DIGITAL COMPETENCE IN PRIMARY EDUCATION: THE CASE OF TURKISH LANGUAGE, MATHEMATICS AND PERSONAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT COURSES

Abstract

This paper examines the current status of digital competence indicators in the Turkishprimary school curricula. The European Commission had long been studying on developing acommon digital competence framework for citizens and in 2016 a revised framework waspublished to be used as a reference in various sectors as well as education. In most officialpapers the importance of digital competence is highly stressed and studies to provide studentswith digital skills are carried out by Turkish Ministry of National Education (MONE) andother governmental institutes. In this paper the indicators of digital competence standards inthe Turkish primary education are explored. The curricula of three compulsory subjects areidentified and the learning outcomes of these curricula are analysed to understand the placeof digital competence standards in curricula and in which competence areas are emphasizedmostly. The review was conducted using the curricula of three subject areas in primaryeducation: the Turkish language, mathematics and personal and social development. Theanalysis of the learning outcomes in these curricula shows that 7.5% of learning outcomesemphasizes digital competence in the Turkish language curriculum while the highest rate is4% in mathematics and personal and social development subject areas. That most digitalcompetence areas are ignored can be observed in each subject; communication andcollaboration is totally excluded in all three subjects while data and information literacy wasincluded in merely Turkish language curriculum; safety competence area was stated only inpersonal and social development curriculum and Mathematics curriculum contained learningoutcomes merely related to the problem solving.