Computers and Education Open 5 (2023) 100150

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Weaknesses of ICT integration in the initial teacher education curriculum

Cristiano Rogério Vieira a, 1, *, Neuza Pedro b, 2
a
Institute of Education of the University of Lisbon - UIDEF, Technology Enhanced Learning and Societal Challenges, Alameda da Universidade, 1649-013, Lisboa,
Portugal
b
Institute of Education of the University of Lisbon - UIDEF, Alameda da Universidade, 1649-013, Lisboa, Portugal

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The article presents a Portuguese national study on integrating information and communication technologies
Curriculum (ICT) in initial teacher education courses (ITE), which sought to highlight to what extent ICT are presently
ICT skills considered in the training curriculum of future teachers. The study was developed on a documental corpus of
Higher education
819-course syllabus sheets of 45 master’s courses, which were analysed through a methodology supported by
Initial teacher education
content analysis procedures. The results achieved were also put under analysis, considering the European
Framework for Educators’ Digital Competence (DigCompEdu), and a shy presence of technologies was identified
in the analysed curricula. Regarding DigCompEdu, which functions as a common framework to be followed in
the European Union, the results show that this is configured as another factor to be remedied in the context of
integrating ICT in ITE in Portugal. Among the contributions that this study promotes is the finding of the reduced
presence of ICT identified in the context under study, a reality familiar to several countries, which implies in
curricular terms, initial teacher training is still ineffective in preparing teachers to meet the needs of today’s
digital society.

1. Introduction important information that could assist in the decision-making of gov­

International policy agendas are committed to dedicating relevant
and growing importance to the integration of information and
communication technologies (ICT) in the constituent practices of the
educational systems of many countries, as these documents recognise
how digital technologies are now present in various sectors of society
[1–5]. The most recent changes in the educational routine of millions of
teachers and students caused by the global pandemic of Covid-19 [6,7]
collaborate with this international trend. In this sense, according to the
European Commission et al., teachers’ education and professional
development in the area of ICT has gained particular prominence since,
in almost all European countries, teaching and learning processes
mediated by digital technologies have become a teaching modality used
by schools and universities, thus promoting a change in the teachers’
professional dynamics.
Although the political agendas recommend ICT integration in
educational practices, scientific research in the field is still insufficient
[8,9], and when carried out, it involves limited geographic samples,
which hinders large-scale inferences, at the same time it fails to provide
ernments regarding their educational systems [10]. An observation can
be added to this picture; even when the recommendations of the inter­
national policy agendas are applied in the curriculum of the initial
teachers’ education (ITE), these do not confirm an effective digital
transformation of future teachers’ professional performance, since this
transformation cannot be considered as a mere consumption of tech­
nological tools [11]. Therefore, this study seeks to contribute to these
unfilled gaps in scientific research.
ICT mastery thus emerged as one of the main requirements for
emergency remote teaching and, therefore, to the teachers’ practices
globally installed, which has extended beyond the pandemic period. In
this sense, European nations began to reflect on additional forms of
teachers’ training that could enable teachers’ commitment to promote
the development of their digital competence in order to facilitate
teaching, learning and assessment in today’s (digital) educational en­
vironments [1,12]. However, literature review studies on the theme of
ICT integration in education indicate the absence of a joint effort of the
countries in order to solve common problems in this field, as well as the
predominance of qualitative studies over more comprehensive

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: cristiano.r.vieira@edu.ulisboa.pt (C.R. Vieira).
1
Master’s in education and doctoral student in education in the doctoral programme.
2
Professor with aggregation and coordinator of the PhD’s in education and ICT.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeo.2023.100150
Received 25 October 2022; Received in revised form 18 August 2023; Accepted 18 August 2023
Available online 20 August 2023
2666-5573/© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
nc-nd/4.0/).
C.R. Vieira and N. Pedro
quantitative studies [8,13,14], as it is argued that the numerical balance
between the investigative paradigms would allow the studies to support
each other, and thus, these could offer more concrete information both
in cases of the reduced data sample, as in the most comprehensive,
involving large population samples.
An analysis of the ITE of European teachers conducted by the Eu­
ropean Commission [15] identified that higher education institutions
(HEI) involved in future teachers’ education lack uniformity in the
training offered due to their autonomy in curricular development. This
leads to a need for more precise information about the contents and
generic competencies being taught to future teachers, including those
related to the digital domain. This situation hinders an objective
assessment of results and, therefore, the actions that should be taken in
this domain. However, this picture regarding the ITE of European
teachers is gradually changing, as HEI recognise the need to offer a wide
range of knowledge and updated competencies in the ITE curriculum by
mapping the competencies required to exercise the teaching profession
currently. HEI has become concerned with creating teacher competency
frameworks to meet new social demands [7].
