The PDC Ladder for Teacher Education: A Three-Tiered Framework for Digital Competence Integration

This poster introduces the PDC Ladder for Teacher Education, a visual and conceptual model that distinguishes digital competence at three interconnected levels: pupils, teachers, and teacher educators.

Background & Conceptual Foundation

Based on Starkey’s (2020) model for teachers’ Professional Digital Competence and extended through Uerz et al.’s (2018) emphasis on modeling and metacommunication, the framework supports a clearer understanding of the complex double-layered role teacher educators play in preparing future teachers for the digital age.

Three Interconnected Levels

1. Primary School Level (Pupils): Digital skills, subject-specific digital use, and foundational technological understanding in school.
2. Teacher Level (Student Teachers & In-Service Teachers): Managing the digital learning environment, using technology for teaching, critical evaluation of tools, and teaching pupils who use technology.
3. Teacher Educator Level: Metacognition and explicit modeling — making pedagogical and technological reasoning visible (“thinking aloud” about why, when, and how digital or analogue approaches are chosen).

Key Takeaway for Teacher Educators

Make digital competence visible. Think aloud. Invite reflection. Show the why behind the how.