Dimensions of teachers’ transdisciplinary competence based on a systematic review of three transdisciplinary areas

Abstract

This study contributes to the conceptualisation of teachers’ competence through a systematic review (a concept synthesis) of three key transdisciplinary competencies—teachers’ diversity competence, teachers’ research and development competence, and teachers’ digital competence. Based on our analysis, we propose a set of dimensions to consider—within which there were important tensions in the research literature reviewed—when discussing teachers’ professional competence. These dimensions are: the 1) beneficiary, 2) teachers’ role, 3) attitudes, knowledge and skills, 4) sources of competence, 5) relationship to disciplinary content and 6) assessment. We discuss the three areas in light of these dimensions. We suggest that the complexity of being and becoming a teacher is a blind spot in research on teachers’ transdisciplinary competence and that many articles show deficit thinking about teachers.

Examining dimensions of teachers’ digital competence: A systematic review pre- and during COVID-19

“…As mentioned, Smestad and Gillespie [ 7 ] investigated conceptualisations of teachers' competences in three areas: diversity, research and development and digital competence. The Smestad and Gillespie study was a systematic review, specifically a concept synthesis [see Ref.…”

“…Many attempts have been made to define the concept [ [13] , [14] , [15] ]. According to Smestad and Gillespie [ 7 ], a typical feature of the papers describing teachers' digital competence is the use of models to define, describe, categorise and measure such competence. Examples of such models are TPACK [ 2 ], DigCompEdu [ 3 ] and PEAT [ 16 ].…”

“…In discussing teachers’ competences within three transdisciplinary areas, Smestad and Gillespie [ 7 ] referred to six dimensions in which they identified tensions in discussions on competences. D1: The beneficiary dimension concerns what an article addresses regarding who benefits from teachers' having a competence.…”

“…The present review looks more closely at the understanding of teachers' professional digital competence in education research. Smestad and Gillespie [ 7 ] identified the characteristics of teachers' competences in three transdisciplinary areas: (i) digital competence, (ii) competence in diversity and (iii) competence in research and development. Based on a systematic review of 380 articles, they identified six dimensions of teachers' professional competence in which there were tensions in the literature.…”

“…Only papers that explicitly discussed home schooling and the teaching situation during such closures were included in this additional search. The dimensions described by Smestad and Gillespie [ 7 ] have been used as a framework to analyse various aspects of teachers' professional digital competence. Because the dimensions are identified in a review of studies on three different competences, they may provide novel lenses through which we can study teachers’ digital competence.…”