Exploring the digital competence of pre-service teachers on entry onto an initial teacher education programme in Ireland

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the digital competence of recent entrants into a pre-service teacher education programme in an Irish University. The participants were drawn from a cohort of 208 undergraduate teacher education students. The study employed an online survey that captured both self-reported levels of digital competence and knowledge of key areas of cyber ethics and digital technology. The respondents were active users of technology and very frequent users of social media but reported levels of skills in the use of other digital technologies were lower. In addition, their knowledge of cyber-ethics and associated practices varied. The study also found that they were positively disposed to technology in teaching. The paper argues that, while there are limitations to surveys that aim to capture one’s level of digital competence, they can help guide teacher educators in responding to pre-service teachers. However, digital competence is an evolving concept and care must be taken to ensure that frameworks and tools used to assess it do not stifle teachers’ autonomy in relation to their utilisation of technology.

Keywords:

• digital competence
• teacher education
• ICT in education
• cyber ethics

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Erasmus+ KA203 – Strategic partnership – Higher Education programme under Grant number 2017-1-NO01-KA203-034194

Notes on contributors

Oliver McGarr

Oliver McGarr is a senior lecturer in the School of Education with research and teaching interests in the areas of Educational Technology, Reflective Practice and STEM Education. He is the former head of the School of Education and a former course director of the Masters in ICT in Education and the Postgraduate Diploma in Education (Technology).

Adrian McDonagh

Adrian McDonagh is the Chief Technical Officer in the School of Education at the University of Limerick. Based in the Educational Technology Centre, he is currently exploring the integration of digital technologies in initial teacher education and has previously researched the coordination and leadership of ICT in Irish second-level schools.