Digital Skills Are Becoming Essential for Teachers
Digital transformation has changed how teachers plan lessons, communicate with students, provide learning materials, and conduct assessments. Having access to computers, smartphones, online platforms, and digital learning resources, however, does not automatically make technology useful in the classroom.
Teachers also need to understand how digital tools can support learning objectives. This capability, known as digital pedagogical competence, combines technological knowledge with pedagogical decision-making. It includes selecting appropriate digital resources, designing technology-supported lessons, assessing students, encouraging engagement, and helping learners develop their own digital capabilities.
The issue is particularly relevant in geographically diverse areas such as Nabire District, Nabire Regency, Central Papua, where schools may experience different levels of technological access, infrastructure, institutional support, and teacher experience.
Previous research has shown that teachers differ considerably in their digital competence and confidence in using technology. The COVID-19 pandemic further exposed these differences as schools rapidly moved toward online and technology-supported instruction.
Study Involved 250 Teachers in Nabire
Martinus Tekege examined the relationship between digital pedagogical competence, teacher self-efficacy, and teaching effectiveness among secondary-school teachers in Nabire District.
The research involved 250 teachers from junior secondary schools, senior secondary schools, and vocational secondary schools. Participants were selected through proportionate stratified random sampling to ensure representation across the different school levels.
The researchers collected information through five-point Likert-scale questionnaires. The instruments measured teachers’ digital pedagogical competence, self-efficacy, and perceived teaching effectiveness.
The data were analyzed using statistical procedures, including regression and mediation analysis. The mediation test used 5,000 bootstrap resamples, allowing the researcher to determine whether teacher self-efficacy helped explain the relationship between digital pedagogical competence and teaching effectiveness.
Teaching Effectiveness Recorded the Highest Score
The descriptive results showed relatively high scores across all three measured areas.
- Teaching effectiveness: mean score of 4.01
- Digital pedagogical competence: mean score of 3.92
- Teacher self-efficacy: mean score of 3.88
The findings indicate that teachers generally reported strong capabilities and confidence in their teaching activities. Teaching effectiveness recorded the highest average score among the three variables.
The study also found strong statistical relationships among the variables.
Digital pedagogical competence significantly predicted teacher self-efficacy, with a regression coefficient of B = 0.589. Teacher self-efficacy also significantly predicted teaching effectiveness, with B = 0.436.
Digital pedagogical competence had a significant direct relationship with teaching effectiveness, with B = 0.361.
The total effect of digital pedagogical competence on teaching effectiveness was B = 0.618, indicating that the overall relationship became stronger when the pathway through teacher self-efficacy was taken into account.
Teacher Confidence Acts as a Bridge
One of the most important findings concerns the role of teacher self-efficacy.
The analysis found an indirect effect of 0.257, with a 95% bootstrap confidence interval ranging from 0.188 to 0.334. Because the interval did not include zero, the indirect relationship was statistically significant.
The result means that teachers’ digital pedagogical competence contributes to teaching effectiveness partly because stronger digital capabilities can increase teachers’ confidence in handling instructional tasks.
The mediation was classified as partial mediation because digital pedagogical competence continued to have a significant direct effect on teaching effectiveness even after teacher self-efficacy was included in the analysis.
In practical terms, teachers need more than technical knowledge. They also need confidence to apply that knowledge when designing lessons, managing classrooms, engaging students, using digital assessment tools, and responding to instructional challenges.
Digital Training Should Include Confidence Building
The findings have direct implications for teacher professional development in Central Papua and other regions undergoing digital transformation.
Schools and education authorities should avoid treating digital teacher training as purely technical instruction. Learning how to operate a platform or application is only one part of effective digital teaching.
Professional development programs can combine digital skills with practical classroom exercises, mentoring, peer collaboration, instructional design, digital assessment, and continuous feedback. Such programs can give teachers opportunities to experience successful technology-supported teaching, which may strengthen their confidence.
The study's results also show that digital competence and teacher self-efficacy jointly explained 58.9% of the variation in teaching effectiveness. The remaining 41.1% suggests that other factors also matter, including school infrastructure, internet connectivity, institutional leadership, teacher workload, student characteristics, access to digital resources, and professional development opportunities.
For schools in regions with uneven infrastructure, this finding is particularly important. Providing technology without adequate support may not produce the expected improvement in teaching quality.
What the Author's Findings Mean for Education
Martinus Tekege's findings from Universitas Satya Wiyata Mandala Nabire indicate that digital transformation in education should address both what teachers can do with technology and how confident they are in doing it.
An ethical paraphrase of the author's central finding is that stronger digital pedagogical competence can improve teaching effectiveness through two pathways: a direct contribution from teachers' ability to use technology pedagogically and an indirect contribution created by stronger teacher self-efficacy.
This perspective is consistent with broader research showing that teachers' digital competence, professional learning, and psychological confidence interact in shaping technology-supported teaching practices.
The Nabire findings also provide a regional perspective that is valuable for education policymakers. Rather than measuring digital transformation only by the availability of devices or internet access, policymakers can also consider whether teachers have the pedagogical skills, confidence, mentoring, and institutional support needed to use technology effectively.
Recommendations for Schools and Policymakers
The study supports several practical priorities:
- Integrate digital pedagogy into teacher professional development, rather than focusing only on technical skills.
- Strengthen teacher self-efficacy through mentoring, peer learning, practical exercises, and feedback.
- Improve institutional support, including access to digital resources and reliable technology infrastructure.
- Encourage classroom experimentation, allowing teachers to apply digital tools to real instructional challenges.
- Evaluate digital teaching from multiple perspectives, including classroom observations, student feedback, and school leadership assessments.
The author also highlights the need for future research using longitudinal or experimental designs. Such approaches could provide stronger evidence about how digital competence and teacher self-efficacy change over time.
Author Profile
Martinus Tekege is affiliated with Universitas Satya Wiyata Mandala Nabire, Central Papua, Indonesia. His work in this article focuses on digital pedagogical competence, teacher self-efficacy, teaching effectiveness, digital education, and teacher professional development. The academic degree of Martinus Tekege is not specified in the supplied article information.
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