Abstract:

With the rapid development of digital technologies they are also more widely used in education. It is possible that in future most learning will involve digital solutions. Nevertheless, it is clear that the use of technology in education poses various risks. For the educators to be able to work with technologies, support students' knowledge development in a technology enhanced learning process as well as organize learning remotely and mitigate the risks posed by digital solutions, they need to acquire not only digital skills but also develop pedagogical digital competence. This is a new competence area, so educators need support to ensure technology enhanced learning.

To understand the learning needs of educators for the acquisition of pedagogical digital competence, a tool for identifying their learning needs in this area has been developed and tested. It is based on the DigCompEdu framework with its six dimensions divided into 38 indicators that describe the application of pedagogical digital competence in practice. The educators have to evaluate these indicators through their own experience in terms of:
(1) how important each indicator is in the educational process and
(2) how often they implement this indicator in their teaching practice.

The indicators are evaluated through both previously mentioned perspectives using a Likert scale.

A sequential research design was used in this study and four consecutive research cycles were implemented. In the first cycle researchers developed the tool based on analysis of scientific papers published on pedagogical digital competence and analysis of already existing tools used for measuring pedagogical digital competence. In the second cycle, the tool was approbated with 30 compulsory education educators of computer science and programming to determine the validity of the tool and improve it for wider use. In the third cycle, the tool was approbated with 7 experts of educator professional development in the field of pedagogical digital competence. A focus group discussion was organized to gather and implement their suggestions on necessary improvements of the tool developed. In the last cycle the research sample consisted of educators from preschool to high school level who entered courses of professional development to improve their pedagogical digital competence and become mentors of educational technologies. 414 educators used the tool to determine their learning needs concerning pedagogical digital competence and set their learning goals for the professional development course.

This article provides information on the rationale for the development of the tool, and its approbation. As well as data analysis confirming the validity of the developed tool for measuring educators’ pedagogical digital competence improvement needs.

Keywords:

Pedagogical digital competence, evaluation tool, learning needs, professional development, DigCompEdu.