THE METHODOLOGICAL DIGITAL COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT IN CLASSROOM. PRESCHOOL AND PRIMARY TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS: FACILITIES AND BARRIERS

Education is a social activity that is associated with the creation and acquisition of knowledge and preservation of culture, so the educational institutions have the responsibility to train citizens who are ready to live and face the challenges of today's society. It’s a fact that digital technologies have a enormous role in our lives, so it should be obvious that they have to be a real part of the school context, because they have a great potential to improve the quality of the process and the teaching and learning activities. More specifically, focusing on the Catalan reality, since 2013, it has been working into the identification and development of basic competences in the digital field of the students, as well as the development of the digital competence of teachers. Consequently, this is the starting point of the approach of this article. We propose to carry out an investigation (which is associated to the PSITIC research group of FPCEE Blanquerna University, Barcelona) that starts with a question: Which are the teachers’ perceptions about the facilities and the barriers of the Digital Methodological Competence development? From this interrogant, we set out the general objective of identifying and describing the Preschool and Primary teachers’ perceptions -of four schools (Tecnos, Sadako, Sant Gervasi and Ciutat Comtal)- about the Digital Methodological Competence (CDM), in its five dimensions: 1st. Design, planning and didactic implementation; 2nd. Organization and management (spaces and educational resources); 3rd. Communication and collaboration; 4th. Ethical and digital civism and; 5th - Professional development. From this main objective, three specific objectives are identified: describe the Preschool and Primary teachers’ perceptions about the facilities to achieve and develop the CDM (in its five dimensions); describe the Preschool and Primary teachers’ perceptions about the barriers to achieve and develop the CDM (in its five dimensions) and, the last one; describe the Preschool and Primary teachers’ perceptions about its level of competence of CDM (in its five dimensions) However, the main results of the research are, in broad terms, the following ones: A total of twenty eight facilities have been obtained by the research, based on the perceptions of teachers, which is the most present: the capacity of change (the individual’ predisposition to leave his comfort zone to improve in ICT); A total of thirty-five difficulties have been obtained by the research, based on the perceptions of teachers, which is the most present: the lack of time (to be able to dedicate themselves to the TIC world); In addition, according to the research participants, is the first dimension of the CDM, which contains the largest number of facilities and difficulties, by the perceptions of teachers and ICT coordinators. Finally, the dimension that achieved the highest degree of achievement, according to the perceptions of the fifty-four participants in the questionnaire is the dimension 4; and, the lowest degree of achievement is the dimension 5. The main conclusion is that it is necessary to take into account all the difficulties that we have been obtained by this investigation, because they are the reflection of the reticent professors vision towards the ICT, so if we take it to account to solve them (using, for example, the facilities) it’s a good plan to achieve CDM progress and empower schools by using technology.