Profiling digital nativeness of pre-service teachers: validity evidence for the Vietnamese Digital Natives Assessment Scale (V-DNAS)

ABSTRACT

With the increasing significance of technology use in both daily life and education, the digital native assessment scale (DNAS) [developed by Teo, T. (2013). An initial development and validation of a Digital Natives Assessment Scale (DNAS). Computers & Education, 67, 51–57.] has been widely used as a tool to investigate the digital nativeness of different subjects/participants and in different languages worldwide. The current study aimed to continue exploring the cross-cultural invariance of DNAS in the Vietnamese version (V-DNAS) and examine the digital nativeness of Vietnamese pre-service teachers. Using two sources of validity evidence from cognitive response processes and the internal structure of validity of DNAS, the study findings showed that the DNAS, in general, had an adequate model fit in the Vietnamese version, which contributed to confirm the invariance of the scale in different languages. The study also showed that Vietnamese pre-service teachers endorsed all elements of digital nativeness in general, with a significant difference by students’ geographic locations. The study provided contributions for scale validation research and teacher education, alongside suggestions for future research to avoid its limitations.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital natives
• digital native assessment scale
• validity evidence
• pre-service teachers
• Vietnam

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Diem Thi Ngoc Hoang

Diem T. N. Hoang is a lecturer at Thai Nguyen University, Vietnam. She completed her master’s degree at Lehigh University (USA) with a Fulbright scholarship, and her PhD at Edith Cowan University (Australia). Her research areas include technology-enhanced learning and teaching, language learning beyond classroom, and teacher training.

Huy Phung

Huy Phung is currently a PhD candidate in Second Language Studies at University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. His research interests include Second Language Acquisition, Task-Based Language Teaching, technology-mediated communication, and language assessment.

Nhi Tran

Nhi Tran is an educator at Thai Nguyen University, Vietnam. Currently, she is a PhD student at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Her research interests include quality assurance in education, education policies, and foreign language learning and teaching.