Teachers’ Pedagogical Role as Mediators in Leading and Guiding Students’ Learning in Digital Storytelling (DST)

Abstract

The aim of this study is to find out how the teachers lead and guide students’ learning in digital storytelling (DST). The main research question is: What is teachers’ pedagogical role in leading and guiding the students’ learning in DST? The research framework is based on Vygotsky’s mediation theory. The research project was carried out in the 2016-2017 school year. Four classes from China and two classes from Finland at the Grade 4 and Grade 5 levels participated in the study. We mainly focus on qualitative data from semi structured interviews of teachers, researchers’ classroom observations, group discussions, and teachers’ course-planning documents. The main findings are that in DST, the main activities in teachers’ pedagogical role as mediators are facilitating, coaching, and scaffolding with the pedagogical decision-making. This study illustrates what teachers did in a DST project and how they have led and guided students’ learning when using the DST pedagogical method.