Self-Assessed Digital Competences of Romanian Teachers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Studies on the determinants of school results have shown that they depend largely on the context of learning. Concerning the pandemic, teachers have been forced to find online teaching methods, which leads us to the central issue of this study of whether the effectiveness of online education depends on teachers’ digital skills. Therefore, in this study, we analyzed the perceived digital competences of Romanian pre-tertiary cycle teachers about their professional status, school location, gender, age, taught field, and prior participation in training for online teaching. Using data from 3,419 self-completed questionnaires in an online survey of teachers performed at the beginning of the global lockdown in March 2020, we have built two reliable measures of perceived digital skills, namely the Self-Assessed Multimedia and Online Skills Score (SMOS) and the Self-Assessed Digital Office Skills Score (SDOS), which were the dependent variables in our study. Hierarchical linear regressions were used to test the hypotheses regarding the variations of dependent variables, measuring the two concepts of self-assessed digital skills (SMOS and SDOS). These concepts underlined that both decrease with age and are positively affected by prior attendance at training sessions for online teaching skills and by having ICT and informatics as a taught subject field. However, teachers of all specialties are relatively significantly less skilled in this field. The most important results concern the impact of gender and professional status on the teachers’ self-assessed digital competences. In summary, it appears that self-assessed office digital skills are a specialism demonstrated mainly by female teachers, while multimedia and online skills are perceived by teachers to be a “male” domain. Simultaneously, net of the other variables, a higher status within the teaching profession correlates positively with perceived office digital skills. Lastly, implications for future research, as well as for educational interventions and policies, are discussed.

Effective Teaching during the COVID-19 Pandemic? Distance Learning and Sustainable Communication in Romania

“…Along outdated or even malfunctioning equipment, there are internet connection quality problems worldwide, which imply connection errors as well. Also, concerning the urban-rural cleavage, it has been found that teaching professionals from urban schools perceived themselves as having better digital skills than those from rural educational institutions Hatos et al [39]. There is also a crippling lack of familiarization with the teaching platforms.…”

“…In managing the implementation of online learning, differences were observed between males and females. A study conducted on Romanian population conducted by Hatos et al [39] identifies gender differences regarding self-assessed ICT skills: office digital skills are specific to women, while multimedia and online skills are perceived to be more advanced among men.…”

Basic Psychological Needs And Well-Being Of Students In The Post-Pandemic

“…Therefore it is important to keep in mind that students, as adults, come to courses from various backgrounds and circumstances, with different learning needs, desires and preferences (Laurian-Fitzgerald et al, 2018), and their well-being may be in an associated relationship with several categories of variables, which have not been taken into account in this study. For example, during the pandemic, teachers had to find online teaching methods and the effectiveness of online education could depend on the digital skills of teachers (Hatos et al, 2022) and students, formed rather by self-training. However, the information provided in this study provides us first with the necessary premises to raise awareness of the need for teachers to support students in learning activities in developing educational practices by fulfilling the psychological needs of affiliation and competence, which contribute to maintaining the well-being of students in the university.…”

How good do you think you are with computers? The link between teachers’ perceived digital literacy, occupational efficacy, and psychological distress

“…Additionally, we did not account for a series of variables that might have caused significant variances in our results due to their potential connection with teachers’ digital skills, such as the schools’ location (rural versus urban schools), the teacher’s subject field, or professional status (Hatos et al, 2022 ). Finally, we measured teachers’ professional experience as a linear variable, not a categorical one, as most previous studies did (e.g., Wolters & Daugherty 2007 ).…”