Television Series as a Didactic Tool in the Initial Training of Secondary School Teachers

Abstract

Within the context of Pre-Service Secondary Teacher Education, skills development (PSTE) requires, among other things, the cultivation of critical thinking among future teachers, who must also acquire conflict prevention and resolution skills. To this end, the students of a master’s degree in Secondary School Teacher Training at a Spanish University were asked to analyse, in small groups, the conflicts featured in a television series. The research objective was to learn more about trainee teachers’ opinions regarding this methodology. The results indicate that they had favourable opinions about this method and were highly satisfied with the learning process and with the teamwork. Significant differences according to sex and age were observed. This suggests that forming more heterogeneous work groups in the future would be a good idea. The results also suggest that critical thinking was a good predictor of student satisfaction with the methodology. It would, therefore, be a good idea to develop critical thinking in more depth during PSTE.