Components and Indicators of Digital Competence for Secondary School Teachers

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The primary objectives of this study were twofold: (1) to delineate the essential components and indicators of digital competence specific to secondary school teachers; and (2) to evaluate the consistency between the proposed component–indicator model and empirical data. The study population comprised 240 secondary school teachers affiliated with the Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC) in Northeastern Thailand. A multistage random sampling technique was utilized, with the sample size calculated based on a 20:1 parameter-to-sample ratio. The research instrument was a specialized questionnaire developed to assess digital competence. Content validity was confirmed via the Index of Item–Objective Congruence (IOC), yielding values ranging from 0.80 to 1.00. Item discrimination, assessed using Pearson’s product–moment correlation coefficient, ranged from 0.32 to 0.84 , and the instrument demonstrated high internal consistency with a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (α) of 0.97. Statistical validation was conducted using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The analysis yielded two key findings. First, a synthesis of existing literature conceptualized secondary school teacher digital competence into four primary dimensions—Digital Technology Knowledge, Digital Technology Application, Digital Content Creation, and Digital Technology Problem Solving—encompassing twelve specific indicators. Second, the hypothesized model demonstrated a high degree of congruence with the empirical data. The goodness-of-fit indices (x^2/df = 31.187, df = 35, p = 0.653, GFI = 0.978, CFI = 1.000, RMSEA = 0.000) confirm the model’s robustness, validating the instrument’s efficacy for assessing digital competence within this educational context.