Profiling teacher educators’ strategies for professional digital competence development

Abstract

The present study investigates the variety among teacher educators (TEds) related to the use of digital resources in teaching as well as the strategies they use to develop digital competence. A person-centred approach was applied to identify meaningful patterns among TEds having different levels of self-reported digital expertise, at five teacher education institutions. Survey data from TEds (N = 389) was subjected to structural equation modelling. With latent class analysis, we identified three distinct profiles based on probability of engagement in different digital competence development (DCD) activities: 1) The restrictive user—characterised by sporadic and narrow use of DCD strategies, prefers peer-restricted collaboration, 2) The moderate user—regular user of DCD strategies, prefers peer-restricted collaboration, and 3) The extensive user—frequent and comprehensive user DCD strategies, engages in broad collaboration. The extensive users also use digital resources more frequently in their teaching compared to the moderate and especially the restricted users. This is the case for individual interactions with students, to make teaching more relevant and applicable, as well as to make teaching more student active. Based on the knowledge on TEds profiles emerging from this study, we propose recommendations for better tailoring of DCD initiatives.