Abstract:

Nowadays digital technologies play a central role in education not only due to recent events related to the pandemic that forced us to move - though temporarily and at intervals - towards online teaching/learning but also because of educational policies that encourage the use of digital technologies in education to foster students’ digital competences. An example of this trend is the inclusion of ICT in the curricula for primary education in Portugal since 2018.

In this context, it’s important to understand how primary teachers have been implementing curricular guidelines for ICT and possible connections to their own level of digital competences. For that purpose, a survey of descriptive and exploratory nature was carried out and the results were obtained by means of a questionnaire applied to primary teachers belonging to a teachers’ training centre located in the district of Aveiro, Portugal.

This qualitative study enabled the identification of self-reported practices of in-class digital technology usage by teachers and their self-perceived digital competence level. Accordingly, it was possible to describe how curricular guidelines for ICT had been carried out in primary classrooms and identify teachers’ training needs in digital competences.

Results suggest that curricular guidelines for ICT are at an early stage of implementation, with teachers promoting the use of digital technology occasionally in the teaching and learning process, and with little interference from students. Moreover, the teachers’ digital competences fall into the lowest level of the Digital Competence Framework for Educators (DigCompEdu), ranging from A1 – Newcomer in Assessment and Empowering Learners (areas 4 and 5) to A2 – Explorer in Digital Resources and Teaching and Learning (areas 2 and 3). Consequently, there’s a need for teachers’ professional development in digital competences.

Keywords:

Digital technologies in education, Curricular guidelines for ICT in primary education, Teachers’ digital competences, DigCompEdu.