Systems Thinking Skills and the ICT Self-Concept in Preschool Teachers for Sustainable Curriculum Transformation

Brina Kurent and Stanislav Avsec ()
Additional contact information
Brina Kurent: Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, Kardeljeva Ploscad 16, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Stanislav Avsec: Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, Kardeljeva Ploscad 16, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 20, 1-28

Abstract: The importance of early learning is even greater today if we are to prepare children for the 21st century by developing several lifelong competencies. With the advent of digitalization, some educators already integrate information communication technology (ICT) into early childhood, whereas others also have concerns about early implementation. However, the introduction of digital competencies from the perspective of systems thinking among preservice and in-service preschool teachers has not yet been demonstrated. The purpose of this study is to identify preschool teachers’ systems thinking skills and their ICT self-concept and to develop a pathway model for developing an ICT self-concept for sustainable and digital preschool education using systems thinking. An empirical research design with advanced statistical analysis and structural equation modeling was used. The sample consists of 172 preschool teachers. The results showed small differences between the preservice and in-service preschool teachers in the areas of “sequence of events” and “communication” in favor of preservice preschool teachers. Regardless of the group of preschool teachers, systems thinking develops self-concept in relation to ICT equally. The pathway diagram shows that “understanding the relationships between patterns” is the strongest predictor of the ICT self-concept, that only perceiving and understanding the inter-relationships of factors influence problem solving, and that understanding variations of different types (random/specific) and causal sequences alone has predictive power for “process and store” in the context of the ICT self-concept. The developed model will help educators, researchers, and curriculum designers to improve preschool education practices and transform the curriculum in a sustainable way.

Keywords: preschool education; sustainable curriculum transformation; digital competence; systems thinking; preschool teachers; structural equation modeling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/20/15131/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/20/15131/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:20:p:15131-:d:1264749

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().