Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 2022, 38(3)

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Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 2022, 38(3). 
122 
Teacher digital competence development in higher education: 
Overview of systematic reviews
Mitchell Peters
eLearn Innovation Centre, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
Amal Elasri-Ejjaberi, María-Jesús Martínez-Argüelles 
Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
Sergi Fàbregues
Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya 
The scope of digital technology integration in university teaching has changed our 
understanding of teacher readiness and teacher competence. Recently, faced with the 
digitalisation of higher education (HE), the construct of teacher digital competence (TDC) 
has emerged. Although there are many recent systematic reviews on digital competence from 
a range of perspectives and geographic settings, such reviews often show a limited view of a 
larger digital competence landscape in HE. The current study on TDC development in HE 
aims to synthesise knowledge to provide an integrated and global assessment of existing 
evidence. We carried out a systematic overview, especially suited for identifying, 
synthesising and critically appraising published reviews on a given topic amidst an 
abundance of research. We identified three clear settings by synthesising 740 studies across 
13 systematic reviews. Results reveal a significant interest in TDC in Spain, conducted by 
researchers in the field of educational technology concerned with teacher training and teacher 
professional development. We make recommendations to reorient the field by understanding 
TDC development through an integrated, transversal and holistic perspective; moving away 
from basic forms of research; and conducting and reporting research in line with 
methodological guidelines to ensure the highest possible standards.
Implications for practice or policy: 
•
Stakeholders interested in better fostering TDC could complement training and 
evaluation with an integrated and systems-based approach, including sustaining an 
institutional culture that strategically supports TDC development. 
•
Researchers could move away from basic forms of research design in order to advance 
the field beyond self-assessment and evaluation studies. 
•
Systematic review research can be improved by following rigorous methodological 
guidelines, including critical appraisal and transparent methods to synthesise studies, to 
ensure the highest academic integrity. 
Keywords:
teacher digital competence, higher education research, systematic review, 
methodological guidelines, teacher training