Teaching digital literacy: are teachers’ perspectives consistent with actual pedagogy?

This study mapped instructional strategies that promote core digital literacies, as conceptualized by three theoretical frameworks: the digital competencies (DC) model (Eshet-Alkalai, 2004; 2012) the five core-competencies (5C) model (Hwang, Lai, & Wang, 2015) and the DigComp framework (Ferrari, 2013). Findings from a large qualitative sample of 65 Israeli elementary and middle-school teachers-experts in technology-enhanced pedagogy, demonstrated that their perspectives in semi-structured interviews were mostly consistent with their actual behavior observed in classrooms. Teachers over-emphasized certain competencies (searching for knowledge, photo-visual thinking, socio-emotional learning, constructing knowledge), while others competencies were significantly less common (real-time thinking, branching literacy and problem-solving skills). Based on bottom-up coding, we identified unique characteristics of digital literacy, suggested several modifications of the DC, 5C and DigComp frameworks, and mapped the level of instructional strategies (foundational, intermediate, or advanced) used to develop students' digital literacies. We discuss the implications of the findings for educational theory and practice.