Project-Based Learning: Cultivating Specialized Language Skills in Pre-Service Educators

Pedagogical education is affected by the rapidly developing digital technologies. Digital pedagogy optimizes the knowledge acquisition process. Digital project-based learning focuses on independent planning and solution. Being an efficient approach to developing foreign-language skills, it remains understudied, especially in vocational education. This research tested a model of digital project-based learning aimed at developing foreign-language professional skills in future preschool teachers. The experiment featured twelve students of Nekrasov Pedagogical College, St. Petersburg. Following a comprehensive literature meta-analysis, the model was validated using a robust mixed-methods assessment framework. The students demonstrated a surge in linguistic, academic, professional, and supra-professional skills. The digital project-based learning model proved to be an effective means of developing foreign-language specialized competence in college students and requires further research on a larger sample.