The debate on the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in environmental sustainability remains a puzzle in empirical research. It is unclear whether ICT can help mitigate the afte...

Has information and communication technology improved environmental quality in the OECD? —a dynamic panel analysis

Technological progress is causing terms such as “STEM”, an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, to burst into the educational arena, marking a new era in the application of innovative and motivating teaching and learning processes. The objective of this research is to analyze the trajectory and the transcendence of the “STEM” concept in the educational field, having as reference the reported literature of Web of Science. The methodology applied in this research is based on bibliometrics, analyzing both the performance and the structural and dynamic development of the concept through a co-word analysis. The total number of documents analyzed is 4390. The results show that the scientific community mainly uses English and research papers to present their results. From 2015 onwards, the main lines of research are beginning to be established, which focus on “women” and “science”. It can be concluded that the term “STEM” in education is beginning to have a greater incidence and impact on the processes of teaching and learning, especially in the field of science, although there are currently discrepancies between men and women in its use.

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Scientific Performance and Mapping of the Term STEM in Education on the Web of Science

Editorial: 40th anniversary: contemporary library research

The Spanish autonomous city of Melilla, located in northwest Africa, has one of the highest academic failure and abandonment rates in Europe. An effective way to improve this situation would be to improve students’ digital competence. In order to do so, teachers must have competent digital skills themselves and also be able to teach them. To determine teachers’ level of digital competence, the Spanish adaptation of the European Framework for Digital Competence of Educators was used to analyse the self-assessment responses of teachers in training at the Faculty of Education and Sport Sciences in Melilla, Spain. Several quantitative techniques were used to analyse data collected from a questionnaire based on the items in the framework. Indicators were given to each competence using a factor analysis to contrast differences between undergraduate and postgraduate students. Correlations between some of the students’ characteristics and the competences were estimated using OLS. The results show students’ self-assessment level of digital competence in different areas and differences between the bachelor’s and master’s programmes. Digital competence gaps were also detected in teacher training, especially in security. The conclusions highlight the need to improve digital security and facilitate a higher level of digital skills in line with the framework. Indeed, more hours of training in digital competence are required while taking into account the educational context and the technological, pedagogical and content knowledge needed to teach. Equally, the same skills must be developed by educators in order for them to transmit digital competence to their students and support them in educational centres.

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Analysis of digital competence of educators (DigCompEdu) in teacher trainees: the context of Melilla, Spain

Advances in information technology now permit the recording of massive and diverse process data, thereby making data-driven evaluations possible. This study discusses whether teachers’ information literacy can be evaluated based on their online information behaviors on online learning and teaching platforms (OLTPs).,First, to evaluate teachers’ information literacy, the process data were combined from teachers on OLTP to describe nine third-level indicators from the richness, diversity, usefulness and timeliness analysis dimensions. Second, propensity score matching (PSM) and difference tests were used to analyze the differences between the performance groups with reduced selection bias. Third, to effectively predict the information literacy score of each teacher, four sets of input variables were used for prediction using supervised learning models.,The results show that the high-performance group performs better than the low-performance group in 6 indicators. In addition, information-based teaching and behavioral research data can best reflect the level of information literacy. In the future, greater in-depth explorations are needed with richer online information behavioral data and a more effective evaluation model to increase evaluation accuracy.,The evaluation based on online information behaviors has concrete application scenarios, positively correlated results and prediction interpretability. Therefore, information literacy evaluations based on behaviors have great potential and favorable prospects.

Evaluation of teachers’ information literacy based on information of behavioral data in online learning and teaching platforms: an empirical study of China

In China, teachers’ ability to adopt information and communication technology (ICT) when teaching is far from satisfying. Previous studies on teachers’ ability to integrate ICT and teaching in China ignored the factors in the process of teachers’ ICT application and lacked the systematic analysis of the factors. ICT application is affected by complex factors and thus needs to be systematically explored. This study surveyed 3730 Chinese primary and secondary school teachers, and adopted the environment-based design, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling to analyze the factors influencing teachers’ usage of ICT to develop teaching activities and proposed a model of the influencing factors of ICT usage. This model indicated that application willingness, application frequency, ICT-based teaching competence, helpfulness degree and application context are the five major factors that influence teachers’ usage of ICT to develop high-quality teaching activities. According to the status of teachers’ ICT application in China, this study suggested strengthening teachers’ willingness and enriching application contexts of ICT. Implications of this study will be discussed.

