Teachers’ problem-solving skills in technology-rich environments: a call for workplace learning and opportunities to develop professionally

ABSTRACT

This study focuses on the problem solving skills in technology-rich environments of teachers. PIAAC (Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies) data on adults’ (n = 11,294) competencies, is used to investigate how problem solving skills of teachers are associated with sociodemographic, work-related, and everyday-life related background factors. In addition, the problem solving skills in technology-rich environments of teachers are compared with those of other adults with a higher education degree. The main statistical analyses are conducted with logistic regression models under the design-based framework. Our findings illustrate that teachers’ strong or weak skills seem to be associated with sociodemographic factors and work-related factors. When comparing teachers with other professionals, for high problem solving skills numeracy skill use at home was important on top of the sociodemographic factors, while teachers’ weak skills seem to be associated with fewer ICT skill-use at work on top of the sociodemographic factors. Combining our results with earlier research that emphasises the importance of daily activities at work on the one hand, and the lack of room for teachers to actually work and learn together on the other hand, we argue that teachers may benefit from more opportunities to develop professionally at work.

KEYWORDS:

• Problem solving skills
• technology-rich environments
• teachers
• PIAAC (Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies)
• professional development
• workplace learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

All data used for this study is coming from the public use files (PUF) of the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) of the OECD (see https://www.oecd.org/skills/piaac/publicdataandanalysis/). In the method section of this article we clearly indicated how we analysed this data. Using the PUF also means that the all data has been anonymized before the authors of this study had access to it.

Additional information

Funding

Part of this work was supported by the Academy of Finland [grant number 318095, the Multidisciplinary Research on Learning and Teaching profile II of JYU].