Development of the digital competence in Secondary Education teachers' training

Abstract

Digital competence is one of the 8 key competences for life-long learning developed by the European Commission, and is requisite for personal fulfilment and development, active citizenship, social inclusion and employment in the knowledge society. To accompany young learners in the development of the competence, it is necessary that parents and teachers are, in turn, literate. The level of Teacher Digital Competence of 43 Secondary School teachers in initial training was evaluated using the Common Framework, a series of rubrics for 21 sub-competences in 5 areas. The overall level of competence was low (Basic). Students scored highest in Information, which refers mostly to the operations they performed while students. Secondly, in Safety and Communication, excluding Protection of Digital Data and preservation of the Digital Identity. Lowest values were achieved in Content Creation and Problem Solving, the dimensions most closely related with the inclusion of ICTs to transform teaching-learning processes. The knowledge or skills they exhibit are largely self-taught and, so, we perceive an urgent need to purposefully incorporate relational and didactic aspects of ICT integration.