Teacher Digital Competence: A Bibliometric Analysis of Global Research Trends
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58812/wsshs.v4i07.3010Keywords:
Teacher Digital Competence, Digital Literacy, Educational Technology, Digital Transformation, VOSviewer, ScopusAbstract
The quick progress of digital technologies has significantly changed education processes and increased the necessity for teachers to have enough digital skills. Teacher digital competence has become one of the important issues to be researched with an emphasis put on digital technologies integration into the process of teaching, assessment, professional development, and learning. This study is devoted to analyzing the global trends in researches, intellectual structure, major contributions, and new research directions concerning the issue of teacher digital competence through the bibliometric analysis method. The data were collected in the Scopus database with the use of appropriate keywords linked to teacher digital competence, digital literacy, digital skills, and educational technologies. The publications were analyzed by means of bibliometric methods like performance analysis, citation analysis, keyword co-occurrence analysis, density visualization, thematic evolution, and collaboration networks analysis with the use of VOSviewer. The results prove a significant trend of the increasing interest to the problem of teacher digital competence, especially since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic when more and more online and technology-enhanced learning became common. It is possible to state that the major research themes include digital competence, digital literacy, teacher training, e-learning, digital transformation, and technology integration. Citation analysis highlights influential studies focusing on digital competence frameworks, teacher readiness, and digital transformation in education, while collaboration analysis identifies Spain and several European countries as major contributors to global knowledge development. Recent trends indicate a growing research interest in artificial intelligence, digital tools, and innovative learning systems. This study contributes to the existing literature by mapping the evolution of teacher digital competence research and identifying future research directions related to sustainable digital education, AI-supported teaching, and equitable access to digital learning environments.
References
[1] L. Cerniglia, S. Cimino, and M. Ammaniti, “What are the effects of screen time on emotion regulation and academic achievements? A three-wave longitudinal study on children from 4 to 8 years of age,” J. Early Child. Res., vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 145–160, 2021, doi: 10.1177/1476718X20969846.
[2] O. Viberg, A. Mavroudi, M. Khalil, and O. Bälter, “Validating an instrument to measure teachers’ preparedness to use digital technology in their teaching,” Nord. J. Digit. Lit., vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 38–54, 2020, doi: 10.18261/ISSN.1891-943X-2020-01-04.
[3] M. T. Villalba, G. Castilla, and S. Redondo-Duarte, “Factors with influence on the adoption of the flipped classroom model in technical and vocational education,” J. Inf. Technol. Educ. Res., vol. 17, pp. 441–469, 2018, doi: 10.28945/4121.
[4] J. López Belmonte, S. Pozo Sánchez, M. B. Morales Cevallos, and E. López Meneses, “DIGITAL COMPETENCE OF FUTURE TEACHERS TO CARRY OUT A PROCESS OF TEACHING AND LEARNING THROUGH VIRTUAL REALITY,” Edutec, no. 67, pp. 1–15, 2019, doi: 10.21556/edutec.2019.67.1327.
[5] C. Blume, “German Teachers’ Digital Habitus and Their Pandemic Pedagogy,” Postdigital Sci. Educ., vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 879–905, 2020, doi: 10.1007/s42438-020-00174-9.
[6] H. M. Alakrash and N. A. Razak, “Education and the fourth industrial revolution: Lessons from COVID-19,” Comput. Mater. Contin., vol. 70, no. 1, pp. 951–962, 2021, doi: 10.32604/cmc.2022.014288.
[7] E. J. Instefjord and E. Munthe, “Educating digitally competent teachers: A study of integration of professional digital competence in teacher education,” Teach. Teach. Educ., vol. 67, pp. 37–45, 2017, doi: 10.1016/j.tate.2017.05.016.
[8] L. T. Nguyen et al., “How teachers manage their classroom in the digital learning environment – experiences from the University Smart Learning Project,” Heliyon, vol. 8, no. 10, 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e10817.
[9] H. Luo and C. Yang, “Twenty years of telecollaborative practice: implications for teaching Chinese as a foreign language,” Comput. Assist. Lang. Learn., vol. 31, no. 5–6, pp. 546–571, 2018, doi: 10.1080/09588221.2017.1420083.
[10] T. Jacquesson, E. Simon, C. Dauleac, L. Margueron, P. Robinson, and P. Mertens, “Stereoscopic three-dimensional visualization: interest for neuroanatomy teaching in medical school,” Surg. Radiol. Anat., vol. 42, no. 6, pp. 719–727, 2020, doi: 10.1007/s00276-020-02442-6.
