Digital literacy of vocational school teachers
This project focuses on the digital literacy of vocational school teachers in Switzerland. The first step will be to take stock of the current situation and then identify best practices in the development of digital literacy.
In recent years, while digitalisation has played an increasingly important role in education, teachers have not always been able to use digital technology to the desired extent. International reports indicate that teachers lack the digital skills needed to effectively and efficiently integrate educational technologies in the classroom (OECD, 2014). Many experts are therefore of the opinion that improving the digital literacy of teachers is an essential first step towards integrating digital technology in education systems (e.g. SERI, 2017; Swiss Confederation, 2018).
However, there is not enough data at national level to adequately ascertain the real level of digital literacy of teachers, particularly for those working at vocational schools.
In order to gain a clear overview of the situation and ensure targeted efforts to promote digital technology in vocational schools, the project will be structured as follows:
- assessment of the current level of digital literacy of vocational school teachers;
- identification of the best practices enabling digital technologies to be included in the pedagogical approaches used in vocational education and training;
- reassessment of the level of digital literacy at the end of the project, once the measures to improve digital literacy in vocational schools in Switzerland have been developed at national level.
The digital literacy analysis will be conducted using a questionnaire based on the main international frames of reference (e.g. DigCompEdu 2.0). This questionnaire will be adapted and integrated in a way that takes the specific features of Swiss VET programmes into account. The questionnaire will also provide respondents with feedback on their own level of digital literacy. They will also be able to compare their level of digital literacy with the average level of their colleagues (if this data is available). This feedback will highlight the areas where further training is needed.
Qualitative methods will be used to identify and explore best practices in the development of digital literacy. The aim will be to develop materials that all schools can refer to in their efforts to effectively integrate digital technology in their respective educational settings.
This report presents mainly descriptive statistics that provide key insight into the level of digital skills possessed by vocational school teachers in Switzerland. Generally speaking, the current state of digital skills of vocational school teachers is about average. While this indicates that the capacity building efforts made over the past few years have now started to bear fruit, it also shows that there is still considerable room for improvement. Efforts should therefore continue in order to ensure that vocational schools are equipped to handle the challenges associated with the digitalisation of working life and satisfy the needs brought to light as a result of education policies.
Two important findings relating to the impact of further training emerge: first of all, those who have undergone digital skills training courses show a higher digital competence score than those who have not attended such courses. Secondly, most teachers recognise the need for specific training courses to effectively include digital technologies into teaching practice.
Despite all the hardship experienced by teaching staff and school management, the government’s response to the Covid-19 crisis also created an opportunity for a major boost in digital skills capacities and a greater willingness to include digital technologies in teaching and learning processes. Analysis of the challenges and opportunities highlighted by teachers revealed that, despite the need to overcome the initial learning curve, the crisis opened up new possibilities for more timely follow-up of learners. This, in turn, resulted in more personalised and more inclusive teaching.
All in all, the data thus reveal a significant increase in the use of digital technology in teaching and the intention of most teachers to continue using these digital tools. We expect that digital tools will be integrated more and more effectively into classroom instruction and that their use will help to improve the overall quality of vocational teaching.