In the European context, the document entitled European Frame­
work for Educators’ Digital Competence (DigCompEdu) [16] is consid­
ered a reference for educators’ digital competencies, establishing six
areas of didactic and pedagogical relevance for teachers and educators
to develop teaching activities with the support of ICT. According to
Reisoğlu and Çebi [17], the integration of the DigCompEdu areas with
future teachers should be based on digital collaborative work among
peers, as well as the authors indicate that trainer teachers should act as
role models regarding the ways of pedagogical use of ICT. However,
research indicates weaknesses in the digital teaching competencies of
higher education trainer teachers in some areas of DigCompEdu, espe­
cially in learning assessment [18]. Therefore, for the effective integra­
tion of DigCompEdu’s recommendations in the ITE, it is still necessary to
pay greater attention from the HEI to this benchmark of digital
competencies.
However, even with some finding that indicates a more significant
commitment of HEI to improve digital skills, the new social demands of
promoting knowledge through ICT are urgent and require constant
reflection, planning and effective action. In this context, it is identified
that future teachers consider highly positive the ICT knowledge they
acquire during their training and that such knowledge can create posi­
tive beliefs about the undertaking ICT-mediated teaching and learning
processes, as well as they possess abilities to learn autonomously and
collaboratively, quite satisfactorily, and thus, they can transfer the ac­
quired knowledge in various educational contexts [19–21]. Therefore,
the ICT training offered to future teachers should have already stopped
being an object of planning and gradual improvement to be a standard
teaching practice in HEI.
Regarding Portugal, the country here under analysis, according to
recent data collected by the European Commission and the Directorate-
General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture [22], considering
teachers’ digital skills, 12% of in-service teachers feel the need to
improve their ICT skills for the development of their teaching activity. It
was also found that only 49% of Portuguese primary school teachers
claim to have received training in the pedagogical use of ICT, and of
these, 72% are teachers trained in the last five years. This percentage is
far from the European average, and the report ends with the following
recommendations for the country: an increment in the supply of training
in teachers’ digital skills and the need for improvements in the digital
infrastructure and equipment in Portuguese schools.
Similarly, a recent study by request of the Ministry of Education on
the level of digital skills of Portuguese teachers indicated that teachers
with 5 to 15 years of service progressively show a slight improvement in
their digital skills. On the other hand, teachers with a length of service
time above this interval showed a reduced level of digital competencies,
thus denoting that the older the teacher, the lower his/her ICT compe­
tencies. This study reaffirms the recommendations of the European
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Computers and Education Open 5 (2023) 100150
Commission regarding the need to improve the digital skills of Portu­
guese teachers while adding that teachers’ digital skills should be
constantly under updating programs [23].
It is essential to highlight that teachers are the main element of
educational changes with ICT, and for that, they must receive adequate
training in their initial education [24]; therefore, in the context of ITE, it
is expected that teacher trainers act as a role model for future teachers,
in the sense of demonstrating how relevant and accessible it is to un­
dertake ICT mediated teaching and learning processes [25]. Likewise,
these same teacher trainers should be able to provide their students with
sufficient knowledge that allows them to autonomously develop a
pedagogical use of technologies in the classroom context [26]. For the
practical success of ICT integration in ITE, [27] recommend establishing
collaborative work between teacher trainers and students so that teacher
trainers encourage future teachers to explore pedagogical processes with
ICT according to their training area.
The content of the Portuguese legislation oriented towards ITE
currently provides a learning path that offers guaranteed contact with
sufficient methods and scientific and pedagogical techniques able to
lead future teachers to meet current social demands [28] since nowa­
days education is configured as the principal agent of knowledge con­
struction that result from scientific and technological development that
prevails in contemporary society [29]. At the same time, the current
society clamours for more exceptional knowledge of technological na­
ture. Decree-Law no. 79/2014 complements that ITE is a decisive factor
in guaranteeing the success that the Portuguese education system as­
pires to achieve and indicates that ITE should be demanding in the
acquisition of scientific knowledge of the teaching subject(s) of future
teachers, as well as its/their respective didactics [30]. However, that
legislative document does not refer to any elements associated with ICT
and its integration into ITE.
