Abstract:

SELFIEforTEACHERS aims to support teachers’ further develop their digital competence through a self-reflection process. By using SELFIEforTEACHERS, teachers learn more about digital competence and identify areas where they can develop further. At the same time, it can support education policy on teacher professional learning and development programmes.

This contribution will present the findings of an action on supporting teacher professional development in the pedagogical use of digital technologies and tools implemented by the eTwinning National Support Organisation (NSO) in Greece in 2023. During the implementation, 15 online courses with a duration of 200 hours were offered on topics such as educational robotics, artificial intelligence, web 2.0 tools, mobile devices, and 3D printing. The participants, both trainees and trainers, were asked to use SELFIEforTEACHERS at the beginning and at the end of their participation, with the aim to support them identify their learning needs and indicate any progress in building their digital competence. At the same time, collected data analysis would help the eTwinning NSO to see the impact of the courses offered and how teachers perceived their digital competence before and after their participation.

Hence, two groups were created on the SELFIEforTEACHERS platform in which interested teachers in Greece were invited: one group in which 6,012 teachers (trainees) responded and one in which 164 trainers who were coaching the courses responded. The SELFIEforTEACHERS reflections were conducted at the beginning (October 2022) and at the end (May 2023) of the courses.

According to the study findings, participants’ self-perception of their digital competence was higher after they attended the seminars (at least 15% higher than their initial perception), indicating a positive impact of the offered courses. Moreover, in the case of the appointed course trainers their initial (before the offering of the courses) and post (after the offering of the courses) self-perceptions of their digital competence were higher than the corresponding ones of the trainees. The SELFIEforTEACHERS self-reflection results supported and verified the identification of trainers (i.e. more advanced digitally competent teachers) to offer these seminars and support other teachers in their professional development paths.

The study findings indicate the importance of targeted seminars for teachers on the use of digital technologies in teaching and learning and demonstrate how integrating SELFIEforTEACHERS in a continuous professional learning programme can support teachers in further developing their digital competence. Moreover, it demonstrates how SELFIEforTEACHERS can support educational planning on professional development initiatives. Finally, the positive response from the Greek eTwinning community highlights the potential for leveraging existing networks to accelerate the use of digital technologies in education.

Keywords:

SELFIEforTEACHERS, teacher digital competence, educators' digital competence, DigCompEdu, eTwinning, digital technologies, professional development, professional learning.