Digital Competence, Assistive Technology Utilization and Innovative Teaching Practices among Early Childhood Educators in Government-Owned Primary Schools in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Although early childhood educators’ teaching is required to be digitally mediated and inclusive, there is limited evidence of the capabilities that underpin innovative practice in sub-Saharan Africa. The present research focused on the effect of digital competence and assistive technology use on innovative teaching methods by ECEs in government owned primary schools in Oyo State of Nigeria. A descriptive survey design with the correlational type has been used. Table was used for proportional allocation and simple random sampling methods to identify 412 early childhood educators from a population of 28,509 teachers in 2,411 state-operated public schools of the three senatorial districts in the state. The Questionnaire on Digital Competence (19 items, α = .95), Assistive Technology Utilization Scale (14 items, α = .88) and Innovative Teaching Practices Scale for Early Childhood Educators (20 items, α = .92) were used to collect the data. Content validity was determined by expert review (S-CVI/Ave = .93). Descriptive statistics, Pearson product moment correlation and multiple linear regression were used to analyse the data at the .05 level of significance. The scores for digital competence (M = 3.19, SD = 0.70) and assistive technology utilization (M = 3.42, SD = 0.63) were both found to be at a moderate level, with reflective and inclusive applications lagging behind procedural applications. The two predictors combined explained 34.3% of the variance in innovative teaching practices, F(2, 409) = 106.97, p < .001. The null hypothesis was rejected for digital competence (β = .38, p < .001) as well as assistive technology utilization (β = .30, p < .001) as independent variables. Results show that innovation in early years’ classrooms is not influenced by the availability of devices but by educator capability; and that support for practice-informed professional learning should be seen as learning about inclusive and digital pedagogy as one competence domain.