As pointed out by Mouraz et al. [31], there were two influential
political moments for ITE in Portugal; the first occurred in 1986 with the
publication of the Framework Law on the Educational System [28] and
the second took place in 2006, the year in which Portugal, as well as
many European countries, began the adaptation of its higher education
to the Bologna Declaration [32]. This process sought to establish a joint
agreement among the twenty-nine signatory countries to create condi­
tions of equivalence of the higher education systems of the involved
countries. The Bologna Declaration (BD) reformulated the Portuguese
ITE, which, to be compliant with such declaration, had its organisation
divided into two cycles: a degree (1st cycle with three years duration)
and a master (2nd cycle with two years duration). With the reformulated
structure, it was established that to enter the Portuguese teaching
career, the minimum degree required was a master’s in teaching, given
that it was considered that the undergraduate degrees do not contem­
plate in their curricula the training for the professional practice, then
integrated into the curricula of the master’s in teaching programs [29].
These programs train kindergarten educators and teachers in Portuguese
public and private schools. What recommendations are outlined in the
article for enhancing the integration of ICT in initial teacher education
courses in Portugal? Have any countries successfully integrated ICT into
their initial teacher education curriculum?
Governments must ensure the effective digital transformation of
future teachers’ professional performance by integrating ICT into
teacher education. What recommendations are made in the article for
improving the integration of ICT in initial teacher education courses in
Portugal? Are there any countries where the integration of ICT in their
initial teacher education curriculum has been successfully achieved?
How can the effective digital transformation of future teachers’ profes­
sional performance be ensured through the integration of ICT in teacher
education by governments? What recommendations are made in the
article for improving the integration of ICT in initial teacher education
courses in Portugal? Are there any countries where the integration of
ICT in their initial teacher education curriculum has been successfully
achieved? How can the effective digital transformation of future
C.R. Vieira and N. Pedro
teachers’ professional performance be ensured through the integration
of ICT in teacher education by governments? What recommendations
are made by the article for improving the integration of ICT in initial
teacher education courses in Portugal? Are there any examples of
countries where the integration of ICT has been successfully incorpo­
rated into their initial teacher education curriculum? How can govern­
ments ensure the integration of ICT in teacher education to lead to the
effective digital transformation of future teachers’ professional perfor­
mance? in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd cycles of primary education (K1 to K9)
and secondary education (K10 to K12)?
In parallel, over the last decades, several authors have advocated the
integration of ICT in ITE courses through intentionally directed peda­
gogical and didactic approaches, which promotes the link between
technologies and their use in contexts of professional practice [11,29,
33–35], i.e. the ITE curricula should integrate the specific content,
teaching practices, organisation and planning of teaching-learning ac­
tivities, with particular focus on the educational, innovative and trans­
formative potential that ICT can have in these processes [19].
At the same time, research in the area has shown that the higher
education teacher educators involved in ITE indicate that they have
positive perceptions about the potential of ICT to support teaching and
learning processes and that they are favourable to its educational use
[20,35,36]. The literature indicates that one of the weaknesses of ITE in
Portugal is the insufficient number of hours dedicated to supervised
professional practice (SPP, or internship) in master’s degrees in teach­
ing, a formative space particularly relevant for the educational exploi­
tation of ICT in a real-world scenario. According to Craveiro [37], such a
few hours are not enough to guarantee future teachers a minimum
experience to face the reality of the classroom when entering the
teaching career. Folque [38] complements the idea by stating that the
SPP has in the master’s degrees in teaching a weight of 23% and that, as
a rule, it is primarily allocated to the end of the ITE, signalling that such
condition generates contestation about the priority given to theoretical
learning compared to the teaching practice. However, the lack of
consensus on the number of hours devoted to SPP is not only found in
ITE in Portugal but also part of the inequalities found in this field in
European ITE. Although SPP is compulsory in all BD signatory countries,
its duration varies greatly [7]. Another critical factor related to the
presence of ICT in the SPP is pointed out by Graça et al. [34]: internship
centres (i.e., schools) are currently inhibitors of digital-mediated peda­
gogical practices for future teachers because these institutions do not
have sufficient technological resources and proper infrastructures.
It is worth noting that Portugal is not an isolated country considering
the contexts of ITE; the same issues can be found in countries like Spain
[39], Italy [40], Germany [21] or Norway, [41] regarding ICT integra­
tion. However, even in the face of the efforts applied to improve the
integration of ICT in teaching master’s courses in Portugal, the country
still finds it challenging to find the necessary effectiveness to solve part
of its issues.
In this brief contextualisation regarding how international scientific
research is dedicated to identifying ways to solve problems and advance
with the integration of ICT in education, it is verified the contribution
that this study of Portuguese national scope can offer to the international
debate since it is ready to assess to what extent the ITE curriculum seeks
to integrate ICT, as it is known that educational changes can only occur
through, by and with teachers.
