Evaluating Teachers’ Digital Competencies during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Jafari, E.; RezaeiZadeh,, M.; Shahverdi,, R.; Bandali, B.; Abolghasemi, M.

doi:10.22061/tej.2024.10320.2996

Document Type : Original Research Paper

Authors

Department of Education, Faculty of Educational Science & Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22061/tej.2024.10320.2996

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Today, teachers need a set of broader and more complex qualifications than before. In order for e-learning to be successful, front-line teachers must employ the necessary technological knowledge and effective pedagogical strategies to use ICT in the classroom. Also, to accompany young learners in the development of digital competences, it is necessary that their teachers have the necessary digital literacy and competence in the first place. Therefore, digital competence is one of the key competences for teachers. For this reason, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the status of digital educational competencies of teachers based on the European Union framework.
Methods: The current research design was quantitative and the participants in the research were 182 teachers from all over the country from 20 provinces and 46 different cities. To evaluate the digital educational competencies of teachers, a virtual workshop entitled "Teacher; On the way to digitalization" was held. After introducing and explaining each competence, the teacher provided the question related to the competence to the participants through the link of Google form, so that the questionnaire could be completed in this way. The questionnaire included 3 general competencies and 10 sub-competencies. Each competency had three levels: Novice and Explorer, Expert and Integrator, and Leader and Pioneer. In fact, the teacher evaluated him/herself based on these three levels of each competency.
Findings: The results showed that the competence status of teachers' digital resources in the field of managing, protecting and sharing digital resources and creating and modifying digital resources was at the level of "novice and explorer" and "integrator and expert", respectively. In relation to teaching and learning competence, except self-regulated learning competence, which was at the "novice and explorer" level, other competences were at the "integrator and expert" level. Competence of "assessment strategies" and "analyzing evidence" was also at the level of "novice and explorer". Regarding other competencies, no significant relationship between levels was observed. Also, no significant relationship was found between demographic components (occupation, age, gender, and province) and competencies.
Conclusion: In the current research, in addition to familiarizing the teachers with this framework and the types of digital competencies they need in the teaching profession, the evaluation of the digital competencies of the participants was also considered. Since the evaluation was done along with the training, it can be said with more confidence that the obtained data was more accurate. Also, evaluating teachers' digital competencies based on a spectrum or progression model helps to better and more accurately evaluate teachers and develop their digital competencies. In this case, training will be need-based and personalized in some way. Also, investigating the relationship between demographic components and the state of competencies leads to a more accurate understanding of the current situation of teachers in the country. In general, the results of using this self-evaluation can be used to adjust training courses and empower teachers and help teachers' educational preparation. One of the suggestions of this research for future researchers is to consider the evaluation of other competencies of the DigCompEdu framework. In the current research, the main focus was on basic competencies, that is, digital resources, teaching and learning, and assessment.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Electronic learning- virtual

COPYRIGHTS
© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)

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