Systems thinking skills and the ICT self-concept in preschool teachers for sustainable curriculum transformation

Kurent, Brina (author), Avsec, Stanislav (author)

The importance of early learning is even greater today if we are to prepare children for the 21st century by developing several lifelong competencies. With the advent of digitalization, some educators already integrate information communication technology (ICT) into early childhood, whereas others also have concerns about early implementation. However, the introduction of digital competencies from the perspective of systems thinking among preservice and in-service preschool teachers has not yet been demonstrated. The purpose of this study is to identify preschool teachers’ systems thinking skills and their ICT self-concept and to develop a pathway model for developing an ICT self-concept for sustainable and digital preschool education using systems thinking. An empirical research design with advanced statistical analysis and structural equation modeling was used. The sample consists of 172 preschool teachers. The results showed small differences between the preservice and in-service preschool teachers in the areas of “sequence of events” and “communication” in favor of preservice preschool teachers. Regardless of the group of preschool teachers, systems thinking develops self-concept in relation to ICT equally. The pathway diagram shows that “understanding the relationships between patterns” is the strongest predictor of the ICT self-concept, that only perceiving and understanding the inter-relationships of factors influence problem solving, and that understanding variations of different types (random/specific) and causal sequences alone has predictive power for “process and store” in the context of the ICT self-concept. The developed model will help educators, researchers, and curriculum designers to improve preschool education practices and transform the curriculum in a sustainable way.

• Language: English
• Keywords: preschool education, sustainable curriculum transformation, digital competence, systems thinking, structural equation modeling
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: PEF - Faculty of Education
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2023
• Number of pages: 28 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 15, iss. 20, art. 15131
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-151951
• UDC: 373.2:37.011.3-051
• ISSN on article: 2071-1050
• DOI: 10.3390/su152015131
• COBISS.SI-ID: 169924355
• Publication date in RUL: 26.10.2023

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Sustainability
• Shortened title: Sustainability
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 2071-1050
• COBISS.SI-ID: 5324897

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: trajnostno preoblikovanje učnih načrtov, digitalne kompetence, razmišljanje, predšolski učitelji, modeliranje strukturnih enačb

Projects

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: J5-4573
• Name: Razvijanje veščin 21. stoletja za trajnostni razvoj in kvalitetno izobraževanje v času hitrih tehnološko pogojenih sprememb gospodarskega, socialnega in naravnega okolja