Investigating the integration of ICT in ITE is of fundamental impor­
tance, not only because of the need to improve the digital skills of future
teachers [42] but also because of the social and employment implica­
tions that this improvement will have for citizens, companies’ em­
ployees, self-employed workers, owners of micro-enterprises… [43], as
formal education aims at preparing students to meet the demands of
today’s society. However, many challenges remain to be overcome, such
as the small amount of research around the ITE curriculum [8] and the
predominance of the qualitative research model, which involves small
numbers of participants and covers small geographical areas [8,13,14],
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Computers and Education Open 5 (2023) 100150
and thus, limiting the cross-referencing of quantitative data from large
populations.
Following the above and based on the theoretical framework con­
sulted, which highlights the importance at an international level of the
expansion and advancement of research focused on the integration of
ICT in ITE, this study assumes the following research question (RQ): To
what extent are ICT integrated into the ITE curriculum?
It is understood that the answer to this RQ will collaborate with a
reliable evaluation model of curriculum analysis by the recent literature
surveyed and the appropriate methodological model applied to under­
stand how ICT are present (or not) in ITE courses, as well as to char­
acterise the training curriculum of future teachers, in such a way, that it
can assist both HEI and policymakers in critical decision making
regarding the updating of ITE.
2. Research model and procedure
The present study had as its primary objective (OB1) to analyse and
characterise the contents of the course syllabus sheets (CSS) of master’s
degree courses in teaching which train future teachers who will work in
the 1st and 2nd Cycles of Basic Education (CBE), as defined by the
Portuguese Educational System (PES), teaching students between 6 and
12 years of age; complementary to the OB1, two other secondary ob­
jectives were proposed: to characterise the presence of the DigCompEdu
referential in the SSC (OB1.1) and to measure which DigCompEdu di­
mensions were present or not in the SSC (OB1.2). The selected courses
were in mainland Portugal in the academic year 2019–2020.
The study is characterised by its qualitative nature of descriptive-
analytical scope, which, in order to achieve its objective, was sup­
ported by the methodological procedures of content analysis (CA). Such
an option was given by the fact that the CA resorts to systematic and
objective procedures of document analysis, proving to be useful when
the intention is to describe textual contents from which it is intended to
understand in depth the existing information. However, the CA analyses
the occurrences of information so that it can highlight the regularities
with which a particular phenomenon can be verified and, thus, con­
tributes so that these phenomena can be organised, systematised,
described, and elucidated, regardless of the diversity of the typologies of
the corpus [29,44–46].
3. Research context and sample
The corpus comprised 45 master’s degrees in teaching from 18
Higher Education institutions (HEI) from mainland Portugal that, in the
academic year of 2019–2020, offered seven distinct areas of speciali­
sation, specifically: Pre-School Education; 1st CBE Teaching; Teaching
Physical Education in Primary and Secondary Education; Teaching
Musical Education in Primary Education; Teaching English in 1st CBE;
Teaching Music; Teaching 1st CBE and Mathematics and Natural Sci­
ences in 2nd CBE; Teaching 1st CBE and Portuguese, History and
Table 1
Quantity of CSS collected per master’s degree programmes.
Master’s degree Number of CSS % (n =
Programmes collected 819)
Pre-School Education and 1st CBE 14 261 31,87%
Teaching 1st CBE and Mathematics 12 226 27,59%
and Natural Sciences in 2nd CBE
Teaching 1st CBE and Portuguese, 10 192 23,44%
History and Geography of Portugal
in 2nd CBE
Teaching English in 1st CBE 4 46 5,62%
Teaching Music 2 43 5,25%
Teaching Musical Education in 2 36 4,4%
Primary Education;
Teaching Physical Education in 1 15 1,83%
Primary and Secondary Education
C.R. Vieira and N. Pedro
Geography of Portugal in 2nd CBE. Table 1 shows the courses and the
number of CSS collected in each.
The CSS collection had a geographic coverage of all 18 districts of
mainland Portugal, thus covering 94.44% of the country’s regions. The
819 CSS that composed the corpus were collected from the HEI websites,
and when not available online, they were requested from the pro­
gramme coordinator through a request e-mail. The CSS collection period
occurred between July and November 2020, and the organisation,
processing and data analysis were performed between September and
November 2021.
4. The instrument used and their validation
The corpus was subjected to sequenced steps of organisation, treat­
ment, and systematisation of data with the support of Nvivo software.
