How digitalised are vocational teachers? Assessing digital competence in vocational education and looking at its underlying factors

Abstract

Teachers' digital competence (TDC) is an important condition for the effective integration of technologies in education, and it depends on personal and context-related factors. Different frameworks and instruments have been developed to measure TDC. However, research on digital competence in vocational education and training (VET) is still scarce. Therefore, this study aims: (a) to provide a snapshot of the status quo of digital competence on a sample of 1692 Swiss VET teachers, both using an assessment instrument that relies on previous validated questionnaires, and at the same time accounting for VET-related specificities; (b) to examine possible differences in digital competence depending on the VET teachers' profiles (i.e. professional baccalaureate, professional subject and general education teachers); and (c) to investigate whether personal and context-related factors play a similar role in VET like in other educational settings. The results confirm the validity of the 10-dimensional structure of the TDC assessment instrument. Compared with previous results in other educational domains, our findings indicate that VET teachers place themselves at a similar degree of digital competence, with a few differences across profiles in some of the sub-competences. Moreover, multiple regression analysis highlights the main role of attitude towards technology and digital tool use frequency among the personal factors that contribute to TDC development. The teachers’ workload, rarely considered in previous studies, is also a relevant factor. For the context-related factors, curriculum support is the element with the largest effect on TDC, although it has a smaller impact than the personal factors.