Teaching children to read has been one of the primary functions of education systems throughout history; however, not all children are adequately prepared for reading success. Students with disabilities, particularly those identified with Specific Learning Disabilities, demonstrate lower rates of reading proficiency than their nondisabled peers. In part, this discrepancy relates to the limitations of teachers' knowledge and skills to delivering effective reading instruction, especially to students with disabilities. Significant attention has been paid to integrating the five pillars of reading (i.e., phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension) identified by the National Reading Panel (2000) within teacher preparation. Despite the critical role reading fluency plays as a bridge between decoding and comprehension abilities, research on teachers' knowledge and skills related to this area of reading instruction remains relatively limited. Researchers and teacher educators have sought to address these interconnected issues by improving the quality of teacher preparation and increasing teacher candidates' knowledge of evidence-based practices in reading. Using multimedia instruction through Content Acquisition Podcasts (CAPs) is one innovative approach to more adequately preparing preservice teachers to deliver reading instruction. CAPs are a specific type of multimedia module aligned with theories of cognitive load and learner motivation. Past studies have documented the efficacy of CAPs for improving preservice special educators' knowledge of several reading constructs (i.e., phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, phonics, and vocabulary) through randomized controlled trials. However, researchers have not yet explored how and why CAPs work, nor have studies focused on building knowledge about reading fluency. Because of the selected research designs, these studies have also not included learners' perspectives on their engagement and motivation while learning from a CAP. Employing an explanatory sequential mixed methods design with a case selection variant, this study addressed the following research question: How do learner perceptions of their engagement and motivation while watching a CAP on reading fluency relate to differences in scores on a knowledge measure? The purposes for mixing were initiation, development, and complementarity, and mixing happened at the points of sampling, data collection, and data analysis. In the initial, quantitative phase, participants (N = 80) watched a reading fluency CAP and completed a pre-posttest knowledge measure using the Teacher's Knowledge of Reading Fluency Survey (Lane et al., 2009). After scoring, results from the pre-posttest were stratified by major and growth to identify four groups (i.e., top third and bottom third of each major). Selected participants from each stratum (n = 18) completed follow-up interviews using a stimulated recall protocol. Results of this study indicate that participants learned about reading fluency from watching the CAP, and that engagement appeared to influence learning from a CAP more than motivation. Motivation was not variable across participants, but engagement differed between participants in the top and bottom strata. Participants who reported engaging through specific strategy use (e.g., notetaking, verbal rehearsal) were more likely to score in the top third for their major. Thus, engagement appeared to be more closely connected to learning than motivation. Additionally, findings from the qualitative phase highlight the use of video conditions (i.e., speed, closed captioning) as well as the lingering impact of COVID-19 related school closures on perceptions of multimedia learning. These findings provide specific guidance for teacher educators on how to effectively integrate CAPs into their pedagogy, such as what types of content are suitable for CAPs and how to set clear expectations about their use. More generally, the results of this study also highlight the importance of scaffolding independent learning tasks by teaching and modeling specific strategy use, the dissonance between self-reports and assessment of knowledge, and student attitudes toward multimedia instruction. Implications for research include replicating this study within a reading course to explore contextualized learning, expanding the use of mixed methods research design to evaluate the effectiveness of teacher education, and enhancing the theoretical frameworks that undergird CAPs to include accessibility features and to acknowledge the influence of COVID-19 on multimedia learning. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]