The Utilisation of a Mobile Phone Forum on the Winksite application in the teaching and learning of History: A case study of Pre-service Teachers at Makerere University
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Date
2018
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Yesterday and Today
Abstract
The teaching and learning process is becoming a big challenge at Higher
Education Institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is mainly due to the constraints
created by the liberalisation of university education and the implied surge in
student numbers. In the area of History education particularly, the challenge
of large student numbers has forced lecturers to predominantly use behaviourist
teaching methods such as lecture and recitation. These methods are characterised by
constrained dialogical conversations between lecturers and students, memorising of
History facts, dates and limit students’ capacity to think historically, which in turn
compromises the quality of learning about the past. This article argues for the use of
Mobile phone forums as lenses from the present that afford dialogical construction
of meanings about the past. A qualitative approach with a case study design
was used limited to pre-service teachers (students) at the Makerere University,
Uganda. A Critical Discourse Analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data
obtained from the students’ engagement on the Mobile phone forum by means
of the winksite application. The key research findings demonstrated that mobile
phone forums enhance interactions between lecturers-students, students-students as
a helpful precondition for collaborative learning and reflection about the human
past. Conclusions was drawn with a recommendation for History educators to
embrace mobile phone forums as a sustainable innovation at the African higher
educational context with a potential to enhance dialogical conversations between
the past the present and the anticipated future.
Description
Keywords
Critical Discourse Analysis, History teaching and learning, Interactivity, M-Learning, Mobile phone forums, Winksite application
Citation
Sebbowa, D. K., & Muyinda, P. B. (2018). The Utilisation of a Mobile Phone Forum on the Winksite application in the teaching and learning of History: A case study of Pre-service Teachers at Makerere University. Yesterday and Today, (20), 124-147. http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2223-0386/2018/n19a6