Online professional learning communities for developing teachers’ digital competences

Abstract

Digital transformation shapes the educational system in many ways. It has also far-reaching implications for teachers as their job description may fundamentally change in the future. In this light, it is important 1) to identify necessary digital competences of teachers and 2) to find ways to foster those competences in an efficient way. By means of a literature review and expert interviews, we developed a framework of teachers’ digital competences. In line with Baumert and Kunter (2006) as well as Koehler and Mishra (2009), it comprises content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and pedagogical knowledge. However, these facets have extended meaning in the context of digital transformation. Moreover, our framework considers the official EU competence framework (Carretero et al., 2017) and hence covers instrumental skills and knowledge in handling digital media. We successfully validated our framework by means of structural equation modelling with a sample of 215 Swiss teachers. Utilising an Importance Performance Map Analysis, we identified competence facets that show the highest effects on the (self-reported) use of digital media and content. For efficiently fostering those facets, we will establish online professional learning communities consisting of a communication platform, webinar series, and blended learning courses.