Will–Skill–Tool Components as Key Factors for Digital Media Implementation in Education: Austrian Teachers’ Experiences with Digital Forms of Instruction during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Although comprehensive digitalization (e.g., the provision of skills and resources) had already been placed on Austria’s education policy agenda prior to the emergence of COVID-19, there is evidence that educators had some difficulty ensuring digital learning opportunities for their students when schools closed in early 2020. Against this backdrop, the present study, which drew on qualitative data from the large-scale INCL-LEA (Inclusive Home Learning) study, aimed to determine whether secondary school teachers (n = 17) from Viennese schools met the prerequisites for successfully implementing digital instruction, formulated in the Will–Skill–Tool model developed by Christensen and Kzenek (2008). Findings reveal that teachers primarily associated their sufficient digital skills with three factors: (1) basic interest and competence, (2) recently attended training, and/or (3) a positive attitude toward changing teaching practices. Interestingly, some educators recognized that digitization offers great potential for implementing individualized teaching approaches. However, the findings point to the didactic necessity of digital socialization in terms of social communication and inclusion when establishing emergency digital education.

Primary School Teachers’ Perspectives on Emergency Remote Teaching of Mathematics: Challenges and Opportunities for the Post-COVID-19 Era

“…Our findings regarding teachers' positive dispositions toward some aspects of ERT and the opportunities for the transformation of teaching and learning it has provided are in line with the international literature [12,14,18,46,62]. In the interview study described in [14], for example, the increase in "new experiences" with digital media was, similarly to our study, also seen as an opportunity to redesign instruction. Accordingly, several teachers repeatedly emphasized that the new and unfamiliar classroom situation opened up opportunities for "innovative action" [14].…”

“…In the interview study described in [14], for example, the increase in "new experiences" with digital media was, similarly to our study, also seen as an opportunity to redesign instruction. Accordingly, several teachers repeatedly emphasized that the new and unfamiliar classroom situation opened up opportunities for "innovative action" [14]. Overall, the literature suggests that educators tend to view education at a distance more positively than students do, to highlight the positive aspects of the distance education process, and to draw attention to the importance of sustaining education [18].…”

“…Research conducted in the early stages of the pandemic indicated that educational systems around the world were not adequately prepared to deal with the rapid changes in teaching methods imposed by ERT [4,[8][9][10]. Teachers, in particular, faced numerous obstacles in adapting to teaching at a distance, both in maintaining a minimum level of communication with students to adequately support and monitor their learning progress and in achieving their instructional goals [11][12][13][14]. A significant challenge that has emerged in the international literature concerns educators' limited skills in the use of digital technologies to support ERT.…”

“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts” – Exploring teachers’ technology readiness profiles and its relation to their emotional state during COVID-19 emergency remote teaching

“…Lastly, the third profile was mainly represented by teachers scoring equivalently among the three technology readiness domains. Based on the empirical evidence (Neyer et al, 2012;Petko et al, 2018;Amhag et al, 2019;Adov and Mäeots, 2021;Woltran et al, 2022), it can be assumed that such teachers are convinced that technology is beneficial, recognize the added value of technology, consider themselves competent to use digital technology, as well as have positive control beliefs and experiences in technology-relevant situations. When comparing the three profiles based on their demographic variables of gender, teaching experience, and school track, only a significant association between technology readiness profile and gender was found.…”

“…Technology readiness differences at the individual level based on these three facets should not only substantially associated with variables such as self-efficacy and emotional stability, but also with an individual's actual technology use (Neyer et al, 2012). Thus, based on such theoretical and empirical considerations, it can be assumed that teachers who are successful and effective in using technology are convinced that technology is beneficial for both instructional purposes and students learning, recognize the added value of technology, consider themselves competent to use digital technology (Woltran et al, 2022), as well as have positive control beliefs and experiences in technology-relevant situations (i.e., user friendliness; Amhag et al, 2019;Adov and Mäeots, 2021).…”