The Challenge of Initial Training for Early Childhood Teachers. A Cross Sectional Study of Their Digital Competences

Rosalía Romero-Tena,Antonio Palacios-Rodríguez,Carmen Llorente-Cejudo,Raquel Barragán-Sánchez

doi:10.3390/su12114782

Rosalía Romero-Tena, Antonio Palacios-Rodríguez + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su12114782

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Jun 11, 2020
Citations: 42	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Universidad de Sevilla

Abstract

The scarce presence of technologies at the early childhood education level today is a cause for worry. This study aims to provide information on the training of future early childhood education teachers and their relationship with technologies. The work is based on a pretest–posttest methodology through a cross sectional descriptive study. The sample is made up of 535 4th year students of the Degree in Early Childhood Education at the University of Seville. Descriptive and contrast analyses were performed as well as contrast statistics and effect size. The results show that the training received by the students was a key element to improve self-perception of digital competence. There were statistically significant changes between before and after receiving the training. The changes produced always meant an improvement in the students’ self-perception. In the study of their profiles, relevant changes were also identified. Whereas before training subjects were grouped into newcomer and explorer categories, after training they were grouped into the highest profiles: integrator, expert, and pioneer. For this reason, it is necessary to manage training plans to allow future teachers to position themselves at an expert level.

Highlights

The importance of training future teachers of early childhood education (ECE) in information and communication technology (ICT) is one of the concerns that is recently leading researchers in the area to look for reasons that explain the reason for the low presence of technologies at this educational level
The main objectives of this research were to discover the degree and type of self-perceived digital competence before and after taking the subject “Information and Communication Technologies Applied to Early Childhood Education” (O1); to determine if there were statistically significant differences in the self-perception of digital competence of the students of the Degree in Early Childhood Education at the University of Seville, after receiving a technological training (O2); and to show those profiles detected based on the perceived competence level (O3)
Following the objectives of the study set out, we offer those data that show the degree and type of self-perceived digital competence before and after completing the subject "Information and Communication Technologies Applied to Early Childhood Education" (O1)

Summary

Introduction

The importance of training future teachers of early childhood education (ECE) in information and communication technology (ICT) is one of the concerns that is recently leading researchers in the area to look for reasons that explain the reason for the low presence of technologies at this educational level. It is obvious that many of the children who attend early childhood and primary education centers have grown up in homes where multimedia and multimodal forms of expression are very common. Their experiences of using digital technologies can be really extensive [1,2]. The exceptional situation that COVID-19 has caused has forced the use of technologies to be intensified as an alternative to face-to-face education In this very specific and unusual context, schools show the digital deficiencies of the system, despite the large number of resources available on some occasions and the goodwill of teachers and students. It is important to point out that digital teaching competence is essential for the application of active methodologies and adapted to current students [3]

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