Digital competence of preservice teachers of pre- school and primary education: a multiple comparisons study

Digital competence is an essential element for initial teacher training, as it allows them to integrate technologies into their practice. The objectives set were: (1) to know the self-perceived level of future primary and early childhood education teachers regarding their digital competence; (2) compare if there are significant differences in digital competence between future teachers of both educational stages; (3) to identify if there are significant differences in competence between the different academic courses of the degree, for each educational stage. We proposed a non-experimental study of the ex post facto type and a sample of 897 students of Early Childhood and Primary Education. The results showed that they have a medium-high self-perceived level of digital competence in both educational stages, finding significant differences between future teachers of Early Childhood and Primary Education, the latter being the ones who obtained the highest scores. In Early Childhood Education, significant differences were found between those of the first and fourth year, while in Primary Education, differences were found between all academic courses, except between the third and fourth. These results suggest that initial training should focus on developing the digital competence of future teachers, with special attention to the first academic courses.