The utilization of technology in the process of teaching and learning, as well as the influence of the COVID-19 crisis on education, are widely recognized and interconnected factors. This investigation is primarily focused on a group of formal education teachers who have received little attention to date, teachers from Official Language Schools, which are a part of the Special Regime Education system of Andalucía, a southern region of Spain, which provides foreign language education. Specifically, we aim to assess their level of digital proficiency in relation to their experience and use of information and communication technology (ICT) in the classroom. We also analyze how the March 2020 lockdown impacted their confidence levels in utilizing ICT in their teaching practices. One hundred and four teachers took part in the study and answered the DigCompEdu check-in questionnaire. The findings indicate that teachers’ overall self-assessment of their digital competence is low, with particular attention needed in the least developed areas, which is the facilitation of digital proficiency to students. Additionally, there are noteworthy differences in the variables of ICT experience and confidence. For example, the amount of time spent utilizing ICT in teaching does not necessarily correlate with teaching proficiency. Based on these results, we discuss potential strategies for enhancing digital competence in this educational group and propose some curriculum content for teacher training in digital competence.
Las competencias digitales docentes son un aspecto esencial en los procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje actuales, especialmente en lo que respecta a la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras. Hasta la fecha, las investigaciones sobre los procesos de digitalización de la enseñanza han prestado su atención en contextos educativos propios de la enseñanza infantil, primaria, secundaria y la educación superior, pero no en las Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas, que en el caso de Andalucía están recogidas como centros que forman parte del proceso de Trasformación Digital Educativa (TDE) impulsado por la Consejería de Educación. En este sentido, se propone una investigación en la que participan 104 docentes que contestan el cuestionario DigCompEdu Check-In. Así pues, los resultados muestran niveles moderados de Competencia Digital. Además, se muestra la inexistencia de diferencias significativas respecto a la variable género y alta significancia en cuanto a la edad. En este sentido, se discuten las posibles vías para el desarrollo competencial.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.