The professional digital competence (PDC) of teachers is of growing importance in classrooms, now that digital resources and digital media are becoming important parts of teachers' everyday practice. This study explores how newly qualified teachers are prepared to use ICT in their initial teacher education (ITE).We present findings of a nationwide survey in Norway on 356 newly qualified teachers. It explores how these teachers' information and communication technology (ICT) self-efficacy is related to how they perceive the quality of, and contributions from, their ITE related to ICT and the development of their PDC. In general, newly qualified teachers report fairly poor quality and contribution of ICT training during their teacher education. We claim that it is necessary to look at ways to review the quality of ITE and contribute specifically to the development of PDC and developing ICT self-efficacy in ITE. [word count 142]Keywords: newly qualified teachers; professional digital competence; initial teacher education; information and communication technology (ICT); ICT self-efficacy [word count 7,735, excluding abstract and keywords]

Self-efficacy is an important concept for understanding learning and achievement. The concept covers students' self-confidence and their expectations for future performances. Students' learning experiences are crucial for the development of self-efficacy beliefs, which in the next round may affect students' achievements. The present study explores how self-efficacy can be contextualized with information and communication technology in initially 15 countries. A theoretical model is built and tested in each country based on data from the International Computer and Information Literacy Study 2013. The analyses show that students' self-regulation, experience with technology and socioeconomic background explain the variation in their ICT self-efficacy. Further, gender, selfefficacy and socioeconomic background play an important role for understanding students' computer and information literacy. This indicates that ICT self-efficacy is positively related to computer and information literacy when controlled for other student characteristics and background contextual variables. However, the results also reveal a clear distinction between measures of ICT self-efficacy one hand and computer and information literacy on the other. It is therefore necessary to continue elaborating on the differences between what students belief they can do when using ICT and their actual performance with ICT.

My four-year PhD journey has come to an end and made me realize that this would not have been possible without the tremendous support and encouragement from so many people. First, my most sincere gratitude goes to my main supervisor professor, Rolf Vegar Olsen. With a great balance between giving me the freedom and responsibility to shape my projects, and the continued support and guidance to reach my (sometimes far-fetched) goals, this has been an interesting, fun, challenging, and personally and professionally enriching journey. You have always provided academic guidance, and your support, encouragement, and constructive feedback on my work have been extremely valuable to me. I would also like to give my deepest thanks to my co-supervisor, professor Ove Edvard Hatlevik, whom I got halfway through. Your support, valuable comments, and engaging discussions have been immensely important to me. I am also grateful to my second co-supervisor, professor Ola Erstad, who introduced me to the core of the field and has offered his support and useful comments at various stages of my work. My heartfelt thanks go to professor Mark Wilson at the Berkeley Evaluation and Assessment Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley. Thank you so much for supporting my work and generously providing resources and collaborators for all my visits to Berkeley. I feel extremely lucky to have had the chance to work on such a novel assessment and to have been guided by you. I also want to thank David Torres Irribarra for applying for the Peder Saether Center grant with me. Daniel Stansfield, thank you so much for the initial introduction to the technicalities of the assessment software. I am infinitely grateful to my co-author and friend Ronny Scherer. You are indeed a great researcher, but for me also a role model in many ways. Thank you for increasing the quality of my work, for making me sweat and work hard, and for the many great laughs which made all the efforts worth it. Also a huge thanks goes to my co-authors Jo Tondeur, Inger Throndsen, and Perman Gochyeev for the collaboration, motivation, help, and discussions. Your support and generosity have meant a lot to me, and I feel fortunate to have had all of you as co-authors. I need to go a little back in time and thank

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Information and communication technology (ICT) is now an integrated and central element of modern life, and its rapid emergence is changing the execution and organization of work and learning. Digital technology is also important for schools, and hence for teachers’ working days. However, among today’s teachers, not everyone has the knowledge required to teach using digital technology. Recent research indicates that self-efficacy is important for how teachers master their practice. This paper addresses teachers’ ICT self-efficacy for educational purposes, and examines the assumed antecedents of teachers’ self-efficacy. Data from 1,158 teachers at 116 Norwegian schools was analyzed. The results indicate that teachers’ self-efficacy for using ICT in their teaching practice is associated with their use of ICT in teaching and their general ICT self-efficacy. In addition, the results show that collegial collaboration among teachers has a positive association with the use of ICT in their teaching practice. One interpretation of these findings is that general ICT self-efficacy is necessary for developing ICT self-efficacy for educational purposes and being able to use ICT in education. However, further research is required to scrutinize the relationships between these concepts.

Since 2006, the ability to use information and communication technology (ICT) has been included as a key competence in the curriculum in Norway, and specific competence aims are developed for most grades. The aim of this study was to identify students' ability to use ICT according to the competence aims, and to examine factors that can predict students' digital competence. A sample of 1793 students and 125 school leaders from 125 schools was used. The findings show variation in digital competence both between students and between schools. Results from a multilevel analysis showed that higher levels of mastery orientation and self-efficacy (i.e., motivation) and the students' family background (i.e., language integration and the number of books at home) were predictors of students' levels of digital competence. Additionally, when school leaders reported higher levels of culture for professional development among the teachers at school, increased levels of digital competence were found among students. Challenges for schools and teachers to support students' motivation and to emphasize digital inclusion still prevail.