Teachers' Digital Competence in the Hybrid School: The Path Towards Digital Capability
Keywords:
Digital competence, Teachers, Professional development, TrainingAbstract
This contribution presents and analyses the Digimetrò training project, aimed at fostering teachers’ digital empowerment within the framework of a larger project called “Hybrid school”. The programme involved 1,286 teachers from different school levels across 61 courses organised into nine thematic categories. Its impact was monitored through a pre–post research design (t0–t1), based on self-assessment of competences according to the European DigCompEdu framework and on professional satisfaction indicators derived from the TALIS job satisfaction scale. Findings show a widespread, though moderate, improvement in perceived digital competences across all DigCompEdu areas, with particularly significant gains in emerging technologies, inclusion and accessibility, personalisation, and the promotion of students’ digital skills. At the same time, while teachers report generally positive internal job satisfaction, they express strong dissatisfaction regarding the social, economic, and political recognition of their profession. The project highlights a systemic paradox: although teachers demonstrate professional growth and openness to digital innovation, institutional and societal recognition remains inadequate. Digital empowerment cannot be reduced to a set of isolated technical skills; rather, it requires a coherent ecosystem of educational policies, adequate working conditions, and professional recognition.
References
Argentin, G. (2018). Gli insegnanti nella scuola italiana: Ricerche e prospettive di intervento. Il Mulino.
Cavalli, A., Argentin, G., & IARD (Eds.). (2010). Gli insegnanti italiani: come cambia il modo di fare scuola. Il Mulino.
Crompton, H. (2023). Evidence of the ISTE Standards for Educators leading to learning gains. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 39(4), 201–219. https://doi.org/10.1080/21532974.2023.2244089
Economou, A. (2023). SELFIEforTEACHERS: Designing and developing a self-reflection tool for teachers’ digital competence. Publications Office of the European Union. https://doi.org/10.2760/561258
Ellerani, P. (2013). Gli scenari educativi e formativi internazionali in mutamento: contesti cooperativi e capability approach. Formazione & insegnamento, 11(4), 15–32. Retrieved June 12 from https://ojs.pensamultimedia.it/index.php/siref/article/view/386
Ellerani, P., Pacetti, E., Soriani, A., & Barca, D. (2023). Scuola ibrida: Monitoraggio del modello organizzativo e didattico per l’avvio di una trasformazione dei curricoli nella prospettiva “grandi fenomeni della vita” attraverso le tecnologie. Un percorso nazionale di ricerca-formazione-intervento. In A. Dipace & P. Raviolo (Eds.), New literacies: Nuovi linguaggi, nuove competenze (pp. 53–56). Editrice Morcelliana.
Eugeni, R. (2015). La condizione post-mediale. La Scuola.
European Commission. (n.d.). SELFIE for Teachers. Retrieved June 12, 2026, from https://education.ec.europa.eu/selfie-for-teachers
Floridi, L. (2017). La quarta rivoluzione: Come l’infosfera sta trasformando il mondo. Raffaello Cortina.
Holmes, W., Persson, J., Chounta, I.-A., Wasson, B., & Dimitrova, V. (2022). Artificial Intelligence and Education: A Critical View Through the Lens of Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law (1st edn). Council of Europe.
ISTE - International Society for Technology in Education. (2024). ISTE standards for educators. https://iste.org/standards/educators
Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A Framework for Teacher Knowledge. Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education, 108(6), 1017–1054. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9620.2006.00684.x
Nussbaum, M. C. (2012). Creare capacità: Liberarsi dalla dittatura del Pil (R. Falcioni trans.). Il Mulino.
Nussbaum, M. C. (2014). Non per profitto: Perché le democrazie hanno Bisogno della cultura umanistica (R. Falcioni trans.). Il Mulino.
OECD. (2014). TALIS 2013 Results: An International Perspective on Teaching and Learning. OECD. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264196261-en
OECD. (2016). PISA 2015 Results (Volume II): Policies and Practices for Successful Schools. OECD. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264267510-en
OECD. (2019). TALIS 2018 Results (Volume I): Teachers and School Leaders as Lifelong Learners. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/1d0bc92a-en
OECD. (2025). Education GPS. Retrieved December 31, 2025, from http://gpseducation.oecd.org
Redecker, C., Punie, Y., & European Commission (Eds). (2017). European framework for the digital competence of educators: DigCompEdu. Publications Office. https://doi.org/10.2760/159770
Sen, A. (1992). La diseguaglianza: Un riesame critico (A. Balestrino trans.). Il Mulino.
Sen, A. (2000). Lo sviluppo è libertà: Perché non c’è crescita senza democrazia. Mondadori.
UNESCO. (2018). UNESCO ICT competency framework for teachers (Version 3). https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000265721
UNESCO. (2024). AI competency framework for teachers. https://doi.org/10.54675/ZJTE2084
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Alessandro Soriani
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Formazione & insegnamento is distributed under Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
For further details, please refer to our Repository & Archiving Policy, as well as our Copyright & Licensing Terms.
