Abstract:

When we talk about ICT and the digital gap, age and gender appear like significant demographic variables, having their own space in this field. Education is not free of these disparities, and they can reach the teachers, who ultimately are responsible for qualifying the emerging citizens in this competency, and these factors could affect their professional labour. The influence of the also-called generational gap has been studied on how teachers use ICT in their labour. We can say similar things regarding the gender gap, although that appears to have an insignificant effect. Therefore, this study aims to contribute to the possible influence of an age and gender gap in the self-perception of pre-service science teachers about their teacher digital competence to decrease that lack of equality from the soonest stage of their formation.

For doing so, we used a questionnaire adapted from the instrument DigComEdu Check-in, where pre-service science teachers were asked about the six areas in which the teacher's digital competence is organized, like professional engagement, digital resources, teaching and learning, among others. At the same time, these areas are compounded for a different number of items, reaching a total of 22, each corresponding to a primary or elementary competence. The participants should answer on a Likert scale from 0 to 4 (with the lowest level meaning "any compromise" with ITCs, and the highest "an integral and systematic use" of those technologies). The descriptive and quantitative analysis was carried out by RStudio software (version 1.3.1093), collecting each group's frequency and percentual representation for each area.

We analyzed the answers from 20 pre-service teachers of Master's Degree in Teaching in the speciality of Physics and Chemistry. They were divided, in terms of gender, into two groups, 5 male and 15 female, according to the gender they marked in the questionnaire. Related to the age, in three groups, under 25, with a sample of 11 participants 25 to 30, with 7, and above 30, with 2.

The results show that women perceive their teacher's digital competence better. That group scored higher in most items; consequently, the female gets a greater representation in the upper levels. Regarding the age gap, the unique group to reach the C2 level is the under 25, which leads in four of the six areas, followed by the 25-30 group, which rules in the remaining two.

Considering these results, we observe a gender gap in favour of women, at least in self-perceptions measured by the instrument used. Regarding the age gap, it seems logical that the group of proper digital natives (under 25) have a superior self-perception of their digital skills, and the older group, the worse, according to previous studies developed with in-service teachers. Considering that better teachers' perceptions of digital competence could lead to a better further implementation of the technology in their classes, we find it necessary to promote it ever since the pre-service training through a specific quality formation on ICT.

Keywords:

Preservice teachers, science education, digital literacy, teaching competence.