Teachers' Data Literacy Skills for Pedagogical Decision Making: Needs Analysis in Lithuania and Germany

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to analyse the needs of general education schoolteachers’ data literacy skills that are important for the effective use of learning analytics in the teaching-learning process. The theoretical part of the article presents the idea of big data in education, highlights the aspects of pedagogical value of learning analytics technologies, provides the overview of learning analytic tools. Some overview and comparison of spread of learning analytics tools in general education schools in Lithuania and Germany is presented in the context of data-driven education. The empirical part of the article presents some results from a big qualitative study of teachers’ experiences applying learning analytics tools in teaching - learning process. The main question of the current research is what data literacy skills teachers need in order to use learning analytics tools and make data based pedagogical decisions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 Lithuanian and 9 German teachers from general education schools, who already have had experience in working with learning experience platforms (digital learning platforms that integrate learning analytics tools). Interview data were analysed by means of content analysis. The results of the qualitative study showed that in order to use learning analytics tools it is important for teachers to have such skills as: digital literacy, data collection, data analysis and interpretation, etc. Comparative analysis of informants’ answers showed that teachers in Lithuania and Germany expressed similar needs for data literacy skills.