Digital Competence of Teachers and the Factors Affecting Their Competence Level: A Nationwide Mixed-Methods Study

Digital transformation opens up multiple opportunities for educators to achieve the continuity of learning through life, aligning with UNESCO's fourth goal of sustainable development, and to prepare them for the digital age. Effective integration of technology goes beyond using it for its own sake; it involves using it to deepen students' learning experiences. Digital transformation raises key questions about teachers' digital competence. Building on the DigCompEdu framework, the current study aims to uncover the level of digital competence of science teachers and their perceptions towards it as well as to identify the factors influencing this competence. The study adopted a mixed-methods approach utilizing a sequential explanatory design. This design involved a questionnaire which was administered to a sample of 611 science teachers, while a semi-structured interview was applied to 13 teachers. The results indicate that the teachers' level of digital competence was medium (58.4%). The study also revealed that the teachers had high-level positive perceptions towards the use of digital technologies (78%). Furthermore, the results indicate that perceived usefulness and subjective norms directly influence digital competence. This study also identifies the benefits of digital technologies and the challenges that teachers encounter in implementing them in the educational environment. The benefits focus on enhancing students' motivation and assessing their learning experiences, communicating with the educational community, and the continuousness of e-learning. The challenges, however, include the acceptance of technology by the educational community; cognitive and skill-related challenges faced by teachers; administrative and teaching burdens; limited access to digital technologies and tools; and challenges related to student behaviors. As a result, a set of recommendations and implications are proposed for educational policymakers, curriculum and professional development program designers, researchers, and educational practitioners.