How to promote Chinese primary and secondary school teachers to use ICT to develop high-quality teaching activities

Cultivating students' information literacy is becoming increasingly important for teachers in the 21st century; however, teachers' competence to develop students' information literacy (TCDSIL) is far from satisfying. To foster TCDSIL, its influencing factors and promotion strategies need to be studied. However, prior studies on TCDSIL mainly investigate the influencing factors from a single-level perspective and neglect the potential relationship of school context on TCDSIL. In order to fill this gap and provide a deeper understanding of the complex system of TCDSIL, this study surveyed 9909 teachers in 1286 primary and secondary schools and used a two-level hierarchical linear model to analyze the survey data. The analysis results indicated that both teacher characteristics and school context have a significant relationship with TCDSIL. Among school-related factors, school type, resources for instruction, and network bandwidth have positively significant relationships with TCDSIL. Moreover, teachers' perceived usefulness, information processing skills (the skills of information access, information usage, and information management), and information ethics could predict TCDSIL. This study provides implications regarding how to improve TCDSIL, including paying attention to the gap between primary school teachers and secondary school teachers; enriching school's digital teaching resources; ensuring school network quality; enhancing teachers' perceived usefulness of ICT, information processing skills, and information ethics.

Factors associated with teachers' competence to develop students’ information literacy: A multilevel approach

The level of teachers' information literacy is not only an important force to promote teacher professional development, but also an important factor to affect the integration and innovation of information and communication technology (ICT) in education. Using scientific and reasonable assessment tools to carry out evaluation is an important part of promoting teachers' information literacy. Therefore, this study used the situational judgment test and the Delphi method to design the initial test paper, and then developed the assessment tool after several rounds of iterative revision, so as to provide support for the information literacy evaluation of primary and secondary school teachers. The assessment tool included five dimensions (i.e. information awareness, information knowledge, information application, information ethics and security, and professional development) with a total of 38 questions. This study introduced the development process, assessment items and scoring rules of the assessment tool, and verified the effectiveness of the tool in terms of difficulty, discrimination, reliability and validity. In addition, the assessment tool was used to evaluate the information literacy of primary and secondary school teachers in X city in China, and the results could clearly reveal the development status quo of teachers' information literacy in this city.

Development and Application of Information Literacy Assessment Tool for Primary and Secondary School Teachers

Teacher self-efficacy of information and communication technology (ICT) has an important impact on ICT-based teaching. Teacher ICT self-efficacy is not only influenced by their individual characteristics, but also by various environmental conditions provided by their schools. Studies on teacher ICT self-efficacy have focused on factors at the teacher level, however, have overlooked school environments. To investigate the impact of school environments and teacher characteristics on teacher ICT self-efficacy, this study used a multilevel approach to analyze data from 7629 teachers in 1222 primary and secondary schools in China. The results show that both teacher-level factors and school-level factors contribute to K-12 teacher ICT self-efficacy. Among teacher-level factors, teachers’ gender, ICT use, perceived ease of use of ICT and perceived usefulness of ICT make a difference in ICT self-efficacy. Among school-level factors, school type, ICT policy, and internet access are the important factors that impact teacher ICT self-efficacy.

Chi Zhou

Papers

How to promote Chinese primary and secondary school teachers to use ICT to develop high-quality teaching activities

Evaluation of teachers’ information literacy based on information of behavioral data in online learning and teaching platforms: an empirical study of China

Factors associated with teachers' competence to develop students’ information literacy: A multilevel approach

Development and Application of Information Literacy Assessment Tool for Primary and Secondary School Teachers

Identifying Multilevel Factors Influencing ICT Self-efficacy of K-12 Teachers in China.