Analysis of Awareness of Digital Competency of Chinese Kindergarten Teachers

The purpose of this study was to examine the perception of digital competency among Chinese kindergarten teachers and to investigate the differences in perception of digital competency according to teacher variables. For this study, 261 teachers working at kindergartens located in Sichuan, China, were selected as the final research subjects, and a questionnaire developed in a study of Korean early childhood teachers by Kim Kyo-ryeong (2021) was used to investigate the perception of these teachers' digital competencies. To collect data, a researcher with an online research app, Moon Kwon-sung (问卷星), visited the institution in person, distributed and collected the questionnaire. One-way variance analysis (ANOVA) and Scheffé post-test were conducted to analyze the difference in perception of digital competency according to teacher variables and the difference between groups according to Chinese kindergarten teachers' perceptions of digital competency. The summary of the research results is as follows. First, the degree of awareness of digital competency among Chinese kindergarten teachers was above average, and the degree of awareness of professional competency, teaching and learning competency, and learner competency, sub-areas of digital competency, was also above average. Second, there was a difference in teachers' perception of the overall digital competence according to teacher age, teacher experience, final academic ability, class in charge, educational experience, and teacher training, which are background variables of Chinese kindergarten teachers. However, there was no difference in teachers' perception of the entire digital competence according to the type of working institution. This study aims to provide basic data for the development of teacher education programs to strengthen the digital capabilities of Chinese kindergarten teachers and comparative studies related to digital capabilities for Chinese and Korean early childhood teachers.