These occurred as follows: initially, it was performed a segmentation of
the CSS into five dimensions of analysis considering the standard
structure of all of them: (i) Intended learning outcomes, (ii) Syllabus,
(iii) Teaching methodologies, (iv) Students’ assessment and (v) Bibli­
ography. Then, the sum of the frequency of words with three or more
letters in each dimension of analysis was carried out; the words resulting
from all dimensions underwent several readings (at least 3) and context
evaluation in order to raise only those that could indicate the presence of
ICT in each dimension. Finally, sequential readings were performed
after the final selection of keywords to build operational definitions that
demonstrated the synthesis of the informational content contained in
the CSS about the presence of ICT.
5. Data analysis
The word frequency sum process resulted in an amount of 309 420
words in the total of the 5 dimensions, of these 93 words (in Spanish,
French, English and Portuguese languages) were selected that, in fact,
could refer to the presence of ICT in the corpus, the selected words were
as follows: aplicação; aplicación; aplicações; apps; assíncrona; assí­
ncrono; áudio; audiovisuais; audiovisual; colibri; computação; compu­
tacional; computador; computadores; computer; covid; diapositivos;
digitais; digital; digitales; elearning; eletrónico; email; e-mail; excel;
facebook; games; gamificação; google; ict; informática; informático;
internet; ipad; jogo; jogos; learning; media; mobile; mooc; moodle;
móveis; mp3; multimédia; online; plataforma; podcast; podcasts; pow­
erpoint; red; síncrona; síncrona; síncronas; síncrono; sistema; sistemas;
site; sítios; smartphones; software; storytelling; tablets; technologie;
technology; tecnologia; tecnología; tecnologias; tecnológica; tecnológ­
icas; tecnológico; tecnológicos; tic; tice; tools; tpack; video; vídeo; vid­
eoconferência; videogravadas; videojogos; vídeos; virtuais; virtual; web;
weblog; webquest; website; websites; wetransfer; whatsapp; wikis;
zoom.
In addition, because Portugal is a member state of the European
Union and, therefore, must act in alignment with the policies established
by this economic and social block, including in its educational aspects,
the results obtained in the CA overlapped with the skills areas identified
in the European Framework for the Digital Competence for Educators:
DigCompEdu [15]. It is worth clarifying that this framework is intended
to be familiar to all member states and allows assessing teachers’ com­
petencies in digital technologies in six areas, namely: 1. professional
engagement, 2. digital resources, 3. teaching and learning, 4. assess­
ment, 5. empowering learners, and 6. facilitating learners’ digital
competence. DigCompEdu points out the relevance it assumes today, in
the European context, in the promotion of digital competencies, among
the different sectors of society. This analysis focused on DigCompEdu
was conducted to investigate to what extent the 22 competencies rec­
ommended in DigCompEdu are being considered in the ITE in Portugal.
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6. Results
Once the methodological steps of organisation, treatment, system­
atisation, and analysis of the document corpus were completed, 145 CSS
were found with evidence of the presence of ICT in the training curric­
ulum of future Portuguese teachers of 1st and 2nd CBE. These results
showed a timid presence of ICT in the training curriculum of future
Portuguese teachers, with a percentage of less than 18% out of 819 CSS
analysed. Of this amount, around 40% of the CSS (58 of 145) were from
4 HEI, and only one programme concentrated around 30% of the CSS (43
of 145). The systematisation of these results is presented in Table 2.
The operational definitions emerging from the analysis of the ICT
content present in the researched CSS could be synthesised into five
major indicative areas. These are presented below by their respective
titles - alphabetical coding and descriptors:
• Curricular integration of ICT (A) - refers to the use of didactic and
pedagogical means of developing teaching and learning processes
mediated by ICT.
• Creation and use of digital educational resources (B) - associated
with the development of search activities, students’ assessment, and
creation/reformulation of digital resources for educational use, ac­
cording to the student’s age group and the scientific curricular
subject.
• Social and educational contextualisation of ICT (C) refers to theo­
retical approaches to the presence and importance of ICT in present-
day society and its relevance to educational processes.
• Students’ assessment processes with ICT (D) - statement of mecha­
nisms and strategies for measuring and evaluating ICT-mediated
learning.
• Ethics and data security (E) refers to ethical and legal concepts
associated with digital security, copyright, the right to privacy and
data protection in the digital context.
Fig. 1 shows the dimensions of analysis and the number and per­
centage of CSS that showed evidence of ICT elements, followed by the
indicative percentage of the presence of each operational definition
described above.
