Teachers worldwide unequally prepared for digital future

The United States emerged as the global leader in teacher participation across all types of digitalization-related PD. U.S. teachers were more likely to attend courses multiple times, particularly in areas such as using ICT applications and integrating technology into teaching strategies. This finding aligns with the country's relatively high availability of IT resources in schools and stronger institutional support structures.

The global digital transformation of education hinges not just on infrastructure and devices, but on how well teachers are equipped to use them. A new international study sheds light on the critical role of professional development in supporting educators during this transition. The peer-reviewed article, “Teachers’ Participation in Digitalization-Related Professional Development: An International Comparison,” is published in Education Sciences. Drawing on data from over 10,000 teachers across Chile, Denmark, Germany, South Korea, and the United States, the research offers one of the most comprehensive evaluations to date of how teachers participate in digitalization-focused training and how that training shapes classroom practices and professional attitudes.

The study is based on the data from the International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS 2018), which measures not only teacher engagement in ICT-related training but also their views on digital technologies and their actual use of ICT tools in classroom settings. While professional development is widely viewed as essential to successful educational innovation, this study exposes stark disparities in how countries support and implement it and how effective it ultimately proves to be.

How Does Participation in Digitalization Training Differ Across Countries?

The first focus of the study was to determine how frequently teachers in each country participate in formal professional development (PD) programs focused on digital skills and classroom technology integration. Despite global rhetoric on the urgency of teacher digital competence, the findings reveal substantial national differences.

The United States emerged as the global leader in teacher participation across all types of digitalization-related PD. U.S. teachers were more likely to attend courses multiple times, particularly in areas such as using ICT applications and integrating technology into teaching strategies. This finding aligns with the country's relatively high availability of IT resources in schools and stronger institutional support structures.

On the other hand, Germany, despite having formal policies that require PD, showed the lowest overall engagement. German teachers were the least likely to participate in courses focused on using ICT for special needs education or personalized learning, and many attended only once or not at all. This underwhelming participation may reflect a lack of targeted support and underdeveloped digital infrastructure, particularly in comparison to Denmark and the USA.

Chile, surprisingly, defied expectations. Although Chile’s infrastructure is generally weaker than other countries in the study, its teachers showed higher-than-predicted engagement in PD. However, like South Korea and Denmark, Chilean teachers mostly attended training sessions only once, suggesting more exposure than follow-through. Denmark, often lauded for its high-performing education system, showed middling participation, likely because its teachers already possess stronger baseline ICT skills.

Lastly, participation patterns suggest that national infrastructure, policy mandates, and school-level incentives all play a role, but do not fully explain why teachers choose, or are able, to engage in digital learning. Teachers' perceived need, confidence, and workload also appear to weigh heavily.

What Impact Does Digital Training Have on Teaching Practices and Attitudes?

The second and more consequential question the study tackled was whether participation in PD actually translates into meaningful changes in how teachers think about and use technology. Structural equation modeling showed a strong positive association across all five countries: teachers who participated in digital training held more favorable views of ICT in education, were more likely to promote ICT skills among students, and reported using digital tools more frequently in class.

These relationships held across cultural and systemic boundaries. In every country, PD participation predicted higher frequency of ICT usage, greater emphasis on student digital skill-building, and stronger belief in technology’s educational value. However, the strength of these associations varied. Teachers in Chile, Korea, and the USA showed stronger links between training and behavior change than those in Germany and Denmark, where contextual factors may blunt the impact of PD or reflect pre-existing digital literacy among teachers.

Importantly, the study also tested whether age and gender influenced participation. While gender had no significant effect in any of the five countries, age did matter in several contexts. In Chile, Denmark, and Korea, older teachers were more likely to participate in PD. This challenges common assumptions that younger educators are inherently more digitally inclined, and instead points to a possibly greater awareness or sense of responsibility among veteran teachers to update their skills.

The evidence confirms that structured digital training is not only beneficial but essential to modernizing education systems. Still, the study cautions that frequency alone is not enough. The quality, depth, and continuity of PD efforts are key to changing mindsets and embedding new teaching habits.

What Are the Policy Implications for Equitable and Effective ICT Integration?

As digital demands in education escalate, so does the need for scalable, effective, and inclusive professional development programs. This study offers several critical takeaways for policymakers and school leaders.

First, PD must be universally accessible and responsive to the real needs of teachers. It should include beginner-level training for those who lacked exposure during initial teacher education, as well as advanced, subject-specific modules for experienced users. Special attention should be paid to neglected areas such as ICT for students with special needs, which remains under-addressed in all five countries studied.

Second, simply mandating participation or offering generic training may not yield results. Programs must be grounded in pedagogical relevance and allow teachers to reflect, experiment, and collaborate. Without these features, even high participation rates, as seen in the USA, risk being superficial rather than transformative.

Third, teacher education must be reimagined to embed digital competence from the start. Pre-service training should introduce ICT not only as a technical tool but as a pedagogical ally. Embedding digitalization into initial training could reduce the need for remedial PD and ensure that teachers begin their careers ready for 21st-century classrooms.

Furthermore, updated and longitudinal data will be critical. The study relied on 2018 data, collected before the global COVID-19 pandemic accelerated digital teaching overnight. Repeating this analysis with newer data from ICILS 2023 would allow researchers to assess how emergency remote teaching reshaped teacher training needs and behaviors.