Teachers' Perceptions on Digital Technologies: Identification of Patterns and Profiles in the Catalan Context

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to understand the perspectives of Catalan teachers regarding the role of digital technologies in Education. The analysis relied on questionnaire survey data, using multivariate statistical analysis (principal component analysis or PCA) in order to understand patterns in teacher perspectives about digital technologies. This was followed by employing a clustering technique to identify teacher profiles of perspectives on the relation between digital technologies, teaching and learning based on those patterns (using principal component scores). During a later stage, those profiles were characterized by relating them with teacher characteristics, digital competence levels, and usage of digital technologies in teaching practices. Our findings suggest that there are 5 main patterns that structure teachers’ perspectives on this relation: usefulness for networked learning, usefulness for effective learning, usefulness in the learning process, threats for learning and importance of combining new technologies with traditional methods. In addition, six teacher profiles were identified based on the teachers’ positioning regarding those five perspective patterns.