Digital Competence Development in Teacher Education
Summary
Digital competence in teacher education encompasses the knowledge, skills and attitudes required for educators to integrate digital technologies effectively into teaching and learning. Contemporary frameworks broaden the focus beyond technical proficiency to include pedagogical design, ethical use, critical reflection and collaborative practice. Programmes now emphasise experiential learning, where trainee teachers engage with multimedia tools, online platforms and data‐driven assessment methods. This shift responds to global imperatives for 21st‐century skills and has been accelerated by the move to remote and hybrid teaching models. Research highlights the need for coherent curricula that embed digital competence across subject disciplines, promote reflective practice and foster digital agency. Institutions are adopting interdisciplinary approaches, drawing on educational psychology, instructional design and information science to prepare teachers for diverse classroom contexts and to support lifelong professional learning.
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Digital Competence Development in Teacher Education publication trend
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Technical terms
Digital competence: The set of skills, knowledge and attitudes enabling effective, critical and ethical use of digital technologies in teaching and learning contexts.
Teacher digital competence (TDC): A comprehensive framework that integrates technical, pedagogical, content and professional engagement aspects of digital practice for educators.
Professional digital competence (PDC): The specialised capabilities required by teachers and school leaders to steer digital transformation in educational settings, including leadership and administrative tasks.
Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK): A model describing how effective teaching with technology arises from the interplay between technological, pedagogical and subject‐matter knowledge.
Digital agency: The capacity of teachers (and learners) to make informed choices about technology use, to innovate pedagogical practices and to act as change agents in digital environments.
References
- An empirical analysis of EFL teachers’ digital literacy in Chinese higher education institutions. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education (2024).
- Conceptualisation of professional digital competence for school leaders in schools with 1:1 coverage of digital devices. Computers & Education (2024).
- New kid on the block? a conceptual systematic review of digital agency. Education and Information Technologies (2023).
- From digital literacy to digital competence: the teacher digital competency (TDC) framework. Educational technology research and development (2020).
- Teachers’ professional digital competence: an overview of conceptualisations in the literature. Cogent Education (2022).
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