[11] N. Donthu, S. Kumar, D. Mukherjee, N. Pandey, and W. M. Lim, “How to conduct a bibliometric analysis: An overview and guidelines,” J. Bus. Res., vol. 133, pp. 285–296, 2021.
[12] M. N. Fraile, A. Peñalva-Vélez, and A. M. M. Lacambra, “Development of digital competence in secondary education teachers’ training,” Educ. Sci., vol. 8, no. 3, 2018, doi: 10.3390/educsci8030104.
[13] S. Xu, H. H. Yang, J. MacLeod, and S. Zhu, “Interpersonal communication competence and digital citizenship among pre-service teachers in China’s teacher preparation programs,” J. Moral Educ., vol. 48, no. 2, pp. 179–198, 2019, doi: 10.1080/03057240.2018.1458605.
[14] M. J. Sá and S. Serpa, “COVID-19 and the promotion of digital competences in education,” Univers. J. Educ. Res., vol. 8, no. 10, pp. 4520–4528, 2020, doi: 10.13189/ujer.2020.081020.
[15] N. Van Eck and L. Waltman, “Software survey: VOSviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping,” Scientometrics, vol. 84, no. 2, pp. 523–538, 2010.
[16] J. König, D. J. Jäger-Biela, and N. Glutsch, “Adapting to online teaching during COVID-19 school closure: teacher education and teacher competence effects among early career teachers in Germany,” Eur. J. Teach. Educ., vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 608–622, 2020, doi: 10.1080/02619768.2020.1809650.
[17] G. Falloon, “From digital literacy to digital competence: the teacher digital competency (TDC) framework,” Educ. Technol. Res. Dev., vol. 68, no. 5, pp. 2449–2472, 2020, doi: 10.1007/s11423-020-09767-4.
[18] F. Caena and C. Redecker, “Aligning teacher competence frameworks to 21st century challenges: The case for the European Digital Competence Framework for Educators (Digcompedu),” Eur. J. Educ., vol. 54, no. 3, pp. 356–369, 2019, doi: 10.1111/ejed.12345.
[19] T. K. F. Chiu, B. L. Moorhouse, C. S. Chai, and M. Ismailov, “Teacher support and student motivation to learn with Artificial Intelligence (AI) based chatbot,” Interact. Learn. Environ., vol. 32, no. 7, pp. 3240–3256, 2024, doi: 10.1080/10494820.2023.2172044.
[20] Y. Zhao, A. M. Pinto Llorente, and M. C. Sánchez Gómez, “Digital competence in higher education research: A systematic literature review,” Comput. Educ., vol. 168, 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2021.104212.
[21] M. Bond, V. I. Marín, C. Dolch, S. Bedenlier, and O. Zawacki-Richter, “Digital transformation in German higher education: student and teacher perceptions and usage of digital media,” Int. J. Educ. Technol. High. Educ., vol. 15, no. 1, 2018, doi: 10.1186/s41239-018-0130-1.
[22] G. B. Gudmundsdottir and O. E. Hatlevik, “Newly qualified teachers’ professional digital competence: implications for teacher education,” Eur. J. Teach. Educ., vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 214–231, 2018, doi: 10.1080/02619768.2017.1416085.
[23] V. Basilotta-Gómez-Pablos, M. Matarranz, L.-A. Casado-Aranda, and A. Otto, “Teachers’ digital competencies in higher education: a systematic literature review,” Int. J. Educ. Technol. High. Educ., vol. 19, no. 1, 2022, doi: 10.1186/s41239-021-00312-8.
[24] J. Fraillon, J. Ainley, W. Schulz, T. Friedman, and D. Duckworth, Preparing for life in a digital world: IEA international computer and information literacy study 2018 international report. The Australian Council for Educational Research, Camberwell, Australia: Springer International Publishing, 2020. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-38781-5.
[25] L. König and E. Louloudi, “Critically important: Integrating the critical into english language teacher education,” Teacher Education in (Post-)Pandemic and (Post-)Digital Times: International Perspectives on Intercultural Learning, Diversity and Equity. Peter Lang Publishing Group, University of Bielefeld, Germany, pp. 79–101, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85200427616?origin=resultslist
[26] C. Zhao and L. Zhao, “Digital Nativity, Computer Self-Efficacy, and Technology Adoption: A Study Among University Faculties in China,” Front. Psychol., vol. 12, 2021, doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.746292.
[27] T. K. F. Chiu, G. Falloon, Y. Song, V. W. L. Wong, L. Zhao, and M. Ismailov, “A self-determination theory approach to teacher digital competence development,” Comput. Educ., vol. 214, 2024, doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2024.105017.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Loso Judijanto
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Facebook 
Instagram 
Twitter 
Youtube 
westscience.journals@gmail.com