Teachers’ 21st Century Skills on Digital Competence and Self-Efficacy

Abstract

This study assessed teachers’ self-reported 21st-century skills, perceived digital competence, and digital self-efficacy and examined selected relationships among these variables in public elementary schools in the Tagoloan East and West Districts during School Year 2025–2026. Specifically, it examined the relationship between learning skills and digital competence and the relationship between literacy skills and digital self-efficacy. A quantitative descriptive-correlational design was employed involving 180 public elementary school teachers included through total enumeration. Data were collected using a 170-item researcher-modified questionnaire and analyzed using mean, standard deviation, and Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficient. The teachers reported very high levels of 21st-century skills and digital self-efficacy and perceived themselves as very competent in using digital technologies. Learning skills had strong to very strong positive relationships with the domains of perceived digital competence, with coefficients ranging from r=.71 to r=.99, all p<.001. Literacy skills also had strong to very strong positive relationships with the domains of digital self-efficacy, with coefficients ranging from r=.71 to r=.88, all p<.001. These findings indicate that higher self-reported learning skills were associated with higher perceived digital competence, while higher literacy skills were associated with higher digital self-efficacy. However, the findings should be interpreted cautiously because all variables were measured simultaneously through the same self-report instrument, which may have inflated the observed relationships. The results indicate statistical associations and do not establish causal relationships or demonstrate digital proficiency.