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The Creation of Online Mini-Takeaway Lessons as a Reflective Instrument in Teacher Education

in asynchronous online mode. This is in line with the results of a study con-
ducted by Gungor (2016) in which future teachers started detecting their lim-
itations and thinking of effective solutions after going through a reflective
process.

ICT Competences
Thethirdresearchquestionwasaimedatanalysingthestudents’perceptions
of their own ICT competence. The following themes were identified: confi-
dence using ICT, self-taught user, problems with PPT functions, difficulties
creating interactive activities, and technical issues.
The majority of participants reported feeling competent using ICT for
teaching purposes, explaining that they use ICT in other areas of life and
find it easy to transfer the skills and knowledge to the field of teaching or
gain new knowledge related to ICT use. However, approximately one fourth
of the participants said they did not feel competent (enough) and that they
struggled with various aspects of creating an online lesson. Moreover, half
of the students noted that they developed their ICT competence on their
own, informally, not in their study course, either through online tutorials and
videos or with the help of friends and schoolmates. Some students were sur-
prised and impressed by the YouTube tutorials made by Slovene in-service
teachers of English during the pandemic, as they realized how important and
useful ICT knowledge was for a contemporary teacher, especially in remote
teaching circumstances. At the same time, they felt they were let down by
their instructors at the university and perceived themselves as self-taught
users of digital technology. As Casillas Martín, Cabezas Gonzalez, and Garcia
Penalvo (2020) point out, ICT training is a necessary requirement in the ed-
ucation of future teachers and should therefore be reinforced both in terms
of advanced ICT competence and its application for teaching purposes.
The participants mostly chose the PowerPoint format (except one who
chose Prezi) for their MTL and reported problems using various functions,
like voice recording, inserting audio and video elements, and creating ani-
mations. The use of these functions is closely linked to creating interactive
activities with automated feedback, which represent the core of an MTL. Stu-
dents reported feeling frustrated because they felt they lacked appropriate
ICT competence to design high-quality MTLs. For example, they were not
able to include certain activities or elements in the lesson because they did
not know how to create them online. As the study process was moved online
due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students were forced to study from home
with whatever IT equipment was available to them. Several participants re-

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