Supporting the development of 21st century skills with digital technology - pilot study on the adaptation of the TPACK21 scale

Abstract

Our research is a part of a comprehensive research project focusing on the impact of digital transformation on education, as a pilot project. We investigated the relationship between teachers' technological-pedagogical-content knowledge (TPACK) and their age, the goals and quantity of using digital tools, and their attitudes towards digital education. As part of the pilot research, an online questionnaire for teachers was conducted following a quantitative research strategy in order to test the TPACK21 scale. We translated a version of the scale developed by Valtonen et al. (2017) for measuring TPACK21, the scale for developing 21^st century skills. Based on the KIR database, we administered the questionnaire to a randomly selected 5% of all schools (stratified by region and school type). The cleansed database contains 191 respondents. The results do not confirm that younger age is associated with higher TPACK21. However, a significant correlation between TPACK21 score and the set of purposes for using digital tools is found: those with higher TPACK21 scores reported a higher variety of educational purposes in using digital technologies and those with above-average TPACK21 scores have reported the use of digital tools to support individual learning pathways to a higher proportion. Results confirm that the TPACK21 scale is able to measure pedagogically-aware use of digital technologies. Furthermore, the study confirms that feelings of uncertainty and helplessness negatively influence the TPACK21 score, which brings the community aspects of continuous professional development in focus (Phillips, 2017). The results of our study, although limited in drawing generalisable conclusions, may contribute to the success of further research exploring the effects of digital transformation and to the identification of further opportunities.