An application of information and communication technologies upon professional training of primary school teachers

ABSTRACT

A critical factor in improving the quality of education, according to researchers, is an increase in the special pedagogical and digital competence of primary school teachers. The novelty of the research lies in the study of the practical results of changes in the quality of knowledge when using a specialized dedicated course of IST in early school education for students of a teacher training college. The study was conducted on a representative sample of 355 College of teacher students at Hunan R&D Center for Applied Talent Cultivation in a Practical Setting (China) based on the results of three examinations after a third and fourth semester of study in a homogeneous group. The chi-squared study showed relevance levels of χ2 = 0.00018, 0.00022, and 0.00011 for the three exams, which rejected the null hypothesis that there was no statistically significant association between the test scores of the control and treatment groups in which the specialized course was used. The practical results of the research can be widely used for the introduction of specialized courses for increasing digital competence and pedagogical competence in the application of ICT for future primary school teachers.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital environment
• digital literacy
• ICT
• pedagogical education
• teacher training

Data availability

Data will be available on request.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Hunan philosophy and Social Science Foundation: [grant number 18YBJ05]; Educational Science Project of Hunan Providence for the 13th Five-Year Plan: [grant number XJK19JGD003]; Evaluation committee of social science achievements of Hunan: [grant number XSP19YBZ135].

Notes on contributors

Cong Zhou

Cong Zhou is a Doctor, Assistant Dean of Teacher Education College of Hunan City University, Yiyang, China. Her research interests are Primary Schools, quality of education, pedagogical competence, digital competence, and educational Technologies.