Who’s Teaching the Teachers?

The myth of the “digital native”, pedagogical beliefs about ICT and its place in education, and the reality of a teacher as an ICT role model each contribute to the attitudes school students develop about ICT. All Australian teachers, regardless of discipline, are required to incorporate ICT in their lessons. The way pre-service teachers (PSTs) are educated has a direct impact on their ability and desire to teach digital competence to school students. Using 482 first year PSTs’ experiences and expectations as a lens, teaching degrees at an Australian university were investigated, using a mixed methods approach, to find out whether the ICT content was appropriate to prepare graduate teachers to implement the national curriculum. Findings indicated that the teaching degrees did not meet all PSTs’ needs. PSTs wanted more explicit instruction in the practical and pedagogical implications of using ICT in the classroom, and some even wanted training to navigate the university’s online systems. These findings indicate that assumptions implicit in universities about digital competence may be invalid. Recommendations include suggestions that universities review their expectations of PST digital competence and consider including both embedded and explicit methods of teaching ICT in teaching degrees.