The Twitter social media platform and pre-service teacher training? A teacher education exploratory study

To meet modern study needs, universities have expanded online delivery modes to ensure greater flexibility, convenience and accessibility beyond traditional classroom boundaries for students. Online delivery of courses has also meant greater consideration is required into how learning resources and support can be facilitated within university classes (McMahon & Dinan Thompson, 2014). A consideration for universities in this expanding online market is to how to connect and align learning with the emergence of Web 2.0 technologies which include social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Such social media platforms have transformed how the public can communicate across work disciplines, countries and contexts (Casey, Goodyear, & Armour, 2016). Moreover, the educative purposes of these social media platforms such as Twitter are continuing to be unearthed by exploring the potential of tapping into students' 'personalised' social worlds to develop students' learning (Junco, Heiberger & Loken, 2011). The Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group (TEMAG) identifies key areas such as the use of innovative technology, providing strategies to improve 'classroom readiness' and innovative program design and delivery to strengthen what providers teach. The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) standards also note the importance of using information technology, variety in teaching strategies and engagement in professional learning to improve practice. Yet there is an absence of research determining the potential of social media within teacher education training, especially in Health and Physical Education Teacher Education (H-PETE). The aim of this paper is to therefore determine pre-service teachers' perceptions of the potential facilitators and barriers to using Twitter within H-PETE training, underpinned by a constructivist online learning framework. Pre-service teachers (n=35) enrolled at a regional Australian university were recruited to participate via online survey. Themes will be unearthed into how pre-service teachers perceive Twitter to be valuable or restrictive for classroom readiness during H-PETE training across teaching, learning and other communicative areas. Drawing on the recently published findings by Harvey and Hyndman (2018) relating to 'in-service' physical education professionals' use of Twitter, interpretive comparisons will be drawn. The findings from the study will offer guidance to tertiary institutions as to whether Twitter can be an important inclusion to improve classroom readiness within H-PETE and other teacher education units both now and into the future.