Digital Competence Development in Early Childhood Professionals

This book examines innovative recent developments in curricula and pedagogical discourses around early childhood professionals' digital competence development via professional development avenues. This will be a valuable resource in understanding how digital competence development occurs through cultural learnings.

Sarika Kewalramani is a Senior Lecturer in STEM Education at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia, and the Department of Education Partnerships Lead. Weipeng Yang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Early Childhood Education at the Education University of Hong Kong. Maria Dardanou is an Associate Professor in early childhood teacher education at the Arctic University of Norway. Maria Hatzigianni is an Assistant Professor at the University of West Attica, Greece. Maria's expertise builds on a rich early childhood career with more than 12 years of teaching experience in the Early Childhood sector in Australia and Greece.

Part 1: A case for the development of digital competence among ECE workforce 1. Digital technologies as the third teacher 2. Conceptualising early childhood workforce professional development landscapes for digital competence: Introducing the INSPIRE model Part 2: Educators' professional learning stories for STEM and digital competency development 3. Situating early childhood teachers' STEM and digital competency via robotics play 4. INSPIRE-Driven PlayBot: Empowering Early Childhood Teachers' Digital Pedagogy in Hong Kong Part 3: Creative curation of curricula, policy and teaching practices for ECE workforce DC development 5. Exploring Professional Digital Competence in Norwegian ECEC: Insights from the INSPIRE Model and teachers' perspectives 6. Harnessing the INSPIRE model to navigate AI opportunities and challenges with Greek early childhood preservice teachers 7. University-Community partnership in STEM teacher education through work-integrated immersive professional learning Part 4: Conclusion - Stepping towards transformative ECE classroom practices 8. Conclusion