Assessing Pre-Service Teachers' Perceptions of the Practicality of Social Media in the Educational Arena

Abstract

This study determines the extent of the usefulness of social media to pre-service teachers at Baguio Central University. It elaborates on social media's various applications and benefits in their training. This study utilized a descriptive quantitative design and a survey for data collection. Through the total enumeration sampling method, 45 pre-service teachers enrolled at the College of Teacher Education and Liberal Arts were the respondents of this study. The study investigated how pre-service teachers perceive the usefulness of social media during their career training. The results revealed that Facebook Messenger, Facebook, and YouTube were the commonly used social media platforms. The time spent on social media was 3-4 hours daily. Moreover, pre-service teachers find social media moderately useful in entertainment, academics, socialization, and information, indicating an increase in the use of social media during their training for personal and professional development. The results indicate that pre-service teachers find social media beneficial for social and educational purposes. Overall, the results suggest that all participants utilized social media to improve training, the quality of lesson delivery, and access to instructional learning materials. This research benefits all pre- service teachers working in their respective fields of study.