and Sharing Ideas" and "Other Classroom Related Ideas and Information." The category labeled "Value of Communicating and Sharing Ideas and Information" consisted of statements such as
"This program could be useful in a school program for students to communicate with different students all over,"
"The value of being able to share ideas, across campus, the state, & the world," and
"I learned another way of communication besides the phone and one on one."
The category labeled "Other Classroom Related Ideas and Information" contained statements such as
"Numerous teaching tips,"
"In addition to science, I have learned about things happening in education today and how it will affect me as a teacher," "Classroom management strategies," and
"Social skills dealing with children & their teachers."
The findings of qualitative studies have to be validated through "triangulation," which is the term used to refer to the process of "using multiple sources and modes of evidence" Miles and Huberman (1984, p. 235). An archive file containing the texts of all the messages posted on the list during the Spring 1995 semester was used to verify the findings of this study. The content of the messages in the archival file which included science activities and experiments, other ideas for use in the classroom, as well as information about the prospective teachers' experiences during their internships, provided additional evidence to support the findings of this study. All the prospective teachers who participated in this study were also successful in sending the required number of messages to the list. This very fact provides additional evidence to support the finding of this study that prospective teachers learned how to use computers and e-mail.
A few weeks before the end of the semester, the author sent a message to the list requesting prospective teachers to answer a few questions, including the question :
"What will you tell someone if he or she asks you to describe your experiences with LIST?"
The responses provided by the prospective teachers included the following statements:
"I got lots of ideas which I have put away for future use. Being able to share ideas and experiences was both helpful and satisfying. I would recommend this activity to anyone who might ask about it, as it is a wonderful way to accumulate science activities and lessons."
"First, it gave me an excuse to learn how to use E-mail, which I think is very important for teachers. . . . . . . . Also, LIST is a great place to share ideas and to learn about other's experiences. I learned that I was not the only one who was frustrated by certain things or excited about certain things -- my fellow "ies" told me through E-mail about their experiences and I could compare them with mine. Because we as . . . students are rather isolated once we go to our school classrooms, we don't have a chance to bounce stuff off of each other. LIST gave us this opportunity." "I think this was an excellent way to get great ideas about what to do in the classroom and also to stay in[ ]contact with your classmates while you are out in the field experience. I think it would be nice to use this system some how during your student teaching. It would help to get some ideas from people and to stay in[ ]contact with them throughtout [sic] the semester."
"I really enjoyed working on the list! I loved getting all the lesson plans and experiments so that I could have a head start when I start teaching. It is a great way to communicate as someone said before we are so isolated from each other during our intern[ship] that doing list let us hear each others experiences! I was able to get my feelings and frustrations out too! I really wished that more of us would have decided to do list so we could hear what the others have done!"
"My experience with list has been very enjoyable. It has been great to be able to communicate with those who have participated, especially simce [sic] we have been in the field and haven't been able to meet with each other. I feel that communication between teachers is important and beneficial. list is a tool that can aid teachers. We have been able to convey our experiences, learn from the experience of others, communicate our ideas and resources and discuss our problems and questions."
Informal feedback provided by prospective teachers during the first two years of operation of the list also indicates that they not only learned many ideas which they could use in their classrooms, but also learned how to use computers and e-mail as a result of subscribing to the discussion list. Since there is sufficient agreement among the different kinds of data used in this study, its findings can be accepted with a reasonably high degree of confidence. But at the same time, it must also be pointed out that since the sample of subjects who participated in the study were not selected randomly, the findings may or may not be generalizable to the population comprising of all prospective teachers. It may therefore be necessary to replicate the findings of this study by conducting similar studies involving larger and more diverse groups of prospective teachers.
Classroom teachers are known to be isolated from each other (Goodlad, 1983; Lortie, 1975) since they do not have the time or the opportunity to interact professionally with their colleagues on a regular basis. However, if prospective teachers are given the opportunity to use telecommunications technologies to communicate with each other, it is quite possible that they will be more likely to continue to use such means to communicate with their local, regional, national, and even global peers after they become teachers. According to the National Science Education Standards, "Teachers need the opportunity to become part of the larger world of professional teachers of science through participating in networks, attending conferences, and other means" (National Research Council, 1996, p. 223). Subscribing to electronic discussion lists is one way for teachers to participate in ongoing professional discussions with their peers all over the world. The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) also recommends that programs which prepare prospective elementary school teachers should provide them with adequate experiences with different kinds of educational technology, including telecommunications technology (NSTA, 1992-1993). As the findings of this study have shown, establishing a discussion list for use by prospective teachers can help implement this recommendation.
To summarize, qualitative analysis of prospective teachers' written responses to the question "What are some of the things you learned as a result of completing this assignment?," has shown that they learned:
(i) science related ideas and information;
(ii) how to use computers and e-mail;
(iii) the value communicating and sharing ideas and information; and
(iv) other ideas and information which they can use in their classrooms.
However, while this study has provided a rather small beginning, much more research needs to be conducted to determine the various kinds of things which prospective teachers learn as a result of subscribing to discussion lists which are incorporated into science methods courses.
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