Conceptualising and enhancing teacher educators’ digital education competence through transformative learning: quasi-experimental intervention evidence

As digital transformation reshapes teachers’ education, many teacher educators remain underprepared for integrating digital technologies into professional practice. This study examines teacher educators’ digital education competence (DEC) and the effectiveness of transformative learning (TL) in enhancing it. DEC was conceptualised as five dimensions: digital needs analysis, digital resources preparation, digital facilitation, digital assessment, and digital management, and a corresponding scale was validated. Using a quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test design, 108 teacher educators in China participated in the intervention. The experimental group received a TL intervention involving experiencing dilemmas, acquiring knowledge, trying out new roles, and action transformation, while the control group received traditional learning. Results showed that the TL group improved significantly more than the control group in overall DEC. This study contributes a validated measure of teacher educators’ perceived DEC and provides quasi-experimental evidence that a TL-based intervention was associated with greater pre-post gains in self-reported DEC than a traditional learning condition.