Assessment of University Teachers on their digital competences

It has become increasingly important to train for an educational culture that makes use of digital technology to enhance its practices. Frameworks such as DigCompEdu enable identification of weaknesses and areas which require more training. This paper presents the results of a case study with 249 participants from a Portuguese University examining differences in the digital competence of teachers according to gender, age, faculty and experience. Based on the data obtained, it was found that there were no significant differences and that it was, therefore, more important to consider training for digital empowerment according to the different areas of the DigCompEdu framework and to address weaknesses found in each of these areas.

In recent years, a Fourth Industrial Revolution emerged in public discourse as a narrative of exceptional societal disruption. At the core of this conceptual construct, led by the World Economic Forum, rests a sociotechnical imaginary of future essentialism, based on the revolutionary potential of digital, biological and physical innovations. This article addresses the lack of studies assessing the dynamics between the institutionalisation and the public performance of the Fourth Industrial Revolution concept through news media. We present the results of a quantitative content analysis of how the topic has been covered (frames, sources, tone) by the Portuguese national circulation press (2013–2020). This exploratory case study informs a proposal for an epistemic and methodological articulation between the theoretical frameworks of sociotechnical imaginaries and of media framing.

The current pandemic crisis the world is living in has brought new and emerging challenges to teachers, making it essential to acquire digital skills, especially in virtual learning environments and online technologies. In this sense, from the DigCompEdu CheckIn self-assessment questionnaire, validated for the Portuguese population by Dias-Trindade, Moreira, and Nunes (2019), the research presented in this paper aims to identify the most fragile and robust areas of digital skills of primary and secondary education (ISCED) perceived by teachers in Portugal. The quantitative methodological approach emphasizes teachers' perception of their digital skills in three dimensions: teachers’ professional competences, teachers’ pedagogical competences and students' competences and involved 434 teachers from mainland Portugal and the Autonomous Regions. The results allow us to conclude that teachers have an overall moderate level of digital proficiency – level B1 - Integrators – and the dimensions pedagogical competences and students’ competences are those where teachers have more weaknesses than in other levels. From a panorama observed before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is possible to understand their needs regarding work that involves digital technologies at different moments in the teaching activity. The results thus, show the need for teachers to increase their level of digital competence through specific training and the importance of developing public policies that prepare teachers for a more digital school.

Digital Technologies’ potential has brought new challenges to teachers, making it essential to acquire digital competences that will allow them to effectively use those technologies. The aim of this research is to assess the Portuguese high school teachers’ digital competence level. The quantitative methodology used emphasises the teachers’ perception of their digital competences in three focal dimensions: teachers’ professional and pedagogic competences and learners’ competences. The findings show that teachers’ digital competence level is moderate; the dimensions with the lowest values are “teachers’ pedagogic competences” and “learners’ competences”. Subdimensions Assessment, Empowering Learners and Facilitating Learners’ Digital Competence are the weakest.

Hoy vivimos en una era donde lo real y lo virtual están cada vez más entrelazados, pero también donde todavía hay un largo camino por recorrer cuando se trata de integrar tecnologías digitales en entornos educativos. Se argumenta, por lo tanto, que es necesario comprender lo que significa ser digitalmente competente y, sobre todo, darse cuenta de que esta construcción incluye la alfabetización y la fluidez digitales como etapas de un conocimiento en evolución. En este contexto, el cuestionario DigCompEdu CheckIn permite a los profesores identificar su competencia en el uso de tecnologías digitales y sugerir estrategias para superar las dificultades existentes y lograr lo que se puede considerar como fluidez digital, que no solo hace uso de las tecnologías digitales, sino también para comprender cuándo este uso es rentable para lograr los objetivos deseados. Este documento presenta los resultados preliminares de un estudio piloto realizado en una Universidad como un ejemplo de la relevancia de DigCompEdu CheckIn como modelo de autoevaluación para determinar la etapa de competencia digital en la que se encuentran los profesores y cuál es la capacitación adecuada para evolucionar hacia la fluidez digital. Los feedbacks proporcionados por el cuestionario, además de identificar las áreas donde los profesores son más frágiles, proporcionan sugerencias para mejorar, permitiendo el diseño de formación específica que se adapte a las necesidades individuales. Por lo tanto, cada profesor, a su propio ritmo, puede asistir a la formación adecuada, dependiendo de los niveles obtenidos en las seis áreas de competencia del cuestionario.