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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1356573
This article is part of the Research Topic Capacity Building of Teachers to Open and Accessible Learning Spaces View all articles

Teachers' Digital Competences: A Scale Construction and Validation Study

Provisionally accepted
Mehmet Kemal Aydin Mehmet Kemal Aydin 1,2*Turgut Yildirim Turgut Yildirim 2Metin Kus Metin Kus 1,2
  • 1 Distance Education, Application and Research Center, Hitit University, Çorum, Türkiye
  • 2 Faculty of Sport Sciences, Hitit University, Corum, Corum, Türkiye

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Improving teachers' digital competences is sine qua non for effective teaching and learning in today's digital society. However, there is a limited number of comprehensive and reliable scales to measure teachers' digital competences. Regarding this, the present study aimed to develop and validate a comprehensive scale to assess teachers' digital competences. Building on previous studies, a draft scale developed and piloted with a sample of teachers from all educational levels. The procedures of Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) were followed to refine the scale, resulting in a five-point Likert scale with 36 items loaded onto four factors. The final scale was called as Teachers' Digital Competences Scale (TDC-S). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was employed to validate the fourfactor structure. Reliability analysis was performed using Cronbach's alpha (α), McDonald's omega (ω), and Composite Reliability (CR), indicating high psychometric properties. Convergent and discriminant validity analyses were also performed to assess the validity of the latent structures in TDC-S. The findings suggest that the TDC-S is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing teachers' digital competences at all grade levels from primary to high schools. It can be used to inform teacher training and development programs, and to identify teacher candidates who need additional assistance regarding improving their digital competences.

    Keywords: digital competence, Reliability, scale development, teachers, Validation

    Received: 15 Dec 2023; Accepted: 25 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Aydin, Yildirim and Kus. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Mehmet Kemal Aydin, Distance Education, Application and Research Center, Hitit University, Çorum, Türkiye

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.