The use of memes in literature studies while training intending primary school teachers

Abstract

The purpose of the research is theoretical and empirical study of the educational value of a meme in designing learning materials for higher education. The article presents the arguments supporting the necessity to use hypertextuality, multimedia, interactivity, and edutainment technologies as the ways to transform learning materials in literature studies in the course of training primary school teachers. The study proves the necessity to supplement the linear verbal content of the lecturer with a multicultural visual support. The transition from passive to interactive learning is due to the implementation of a system-and-activity approach, the DIY principle (do-it-yourself or “self-activity”), which gives students an opportunity to model, create, develop, and design their own educational products. The article presents various definitions of the meme in scientific discourse: the meme as a unit of non-genetic cultural information (R. Dawkins); meme as a translator of the socio-cultural code (N. A. Zinovieva); meme as a media virus (D. Rushkoff); meme as an independent media genre (Danuta Kępa-Figura); meme as a media text (S. V. Kanashina); meme as a token (M. Coeckelbergh); meme as an object of cyber-laughter culture (M. B. Rotanova, M. V. Fedorova). Hypothesis: a meme as a semantic construct, an intellectual tool comprising a cognitive component, and visual and textual narrative keeps students’ attention alert in studying the material. It has a positive emotional resource and can be considered as an implicit tool to increase the reader’s interest and students’ literary literacy. The study was carried out on a sample of students of pedagogical classes, students and graduates of pedagogical university programmes (N = 130) aged 15 to 52 years old, including 78% (101 persons) of women and 22% of men (29 persons). The researcher used a questionnaire aimed at identifying attitudes to a meme as a means of the Internet communication and educational resource (T. G. Firsova). In the applied aspect, the presented materials can be used in the teaching practice of higher education. Implementation of the edutainment technology can be realized through the use of situational cases, multimedia, interactive game elements, new genres of mass culture, including memes, motivators, and demotivators, in the educational process.