Analysis of teaching digital competence in early childhood education. Profile and identification of influencing factors

INTRODUCTION. The use of digital technology by children at home and at school has increased greatly in recent years. This phenomenon has given rise to studies that confirm the need for adequate digital literacy at lower educational levels and, therefore, for teachers at the Early Childhood Education stage to enable them to adapt to the new educational and social reality. METHOD. This research is designed with an ex post facto methodology, with a descriptive and contrasting research approach. Its main objective is to know the level of self-perception of the Digital Teaching Competence (DTC) of Early Childhood Education teachers in the autonomous community of Andalusia (Spain). Subsequently, those variables from which differences with respect to the level of competence are derived are analysed and identification profiles are established. A total of N=8881 teachers participated, who were administered the DigCompEdu Check-in instrument included in the European Framework for Digital Competence in Education DigCompEdu. After applying the corresponding tests (descriptive analysis, contrast statistics and Kruskal-Wallis test, among others), the RESULTS show that the subjects surveyed have a moderate level of CDD in most of the areas studied, although in some of them their level of competence is low. Likewise, the study determines that there are differences with respect to the variables age, years of experience and training received. DISCUSSION. The conclusions derived from this study may help to develop educational interventions aimed at improving the low level of competence of teachers.