The Effectiveness of Using a Content Acquisition Podcast to Teach Phonological Awareness, Phonemic Awareness, and Phonics to Preservice Special Education Teachers

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of using a content acquisition podcast (CAP) to teach phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics (PA) to preservice special education teachers. Fifty undergraduate preservice special education teachers over 2 years were randomly assigned to either the CAP group or a comparison group during a semester-long course on language development. The CAP group watched a 10-min CAP on PA, and the comparison group read a practitioner-friendly article. As part of the course, both groups were instructed to complete a required textbook chapter reading before class and received an expert guest lecture on these topics following the experimental conditions. There were no pretest differences between groups, years, or between students who completed the required textbook reading and those who did not. Results indicated that the CAP group significantly outperformed the comparison group on declarative knowledge and application items in PA and grew in their learning at a faster rate. CAPs offer an effective and efficient method for teaching PA and, in this study, were more effective at teaching PA and at helping students apply that knowledge than reading alone.