The challenge of incorporating digital skills in the classroom: perceptions and attitudes of Spanish Salesian teachers

Abstract

Skills enabling the integration of information and communications technology (ICT) in classrooms have become necessary for teachers’ professional practice. Using an applied approach, this study conducts an analysis of the use of and attitudes and perceptions towards digital skills among Spanish teachers in Salesian schools. Given the relevance of technologies in society, the study aims to understand the viewpoint of teachers in relation to the use and assessment of digital means appropriate for school tasks. The objective is to provide an accurate depiction of teachers’ perspectives, opinions, and attitudes towards ICT use in the educational sphere. Specifically, the study addresses aspects related to their perceptions of the areas proposed to be focused on by the Spanish Education Ministry in the Common Framework for Digital Competence of Teachers (2017). Thus, the study identifies key shortcomings to address necessary and appropriate training of children in the current society of information.

Keywords:

• Educational technology
• teaching skills
• continuous training
• technologies of information and communication

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Department of Education of the Salesian Region ‘Santiago el Mayor’, Madrid, Spain for their support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Conflicts of interest

No conflicts of interest were reported

Notes

1 Technology, Pedagogy and Content Knowledge, a methodological approach that pursues the identification of the nature of knowledge for teachers’ integration of technology in their teaching (tpack.org).

2 Correlational analysis is a statistical methodology that measures the strength of the relationship between two variables. In this article, Pearson correlation index is used for this purpose.

3 In the questionnaire, a balancing statement -to say, ‘is not always fully reliable’- was not included.

4 These risks include addictive behaviours, loss of interest for educationally valuable activities -like reading- or the internalization of inappropriate values or habits.

5 The number of ICT ‘resistors’ is 21, out of 548 respondents. The figure is made up of 1 interviewee responding 1, and 20 responding 2 -in a 1–5 scale- to the general item Do you like ICTs and use them on a regular basis? The Pearson index indicates a not very strong, but statistically significant, correlation between assessment in this item and age (r = -,113, p = ,008). A very narrow difference between men and women means also can be found in this item, but it is not statistically significant.

6 The digital contents creation area includes competences such as digital contents development, integration and re-elaboration of digital contents or programming; the communication and collaboration area includes competencies like interaction by digital technologies, online citizen participation or management of digital identity.

7 New training practices are meant to be provided both by Universities, at the pre-service level, and educational authorities, at the in-service level.

8 In our view, ‘failure of ICT integration in educational settings’ is not related to the subjects being taught in secondary school, given that all the subjects and contents can assume an ICT-based pedagogical approach. As far as we know, there is no research proving such relation.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Castilla-La Mancha, Albacete, Spain.

Notes on contributors

Adrián Sabalete Suárez

Adrián Sabalete is a Preschool and Primary School teacher at the Salesian School in Puertollano (Ciudad Real). He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Preschool Education and in Primary Education, a MSc in Bilingual Education and a MSc in Educational Research and Innovation from the University of Castilla-La Mancha.

Manuel Roblizo Colmenero

Manuel Roblizo is a Professor of Sociology at the Faculty of Education of the University of Castilla-La Mancha (Albacete Campus). He holds a degree in Philosophy from the University of Valencia, a BSc (Honors) in Social Sciences with Sociology degree from The Open University, and a PhD in Political Science and Sociology from the UNED.