Classroom videos or transcripts? A quasi-experimental study to assess the effects of media-based learning on pre-service teachers’ situation-specific skills of classroom management

To overcome the separation of theory and practice in teacher education, media-based learning has moved into focus. We examined whether a training with video-based, transcript-based, or media-combined learning cases show different effects on the promotion of situation-specific skills of classroom management. 162 pre-service teachers were assigned to three corresponding intervention groups. The results of our pre-post design show that the combination of videos and transcripts was most effective regarding the promotion of classroom management expertise. Our data does not support the assumption that working with videos leads to higher cognitive load than working with transcripts, but working with videos was perceived as more cognitively activating. Overall, case-based learning is a promising avenue to connect theory and practice in teacher education.