| Abstrakt: |
An Introduction to Teaching course was strategically developed to allow university students of many backgrounds to access, synthesize, and evaluate the teaching profession as a possible career. The authors planned a multilayered course that included Web-based assignments, required and suggested readings, targeted writing assignments, and, field experiences. In this study, student perceptions of the usefulness and effectiveness of the Web-based assignments were investigated. A survey was administered to 92 students across three course sections. Most students (85%) were positive about Web-based research, despite some difficulty with completing the assignments. Reasons for their difficulty included lack of knowledge, incompatible software, and outdated address information. Students reported that the Web-based assignments were one effective way to learn about the teaching profession but that more contextual projects, such as field work and writing ethnographies, were more powerful learning tools. The authors examined the construction of the course for possible reasons for this perception and suggested ways to enliven the Web assignments to make them more interactive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
