PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ DIGITAL COMPETENCIES: A TRANSFORMATIVE MEDIUM TOWARD LANGUAGE TEACHING

Abstract

Given the subsequent turn of the epidemic in language education field, this study aimed to investigate the perceptions of pre-service teachers in the English Language Education Department of Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia toward their own digital competencies within their teaching performance. Regarding the use of information and communication technologies (ICT), pre-service teachers are expected to have sufficient high-level digital competencies. In this context, digital competencies are seen as a means to transform language education in the post-pandemic era. In this study, digital competencies refer to five dimensional skills, namely ‘information and data literacy’, ‘communication and collaboration’, ‘digital content creation’, ‘security’, and ‘problem solving’. Fifty-five (55) pre-service teachers who were still enrolled in some particular ICT courses and who performed online teaching participated in the study by completing the Teacher Competency Framework Questionnaire and doing an interview session to assess their digital competencies in the use of ICT within online teaching context. The results showed that the pre-service teachers placed a high value on all five dimensions of digital competence to facilitate their online teaching through the use of ICT, covering both technological and pedagogical functions, making their online teaching delivered more beneficially and effectively. The more acknowledgements toward the role of their digital competencies and required skills of ICT use for pre-service teachers have been increasing due to the switching from offline to online classroom settings as a consequence of COVID-19 pandemic. However, further research into integrated curriculum planning based on the schoolwide ICT curriculum is recommended to promote constructive strategies to support the development of the pre-service teachers’ digital competencies. The much wider digital competencies scope and more specific pre-service teachers ICT educational programs investigation should be adapted in the future research to provide deeper and further analysis toward the pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy about their own digital competencies in online learning context at the same time.