A multilevel model of the digital educational environment of a pedagogical university: conceptualization and empirical verification

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The study aims to construct and empirically verify a multilevel model of the digital educational environment (DEE) of a pedagogical university, which includes technological, didactic, communicative-social, and axiological-cultural levels (hereinafter referred to as “strata”, understood as structural-functional levels of the environment’s organization, each characterized by a specific type of relations and indicators), taking into account its specific exemplary-formative function. This function is defined as the environment’s capacity to shape a prospective teacher’s implicit image of a school’s digital environment, which they will subsequently reproduce in their future professional practice. The article proposes a four-level conceptual model of the DEE, which includes technological, didactic, communicative-social, and axiological-cultural levels. The empirical part of the study was conducted using an embedded single-case study design based on the material of the Institute of Advanced Information Technologies at the Tula State Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University. The study involved 75 students and 8 teachers. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the operationalization of the exemplary-formative function of a pedagogical university’s DEE within the proposed model and in the empirical substantiation of the predominant localization of this function at the axiological-cultural level, which encompasses the value-semantic and normative-ethical foundations of the environment’s participants’ work. As a result of the study, three quantitative hypotheses were confirmed: on the positive correlation between digital activity and learner agency; on statistically significant differences between lower-year and upper-year students in terms of agency and self-efficacy; and on the statistical relationship between the profile of perceived DEE barriers and the student’s field of study. An interpretive conclusion was also formulated regarding the convergence of the professional stances of experienced and early-career teachers in recognizing the exemplary-formative function of the DEE. The obtained data expand current understanding of the exemplary-formative potential of a pedagogical university’s digital environment, translating it into the format of a structural-functional model.