Given the growing demand for digital competences among teachers, universities need to consider what should be taught in the initial phase of teacher education. This raises the problem that general frameworks for digital competences need to be specified for specific target groups. The following questions arise: What digital competences are expected of future teachers? What level of these competences is expected? This article addresses these questions using a two-stage Delphi study for the target group of future secondary school teachers of STEM subjects in a regional context. In the first Delphi stage, an online survey was used to gather the expectations of N = 37 stakeholders, including professors of STEM subjects and subject education, as well as practicing teachers, and representatives of the educational administration, based on existing competence descriptions. In the second stage, expectations regarding the level of selected competences were clarified in group discussions with a subgroup of stakeholders (N = 18). The results show that expectations regarding digital competences are broadly consistent (first stage), but that primarily basic competences directly related to coping with professional situations are expected (second stage). On the one hand, this results in concrete focal points for opportunities to learn in university teacher education; on the other hand, the results raise questions about the orientation of fundamental requirements in teacher education. Beyond the specific findings, the article illustrates how the Delphi study can be used as a method in combination with theory-based criteria to specify general frameworks for teacher competences for specific target groups and regional contexts.
Pankrath et al. (Mon,) studied this question.