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136 | Digital Media and Storytelling in Higher Education better on the subject knowledge test than the control group. In addition, the DST students scored higher results on tests of self-efficacy and motivation (Yang & Wu, 2012). Ng and Nicholas (2015) include components of self-efficacy in their framework of competencies for the teaching profession. Self-efficacious teachers are seen as those who view themselves as competent and confident, and believe that they can control pedagogical situations. In Heos (2009) study, the self-efficacy of 98 pre-service teachers toward using digital tools for teaching (i.e., their feeling able to use ICT tools appropriately and adequately in the classroom) increased significantly after they were introduced to DST (Heo, 2009). DST was also used to increase students’ conceptual self-efficacy In Yang and Wu’s (2012) and Campbell’s (2012) experiments, and Kotluk and Kocakaya (2017) used DST to increase students’ self-efficacy in the physics classroom. Student motivation was also very high in the previously mentioned Italian PoliCultura project. The reasons for this, according to Di Blas and Paolini (2013), were (1) the publicity given by the national initiative, (2) the competitive environment and (3) the collaborative work. Smeda et al. (2014) observed lower and upper-grade students in five different subject areas in an Australian school and conducted interviews with their teachers. They found that students showed different levels of enthusiasm at different stages of DST. They were least enthusiastic about storyboarding and most enthusiastic about presenting the digital stories. However, motivation was particularly high when it came to students’ group and inter-group collaboration in terms of technological and grammatical problem solving, and in sharing digital stories online and connecting with other network groups. It was found that the cooperative activities of DST provided a strong emotional and motivational background for learners throughout the process (Smeda et al., 2014). The relationship between self-confidence and motivation was further investigated in a study carried out in a primary school class. Four of the 26 pupils in the experiment, aged 9-10, had special educational needs, and five were non-native speakers of English. The student population was heterogeneous in terms of socio-economic status. The students explored the theme of antiquity, and the phases were divided into one session per week for four weeks. According to the findings of the experiment, the students effectively used the tablets in groups while interacting with each other. Their high level of motivation was evident from their autonomous learning choices, such as downloading editing software to their smart devices at home which they used later on in the project. All students, especially those who had language and/or learning difficulties at school, reported a particular sense of achievement and pride at the end of the process. According to the teacher who participated in the experiment, the method had a clear positive impact on students’ text production skills, as even students who had previously been too shy to communicate in the classroom were able to express themselves
