Teacher professional development of digital competence

Abstract

The increasingly digitally mediated learning environment has heightened the need for teacher professional development of digital competence. Ubiquitous digital surroundings have transformed how young people access information, communication, and learn. In response to that, digital competence-related content has been introduced in school curricular all over the world. Teachers need to develop the capacity for teaching new content and integrate digital competence in different subjects and their daily practices in schools.

The purpose of the study was to understand how digital competence was integrated in teacher professional development, from the perspectives of educational experts and teachers. This study may suggest potential lessons to be learnt from the Finnish context, and may anticipate different stakeholders to create more favourable conditions that facilitate teachers for professional development of digital competence.

This study was derived from a research project from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Framework Programme called ySKILLS (youth skills). It implemented the constructivist grounded theory approach as the framework for data collection and analysis, underscoring the collaboration of empirical data, rigorous coding, and conceptualization in a qualitative study. Empirical data included eight semi-structured interviews with local educational experts and upper secondary school teachers. The data were transcribed and analyzed with the facilitation of qualitative research analysis software atlas.ti.

The findings indicated both educational expert and teacher respondents shared the understanding that digital competence is versatile and multifaceted, teachers need to continuously adapt to the changes by professionally develop themselves. The findings also reflected the lack of common understanding of digital competence in the curriculum by policy makers, school leaders and teachers. Besides, although teachers in Finland possess extensive professional autonomy, it was affirmed in the findings that teacher professional development of digital competence was not only an individual issue of teachers’ personal motivation, but it could also be positively or negatively influenced by various external factors, such as educational leadership and policy and resources. The study also highlights proliferation of self-initiated learning and community of practice as effective ways for teacher professional development of digital competence.

The findings implied the need for teacher professional development of digital competence to move beyond activities. Instead, it is important to design conditions that support teachers’ continuous learning on digital competence. The following four aspects could be considered. First, promoting ongoing deliberation for common understanding on digital competence in the curriculum. Second, designing conditions for practical use of digital competence that have genuine connection with school reality. Third, nurturing positive sharing culture to facilitate professional knowledge exchange. Last, designing a policy that recognizes and supports the increasing online happenings of self-initiated learning and community of practice for teachers' professional development of digital competence.