Using An Adaptive E-learning Platform to Develop Faculty of Education EFL Majors’ Critical Reading and Digital Competence

Adaptive instructional practices are considered a cornerstone of effective EFL pedagogy. Given that recent educational reform efforts implementing adaptive teaching in the foreign language context have been particularly difficult, the current study attempts to contribute to the literature on the effect of adaptive teaching and learning on improving EFL student teachers’ critical reading and digital competence. It aims at identifying the effectiveness of using an adaptive e-learning platform to develop Faculty of Education EFL majors’ critical reading and digital competence. The research follows the quasi-experimental two-group pre-post design. A program using an adaptive e-learning platform was prepared by the researcher. The research sample consisted of (80) male and female Minia University Faculty of Education third-year English majors divided into two equal groups in number (40 for each group). Two instruments were prepared by the researcher and used to collect data for the study. These instruments were the critical reading test and the digital competence test. The findings revealed the effectiveness of the program in developing the experimental group participants’ critical reading and digital competence as indicated by the statistically significant improvement of their scores in the post-tests. These findings were discussed and recommendations and suggestions for further research were made in relation to the ongoing debate regarding the role of personalized education. It is concluded that adaptive pedagogy with the help of technology could be an alternative and effective approach to suit the learners' needs and abilities.