Digital development is constantly changing the school. Both subject content and teaching are affected.
- When artificial intelligence and digital resources are brought into teaching, they can become good tools for students' learning. But it depends on how the teacher uses them. Random or poorly thought-out use of digital tools can actually hinder students' learning, says Ronny Scherer.
He is a professor at the CEMO - Centre for Educational Measurement and CREATE - Centre for Research on Equality in Education at the University of Oslo (photo: Colvin / UiO). He conducts research on this topic.
Scherer explains that today's teachers have a demanding job. They must both use technical skills and think pedagogically. This combination is often called TPACK - Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge. In Norwegian it is called "profesjonsfaglig digital kompetanse".
Technology is changing the subject
It is not just about using the equipment. The teacher must also understand how technology changes the subject. In addition, the teacher must teach the students:
- how to use the tools in purely technical terms
- how technology affects learning and subject content
- how to take into account privacy, copyright, and critical use of sources.
For many years, many have wondered whether male teachers have a natural digital head start. Researchers have long tried to find answers, without success.
- Until now we have lacked good and large enough data to confirm or refute whether gender actually plays a role in teachers' professional digital competence.
Research on over 680,000 people in 70 countries
Scherer and his research team therefore conducted a study on a large amount of data. They went through data from over 680,000 teachers and student teachers. They looked at professional digital competence in 70 different countries and linked this to self-efficacy.
- Our goal was to find out once and for all whether there are gender differences here.
That means they examined both:
- what the teachers and student teachers actually mastered digitally
- how confident they were that they could handle the tasks.
- Our goal was to find out once and for all whether there are gender differences here, Scherer explains.
It was crucial for the researchers to investigate whether gender differences in teachers' self-efficacy also appeared as differences in actual.
New method provides clearer answers
Scherer and his research team used a so-called "large-scale meta-analysis".
This means that they did not just look at one study at a time, but combined results from over 100 research articles and datasets.
- We obtain a more complete picture of the field.
- We have collected knowledge about gender differences from both published studies and available datasets. We then combined these two types of sources. In this way, we obtain a more complete picture of the field.
Professional digital competence is often divided into three areas, and the researchers examined these areas closely, one by one:
- Technological knowledge: Knowledge of the technology itself, for example being able to use, understand, and stay updated on digital tools and systems.
- Content Knowledge: Knowledge of how subject content and concepts are presented and explained digitally. For example, online or through AI.
- Technological-pedagogical knowledge: Knowledge of the interaction between pedagogy, subject content and technology - in other words, how to teach a subject using technology in a good way.
Men have more confidence - but are not more skilled
The researchers found small but clear differences between male and female teachers. The differences were not in competence, but in self-efficacy.
- Men have greater confidence in their own digital teaching competence. But they do not have more competence than women, Scherer emphasizes.
The researchers found that:
- Male teachers and student teachers have the highest self-efficacy in technical competence. It is also the area where Female teachers and student teachers have the lowest self-efficacy
- Male teachers also have higher self-efficacy in technological-pedagogical competence.
- There were no differences between male and female teachers in actual performance.
- School leaders should take the findings seriously.
- Even though male teachers often feel more confident about technology in teaching, they do not necessarily perform better than female teachers, Scherer concludes.
He believes that school leaders should take the findings seriously. If schools are to make full use of all digital competence, they must work consciously on this.
Scherer suggests that school leaders:
- Shift the focus from purely technical courses to giving teachers good mastery experiences.
- Work actively to challenge gender role patterns among teachers.
- Establish mentoring schemes and interdisciplinary learning communities, where teachers can learn from each other across gender and subjects.
Source
Scherer, R., Campos, D. G., Fütterer, T., & Siddiq, F. (2026). Unraveling gender disparities in teachers' technological pedagogical and content knowledge: A large-scale meta-analytic review. Educational Research Review, 50, Article 100765. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2026.100765
Funding
The research is funded by the Research Council of Norway and the EU
