Abstract:

The economic, technological and social consequences of the digital transformation inevitably affect the world of education as well. The goal of every education system is for its students to acquire the competencies necessary for learning, working and active social involvement. This requires competent teachers who are able to convey the knowledge of their field of expertise, to use effective pedagogical methods and procedures to build knowledge, and to develop key competencies. Teacher Training Institutes are tasked with training students who, as teachers, are able to respond to the challenges of the digital world and to develop 21st century competencies supported by digital means in a conscious, goal-oriented manner.

In our presentation, we present the results of the initial phase of a longitudinal study. When planning it, we started from the assumption that one of the conditions of the successful and effective education is that the teacher candidates have a skill-level use of digital competence. We set the goal to find among teacher training students (N = 106) the areas and skill levels where there are adequate results or deficiencies; and to map what skills and abilities need to be developed in order for them to be skilled in effective use of digital technologies as teachers.

Analyzed as a whole, the obtained results indicate that the digital competence level of the students is advanced. The obtained averages were high in all areas of competence, but by examining the values of the standard deviations, it can be concluded that there are areas such as the areas of digital content creation and problem solving, where developmental intervention is needed. The fact that about 7% of the students considered that they do not have even the most basic competence necessary for learning cannot be neglected either.

In the next stages of our research, we aim to elaborate developmental interventions that help in the development of digital competence during teacher training, and then to monitor whether the experimental attempts yield the expected results.

Keywords:

Digital competence, DigiComp 2.1 competence areas, teacher training.