An Empirical Study on the Digital Competence of Chinese Early Childhood Teachers Based on the OECD Framework

• In Event: Digital Dilemmas and Opportunities: Teacher Agency, Burnout, and Competence in the Tech Era

Proposal

Research Background:
The in-depth coupling of digital technology and early childhood education activities is a key issue widely discussed by the education sector in various countries (Vidal-Hall, Flewitt & Wyse, 2020; Undheim & Ploog, 2023; Lim et al. , 2023; Papavlasopoulou, Undheim, Meaney, & Esmaeeli, 2024; Han & Kim, 2025). In April 2023, the OECD released the report Starting Strong Ⅶ: Empowering Children in the Digital Age (hereinafter referred to as “Starting Strong Ⅶ”), and Proposing a “Digital Competency Framework for Early Childhood Education and Care Staff” (hereinafter referred to as the “Digital Competency Framework”), provides reference standards for the professional development of kindergarten teachers in the context of the digital era (OECD, 2023). Currently, scholars in China have begun to introduce and interpret the content of OECD’s “Digital Competency Framework”, analyzed the connotations and structure of digital competency, and proposing a Chinese path for the development of teachers' digital capabilities(Li & Yu, 2023; Jing & Lv, 2024; Fan et al., 2024), which has provided important reference for this study. However, there is still a lack of empirical research based on this framework to investigate the actual digital competency of early childhood teachers.Empowering children in the digital age should begin with early childhood education and care staff, which means “empowering teachers”(Ko, Lee & Byun, 2024).

Research Question:
1.Are Chinese preschool teachers' digital competencies sufficient to meet the needs of the digital age?
2.What problems have been exposed in the development of digital competency of early childhood educators in China?
3.What are the important or potential factors affecting the development of digital competency of early childhood educators in China?

Research Framework:
The research defines the digital competence of early childhood teachers as “the competence of teachers to use digital technology effectively, critically, and responsibly in early childhood education and research activities”.In terms of the research framework, the study primarily references the “Digital Competency Framework” outlined in the OECD's Starting Strong Ⅶ report, the digital competency of early childhood teachers is divided into three dimensions: “Pedagogical”, “Management and leadership” and “Knowledge development”. Each dimension is further divided into three primary indicators: “Foundational competencies”, “Enhanced competencies” and “Specialized competencies”. Each dimension is further divided into three primary indicators: “Foundational competencies”, “Enhanced competencies” and “Specialized competencies”. Additionally, there are 18 secondary indicators, such as “Goals and Value Recognition”,“Risk Recognition” and “Integration of Technical Resources”.

Methodology:
1.Methods and Tools
The study will primarily use questionnaire surveys to collect data, followed by statistical analysis of the collected questionnaires. In terms of research tool design, the research team members compiled a self-designed questionnaire titled Survey on the Current Status of Digital Competency Development among Preschool Teachers in the Digital Age. The final questionnaire consists of three sections with a total of 30 questions. The first section is “Basic Information”. The second section is“Survey on the Digitization of Preschools”. The third section is the “Assessment of the Current Status of Digital Competency Development Among Early Childhood Educators” scale. This section is based on the theoretical framework mentioned earlier and uses a five-point Likert scale. The scale consists of 18 questions. The results of the reliability and validity tests showed that the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the three dimensions and overall of the scale were exceeding 0.90, indicating that the reliability of the questionnaire as a whole and each dimension was good. In exploratory factor analysis, the KMO value for the scale was 0.893, and the P-value from Bartlett’s spherical test was less than 0.001, indicating that the item structure of the scale meets the requirements for factor analysis and is suitable for factor analysis.After data collection, researcher employed SPSS 26.0 software to conduct quantitative analysis and descriptive statistics on the data.
2.Data sources
To enhance the representativeness of the sample,researcher selected City X, located in the north-central region of China, where the quality of preschool education is closer to the national average. Given that the number of public and private kindergartens in the city is roughly equal, when selecting schools for sampling, the researcher recruited teachers from seven public kindergartens and eight private kindergartens in City X to participate in the questionnaire survey, obtaining 329 questionnaires. After removing 18 invalid questionnaires, a total of 311 valid samples were collected.

Research Findings and Results:
1.The overall development of digital competency of kindergarten teachers is good, but the higher-order professional competency needs to be improved.
2.Early childhood teachers' proficiency in the use of AI technology is a key factor in their level of digital competency development.
3.There is an imbalance in the development of digital competency between public kindergartens and private kindergartens.
4.The digital construction of kindergartens needs to be improved, which is a potential factor influencing the development of teachers' digital competency.

Significance:
The findings of this study not only benefit the professional development of early childhood educators in China but also provide valuable insights for cultivating digital literacy among early childhood educators worldwide. Particularly in the era of artificial intelligence, where digital technology has reached unprecedented levels of advancement, the question of how to establish a digital teaching management and evaluation system to motivate teacher professional development warrants further consideration in the face of new challenges.

Author

• 世铎 王