Identifying predictors of digital competence of educators and their impact on online guidance

Abstract

In the current socio-health situation, new educational challenges have emerged, such as the need to implement a virtual tutorial action. Therefore, this study has three objectives: (1) to investigate the level of digital competence that early childhood and primary school teachers possess to carry out quality online tutorial actions; (2) to analyse whether there are differences in use at both education stages; and (3) to identify which variables significantly affect the development of this competence at each educational stage. For this purpose, an ex post facto design was used, based on the survey technique, by means of non-probabilistic purposive sampling. The final sample consisted of a total of 1,069 educators working at the early childhood and primary education stages, from all over Spain. The results showed acceptable digital competence, with higher scores in the primary education stage, which may be due to characteristics of the students and the education stage itself, rather than to teachers’ digital competences. On the other hand, it was found that the virtual tutorial action tasks are significantly influenced in the early childhood education stage by blogs, WhatsApp, Facebook, and number of tutoring hours per month with families, while for the primary stage they are influenced by blogs, WhatsApp, Twitter, ClassDojo, Moodle, tutoring hours, number of tutoring hours per month with families, and sex. Based on these results, there is an obvious need for educational institutions to continue to develop teacher training in relation to the use of resources to carry out adequate tutoring actions and thus increase the diversification in the use of resources.

Permanent training as a predictor of success in the digital competence of Education teachers carrying out the online tutorial action

“…Similar findings were made at the Primary Education stage (Cabero-Almenara et al, 2022), although on this occasion gender differences were found (Guillén-Gámez et al, 2022). For example, Guillén-Gámez & Mayorga-Fernandez (2022) analyzed the digital competence perceptions of 847 rural Primary Education teachers from across Spain, finding that the level of competence was medium and gender representing a significant predictor. In this line, Stenman & Pettersson (2020) analyzed the level of digital competence of Primary and Secondary Education teachers, resulting in a good level of competence, although a lack of knowledge for online teaching was found.…”

“…The scientific literature has shown in recent years that in general, the level of digital competence is low or at best intermediate at the Early Childhood Education stage (García-Zabaleta et al, 2021) with no significant difference between genders (Guillén-Gámez et al, 2022). Similar findings were made at the Primary Education stage (Cabero-Almenara et al, 2022), although on this occasion gender differences were found (Guillén-Gámez et al, 2022).…”

“…The scientific literature has shown in recent years that in general, the level of digital competence is low or at best intermediate at the Early Childhood Education stage (García-Zabaleta et al, 2021) with no significant difference between genders (Guillén-Gámez et al, 2022). Similar findings were made at the Primary Education stage (Cabero-Almenara et al, 2022), although on this occasion gender differences were found (Guillén-Gámez et al, 2022). For example, Guillén-Gámez & Mayorga-Fernandez (2022) analyzed the digital competence perceptions of 847 rural Primary Education teachers from across Spain, finding that the level of competence was medium and gender representing a significant predictor.…”

Digital Competences of Pre-service Teachers in Italy and Poland

“…This type of research is particularly valuable in the discussion on the level of preparation of new generations of teachers for their profession in the information society. (Guillén-Gámez et al, 2022). This text is a study that fills a gap not only in how the digital competences of future pedagogical staff are operationalized, but also allows for a comparison of the level of preparation of pedagogical students in two European countries.…”

Key factors influencing teachers’ motivation to transfer technology-enabled educational innovation

“…Although teachers gained valuable experience in the use of digital technology in remote teaching (Myyry et al, 2022), research and practice show that teachers' digital educational competencies vary considerably (Lavidas et al, 2022;Howard et al, 2021b;Scherer et al, 2021;Sánchez-Cruzado et al, 2021;Minea-Pic, 2020). This is especially relevant when it comes to innovative and advanced use of digital technologies in educational practices, particularly, in primary education (Diz-Otero et al, 2023;Guillén-Gámez et al, 2022;Trust & Whalen, 2021;Jevsikova et al, 2021). The ability to use digital technologies in educational practices on an advanced level of technological creativity and coding are necessary characteristics for twentyfirst-century learners (IEEE Standards Association, 2020).…”