Even with a small percentage, less than 10% of the CSS under study,
the dimension ’Syllabus’ was the one with the most substantial evidence
of representative elements of the presence of ICT. The percentage values
found in the dimensions ’Intended learning outcomes’ and ’Teaching
Methodologies’ were lower, close to 7%, and close to each other; such
reduced presence identified in the dimensions significantly diminishes
the possibility of any digital transformation in the professional perfor­
mance of future teachers, if we take into account that such trans­
formation does not occur by the simple fact of consumption and use of
technological tools [11], but also through the reflection upon its
educational value.
Table 2
Number of CSS with evidence of ICT presence.
CSS with the % CSS per master’s degree specialisation %
presence of ICT (n (n = 145)
= 819)
145 17,70% Teaching 1st CBE and Mathematics 29,65%
and Natural Sciences in 2nd CBE
Teaching 1st CBE and Portuguese and 25,53%
History and Geography of Portugal in
2nd CBE
Pre-School Education and 1st CBE 22,75%
Teaching English in 1st CBE 13,11%
Teaching Music 4,82%
Teaching Musical Education in 3,45%
Primary Education
Teaching Physical Education in 0,69%
Primary and Secondary Education
C.R. Vieira and N. Pedro
Fig. 1. Systematisation of evidence of ICT presence in CSS by dimensions and operational definitions.
The dimensions ’Teaching methodologies’ and ’Evaluation’, in
addition to registering limited presence in the analysis of ICT in textual
content, also showed absences from the operational definitions C, D and
E. This result allows us to infer that the methodologies used for teaching
and learning by future teachers and the used students’ assessment tools
are still at some distance from more satisfactory levels of ICT integra­
tion. Such findings of insufficient ICT presence in the training curricu­
lum of Portuguese future teachers were also identified in Serbia [42].
Another factor highlighted in the results is the dimension ’Bibliog­
raphy’, which achieved high percentages of ICT presence compared to
the operational definitions. However, despite the fact that there is evi­
dence of a documentary referential related to ICT integration in the CSS
analysed, it was only sometimes possible to observe its applicability in
the other dimensions analysed. In fact, in specific dimensions, there is no
proportional evidence of ICT integration in the other constituent fields
of the CSS analysed.
The operational definitions A and B were remarkably prominent in
the CSS analysed, demonstrating that when ICT are present in the
training curriculum of future teachers, they tend to be considered as
means to support teaching processes and also as a resource to support
the development of online searching activities, students’ assessment and
(re)design of digital resources for educational use. In contrast to this
good positioning of definitions A and B is the reduced consideration of
the operational definition E in the training curriculum, which deals with
topics particularly relevant nowadays, such as cybersecurity and
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Computers and Education Open 5 (2023) 100150
personal data protection awareness. These results align with the study
conducted by Gallego-Arrufat et al. [39] in Portugal and Spain, which
revealed that regarding digital security skills, almost 50% of the teachers
surveyed in the two countries still show moderate proficiency. The
absence of studies with a broad geographical scope or joint in­
vestigations between countries makes it exceedingly difficult to make
comparative judgements with this data [10], such as those presented
here where the scope of the literature allowed an analogy centred on the
Iberian Peninsula.
In order to collaborate with the answer to the research question, the
ICT skills framework for educators - DigCompEdu - was taken as a
reference. For the compatibility performed, the recommended by the
European Commission document was described and received an al­
phanumeric coding for a more explicit representation in Fig. 2, consid­
ering its six areas ([16], pp. 19–23):
• Professional engagement (1) - related to the use of technologies to
improve institutional communication (1A), collaborative use of
technologies among teachers (1B), reflection on the evaluation of
digital pedagogical practice (1C), and use of digital resources for
professional development (1D).
• Digital Resources (2) - associated with the identification, evaluation,
and selection of digital resources for teaching and learning (2A),
modification and development of existing digital resources for
educational purposes (2B), organisation and availability of digital
C.R. Vieira and N. Pedro
Fig. 2. Evidence of DigCompEdu presence in CSS.
content respecting ethical, data protection, privacy, and copyright
rules (2C).
• Teaching and Learning (3) - associated with the planning and inte­
gration of digital resources in teaching processes (3A), use of tech­
nologies to improve interaction with students (3B), use of
technologies to improve collaboration among students (3C), use of
technologies to support students’ self-regulated learning (3D).
• Assessment (4) - relating to the use of technologies for learning
assessment (4A), interpretation of digital evidence about the
learning activities undertaken by students (4B), and use of technol­
ogies to provide feedback that directs student learning (4C).
• Empowering Learners (5) - associated with ensuring that digital re­
sources and activities are accessible to all students (5A), use of digital
technologies according to the diverse learning needs of students
(5B), use of technologies to promote active and creative engagement
of students to develop soft skills (5C).
