DIGITAL READINESS OF PROSPECTIVE PRESCHOOL TEACHERS FOR EDUCATIONAL APP INTEGRATION IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

Abstract

The rising use of digital technologies in early childhood environments stresses the need for the digital literacy of prospective preschool teachers and their positive attitude when integrating educational applications into pedagogical practice. Digitalization is calling for the early childhood education and care (ECEC) professionals to explore the influence of the digital world on children’s care and well-being. There has been limited research focused on the digital skills necessary in early childhood education and care, nor on how important it is for the ECEC staff to know in what way digital technologies could be integrated into their work. This study aimed to determine the level of digital literacy of prospective preschool teachers and to find out their attitudes towards the use of educational applications in the area of early and pre-school education. A further aim was to understand the connection between the prospective preschool teachers’ perception of their competencies and their readiness to use educational applications. Students from the first to the third year of the undergraduate university study programme of Early and pre-school education were involved in the research. A quantitative research design was used in this study, along with a cross-sectional survey to gather data at one point in time. An online questionnaire was used to examine the level of digital literacy and the attitudes of the students towards the use of the educational application in the early and pre-school education. The statistics of using an e-course related to computer literacy within a Moodle-based system Loomen during their studies were also taken into account. Standardized digital literacy scale and a Likert-type attitudes scale were the main tools for data collection. The latter measured the perception of pedagogical value, usability and the potential risk of educational applications in the work with young children. Descriptive statistics revealed that students’ digital literacy was at a moderate to high level, and their attitudes towards the use of educational applications were mainly positive, only concerns expressed in neutral agreement were related to development of social skills and creativity. The results show that prospective preschool teachers, on the whole, consider themselves to be digitally skilled and are inclined to the use of educational applications in early childhood education. However, they also indicate a requirement for the initial preschool teacher programmes to consistently enhance not only their digital competences, but also their critical, pedagogically informed use of technology in preschool practice. The results offer valuable insights that can expand and enhance the preschool teacher study programmes in the era of digital.