Learning and Teaching Astronomy with Digital Tools promotes Physics Student Teachers’ digital Competencies

In this paper, we study the experiences of physics student teachers when they are asked to use modern digital toolswithin learner-centered astronomy education. Since digital tools are of particular importance in astronomy, this contextprovides an authentic setting for testing the effects of both, learning and teaching, for digital competence. The projectwas carried out as a highly-modified tutorial accompanying an introductory astronomy lecture with 20 M.Ed. physicsstudents. The student teachers were given an opportunity to apply the techniques learned within day-long projectscarried out with visiting school classes. A significant increase in digital competence, assessed by a TPACKself-assessment, was observed after the 13-week tutorial. From interviews, twelve main strengths (e.g. familiarity withdigital tools) and two main weaknesses (e.g. preparation for exam) of the course could be identified. The developedastronomy course concept can be easily adapted to conditions of other universities and the digital tools developed orused can also be adopted in high school classes.