• Facilitating Learners’ Digital Competence (6) - the latter area asso­
ciates with the presentation of educational activities that encourage
students to search for solutions and answers in digital environments
(6A), presentation of educational activities that encourage students
to use digital technologies responsibly, collaboratively and civically
(6B), presentation of educational activities that encourage students
to express themselves through digital technologies, considering
copyright criteria and appropriate ways of referencing sources (6C),
promoting students’ awareness of the need for safe and responsible
use of digital technologies (6D), presenting educational activities
6
Computers and Education Open 5 (2023) 100150
that encourage students to identify and solve technical problems
related to digital technologies (6E).
The compatibility of the results of the CA, concerning that recom­
mended by DigCompEdu, showed a percentage value slightly lower than
the first one, which aimed to identify the presence of ICT in the CSS (n =
142). Such reduction was due to the identification of 3 CSS that pre­
sented evidence of elements associated with ICT but in a manner not
aligned with that recommended by DigCompEdu. The percentage of
17.33% of CSS that contained elements associated with the DigCom­
pEdu dimensions becomes all the more reduced when fragmented in the
coding, most notably through the absence of the following dimensions of
the European framework: using technologies to improve institutional
communication (1A), interpreting digital evidence on student learning
activities (4B) and proposing educational activities that stimulate stu­
dents to identify and solve technical problems linked to digital tech­
nologies (6E). It draws attention that, as identified previously in Fig. 1,
many of the codes given to the DigCompEdu framework were identified
in the dimension of analysis ‘Bibliography’ but were absent in the other
dimensions.
In general, the results obtained show that, despite the presence of ICT
in the training curriculum of future teachers, this presence does not
guarantee effective changes in their future professional performance
[11], either by its reduced presence or by the absence of evidence of its
practical ability to change the beliefs and modes of professional per­
formance of future teachers. Even when the results are oriented towards
C.R. Vieira and N. Pedro
DigCompEdu, which acts as a common framework to be followed in the
European Union, it still configures as another one of the factors to be
remedied in the field of investigation of ICT integration in ITE, such as
the reduced research in the field [8,14]; the little attention paid to the
integration of ICT in ITE, taking into account the fact that teachers are
the main actors of technological transformation in education [24]; and
the inference that study can make, in the sense that teacher educators
need to reformulate their beliefs and teaching conceptions about the
need for ICT preparation of future teachers [25,27].
7. Discussion and conclusions
The results obtained from the analysis of the CSS show that the 1st
and 2nd CBE ITE in Portugal still reveals a timid presence of ICT in the
training curriculum offered to future Portuguese teachers. In all the
master’s courses investigated, there was evidence of elements associated
with ICT in less than 18% of the 819 CSS analysed, which denotes a
fragile integration of ICT in these programs. It is accepted that there may
be an effort of professors, coordinators, and institutional leaders to give
relevance to the ICT integration in ITE; however, such effort still needs
to continue and be represented in more concrete actions that effectively
lead the curricular integration and promotion of ICT in the ITE pro­
grammes, as well as, to improve its transversal presence.
According to Simões and Faustino [35], HEI teacher trainers have
positive perceptions about the potentialities of the educational use of
ICT in ITE; they understand them as relevant tools for mediating the
teaching and learning processes; however, this positive perception needs
to move towards into effective curricular integration and more regular
technology-enhanced teaching practices. When ITE is effective in inte­
grating ICT, future teachers can take responsibility for their learning and
achieve positive changes in their attitudes and skills in using ICT for
pedagogical purposes [20]. It is also known that the teacher trainers of
HEI have an essential role in the construction of ICT skills. From them, a
significant commitment to learning and harnessing technologies is
required (Burrows et al., 2022) so these same teacher trainers will fit the
role of models for their students in the sense of demonstrating ease in
undertaking teaching and learning processes with ICT [26].
In general, the percentage values identified demonstrate that the ICT
in the curricula of training of future teachers still needs more attention
by the HEI in order to ensure not only their more significant presence
but, above all, the aggregation of technologies to the scientific knowl­
edge of the training area of the future teacher and to the didactic
knowledge equally conveyed, so that, in their professional teaching
performance they can be able to associate the theoretical-scientific
knowledge with the pedagogical processes associated with teaching
and learning and also how the use of ICT can technologically enrich
these [47,48]. In this same sense, Costa et al. [49] advocate that an
approach prioritising theoretical and technical aspects in ITE is insuffi­
cient once it does not prepare future teachers for using ICT in practical
classroom situations. These ideas are closely related to what is promoted
in the TPACK framework, where the complex interplay of three primary
forms of knowledge that are critical in today’s teachers’ professional
activities (Content, Pedagogy, and Technology) is appropriately
considered [48].
