Teachers' digital competence to assist students with functional diversity: Identification of factors through logistic regression methods

• Published in: British journal of educational technology Vol. 53; no. 1; pp. 41 - 57
• Main Authors: Cabero‐Almenara, Julio, Guillén‐Gámez, Francisco D., Ruiz‐Palmero, Julio, Palacios‐Rodríguez, Antonio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Coventry Wiley 01-01-2022; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Attitudes; binary regression; digital resources; Disabilities; disability; Education; Educational Demand; Educational Finance; Educational Quality; Educational Technology; Ex post facto design; Faculty Development; Foreign Countries; ICT; inclusive education; Learning; Learning Processes; Low level; Regression (Statistics); research methods; Special Needs Students; Students; Students with Disabilities; Teacher Characteristics; Teacher Competencies; Teachers; Teaching; Teaching Methods; Technological Literacy; Technology Acceptance Model; Technology adoption; Training; Spain
• ISSN: 0007-1013; 1467-8535
• DOI: 10.1111/bjet.13151

We are experiencing a serious health crisis due to COVID‐19 that has a major impact on the field of education. The educational system therefore needs to be updated and innovated, with the addition of digital resources, to adapt the teaching and learning processes to students with disabilities. To meet the goal of high‐quality education, teachers must have adequate digital competence to face the educational demands that are placed on them. Therefore, the purposes of this study are: to know the teachers' knowledge about digital resources to support students with disabilities (O1); at each educational stage (O2), identify the variables that have a significant impact on the acquisition of teacher competence (O3); propose a selection of useful ICT resources for each type of disability (O4). An ex post facto design was used with 1194 teachers from Andalusia (Spain). The results showed the medium‐low level of the teaching staff, especially in the higher education stage. In addition, gender, motivation, attitude and having students with special needs are determining factors in the development of teacher knowledge. The results highlight the urgent need for teachers to be trained in digital resources. We hope that the range of resources proposed in this study will help teachers enhance their teaching practice.
Practitioner notes
What we already know about this topic
Teachers have to find and adapt educational technology to achieve a higher level of success in students with disabilities.
The use of ICT resources by teachers acts as a bridge to promote learning in students with disabilities.
What this paper adds
Identification of those predictors that significantly influence the acquisition of digital competence in teaching staff at various stages of education: gender, educational stage, motivation, attitude towards technologies and having students with specific educational support needs.
A proposal of didactic applications is provided to address the different types of functional diversity.
Implications for practice and/or policy
It is essential that training plans on digital competence are established to assist students with functional diversity in their different learning stages. In this sense, personalised training itineraries or TMOOCs can be of major assistance.
Expansion of the study sample (macro level) to identify digital factors, which affect the acquisition of the digital competence of the teaching staff to support their students' disabilities.
Change regarding the type of diagnosis through self‐perception tests, such as those presented by these models, and subsequent work in other fields such as e‐portfolios of evidence or instruments in the form of problem solving.