Teachers Data Literacy: A Scoping Review

• In Event: Assessment Literacies in a Post-Pandemic Digital Age: An Exploration Through Six Systematic Reviews

Abstract

The most recent trends in the field of school improvement and teacher education have pointed out the crucial role of data and emphasized how important it is to prepare teachers to read, interpret, and use data to inform their practice at school. On one hand, it has been clearly shown how effective use of data by teachers can lead to school improvement, including student learning achievement. On the other hand, attempts to reach a common definition of teacher data literacy and to understand teachers' use of data require further research. Given these considerations, this paper, through a scoping review, analyzes how the concept of teacher data literacy has been defined during the last 5 years (2019-2023).

Against the backdrop of various attempts to promote data literacy among teachers, the literature review proposed here offers an overview of current trends in the sector in order to answer the following research question:
How is teacher data literacy defined?

To answer the research question, a scoping review, based on the protocol defined by Arksey and O’Malley (2005), was performed.
The following k-words have been used: “teacher data literacy”, “teacher data capability” e “teacher data skill”. The literature search in this study was performed across 5 databases: ERIC, PsycINFO e Web of Science.

The publications selection followed these set inclusion and exclusion criteria:
1. The study was published in a scientific, international, peer-reviewed journal. Therefore, chapter books, doctoral thesis, conference paper books, working papers and reports were excluded in order to gather up to date, high-quality research studies;
2. The article reported a definition of teacher data literacy;
3. The studies were published over the last five years (2019-2023). This criterion restricted the selection to the most recent studies in the field.
4. The study was written in English.

The initial search identified 1995 articles (ERIC= 200; PsycINFO= 192; Web of Science= 1,603). After removing duplicates, the author and a research assistant read the title and abstract of each article to determine its eligibility for further review. 1538 articles were excluded. The full text of 23 articles was read, considering the inclusion criteria. The 20 articles included in the final set were categorized and summarized using a data extraction form, which reported the general information (author, year, title, journal, context), the research aims/research question, the definition of teacher data literacy/data use, the methods/data sources, and the themes/major findings.

By documenting and contrasting the different definitions reported in the 20 selected articles, a substantial alignment with Mandinach & Gummer's (2016) definition emerged.
The term data literacy is deeply connected to "data-driven decision making" (e.g., see some of the Mandinach articles on this topic) and is typically used in conjunction with that approach. Despite the link on teachers' data-based decision-making analysis of quantitative data, the emphasis on the use of student achievement data persists, as well as an unclear distinction between assessment literacy and data literacy.

The conclusions critically reflect on the likely implications for educational research and practice.

Author

• Serafina Pastore, University of Bari