Therefore, for practical changes to occur and to increase the timid
representativeness of ICT in ITE that this study identified, it is recom­
mended that the teaching staff as well as the coordinators of ITE pro­
grammes i) became aware of this data, ii) improve ICT transversal
presence by incorporate it in CSS, which may require significant in­
vestments in pedagogically-relevant information technologies as well as
staff training, and iii) take in consideration the premises and recom­
mendations of DigCompEdu. Even so, despite modesty, the presence of
the DigCompEdu premises in the ’Bibliography’ dimension demon­
strates that the theoretical construction of the CSS is attentive and seeks
to meet the ICT training demands of future teachers, namely in terms of
agreement with the current European reference framework—however,
7
Computers and Education Open 5 (2023) 100150
more than this presence is needed to promote significant changes.
In the Portuguese national and/or international scenario, in which
studies in this field are reduced [8]; however, in recent years, research in
this field has been assuming positions of growth and thus demonstrating
some theoretical progress, but still, with obstacles regarding the pref­
erence for qualitative investigative models, which involve few partici­
pants and cover small geographical regions [10].
The attention devoted by this study to the DigCompEdu framework,
in addition to corresponding to the framework of the national ITE in the
European context, also follows aligned with what is indicated by Colás-
Bravo et al. [50] when the authors emphasise the role that this frame­
work seeks to assume in the promotion of the development of digital
competencies of teachers in their role as knowledge mediators through
students active action in the acquisition of knowledge, in a social context
where most of the learning process takes place through mobile and web
environments. As Graça et al. [34, p. 88] state:
Thus, the ICT domain is not only about knowing its applicability; it is
fundamental to develop technological and pedagogical capacities for
effective ICT integration. That is why the HEI responsible for initial
teachers’ education must provide training in scientific, didactic,
pedagogical, and technological aspects, thus following the social,
economic, and technological changes and the diversity of the
teaching activity in the labour market.
Therefore, in ITE, supported by a reflected and concrete offer of ICT
training, we should start by raising the level of teachers’ digital
competence. Future teachers should gain an early awareness of the value
associated with mobilising digital educational resources, understanding
these as valuable tools for the teaching and learning processes, thus
ensuring students’ full potential to act as active and critical agents in
today’s digital society.
Finally, we conclude that the Portuguese ITE within the investigated
documentary universe still needs improvement, as achieved with the
primary objective (OB1) and secondary objectives (OB1.1 and OB1.2)
proposed in the study. So, in response to the proposed RQ, it is possible
to confirm the need for more attention to the promotion of ICT inte­
gration in ITE by HEI and their managers. This Portuguese scenario
confirms and validates the international scenarios identified in the
literature, which indicate reduced research in the field, little attention to
the framing of ICT in the ITE curriculum and country analyses that
indicate teachers’ little preparation to undertake teaching and learning
processes with the support of ICT [8,10,11,14,23,26,27,34,39,41,42,
51].
Therefore, the effort and attention of ITE professors and program
coordinators should focus on the improvement of this ICT current
presence in the ITE curriculum so that future teachers can master the
digital educational tools as well as the pedagogical and didactic
knowledge associated with ICT educational use, in order to meet not
only the current professional teaching demands but also to correspond to
the digital competences required by the current society both for them­
selves and for their (future) students as citizens.
8. Limitations
In the present study, it is essential to highlight the limiting factors of
the results obtained. A documentary analysis of the structuring CSS of
ITE courses may not fully reveal the way ICT is used in university classes
and the ICT- related beliefs and perceptions of the professors involved in
ITE in Portugal. It is accepted that teaching practices and pedagogical
dynamics may be partially represented by the information that officially
constitutes the CSS.
Other limitations of the research are the geographical scope, which
analyses only one country, without comparative possibilities, since it is
understood that each country presents different ITE realities; the focus
of the research on the 1st and 2nd cycle teaching masters degrees, which
leaves aside the 3rd cycle and secondary school teaching masters
C.R. Vieira and N. Pedro Computers and Education Open 5 (2023) 100150

degrees; and finally, the carrying out of the research comprised within a [21] Lorenz R, Heldt M, Eickelmann B. Relevance of pre-service teacher training to use
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Funding [23] Lucas M, Bem-haja P. Estudo sobre o nível de competências digitais dos docentes
do ensino básico e secundário dos Agrupamentos de Escolas e das Escolas Não
This work was subsidised by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tec­ Agrupadas da rede pública de Portugal Continental. Ministério da Educação -
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