Conceptualizing Digital Teaching Competence in TVET Occupational Authenticity, Safety and Institutional Readiness in Malaysian Technical Higher Education

Abstract

Existing digital competence frameworks offer useful accounts of the capabilities educators need for technology-supported teaching. Their direct application to technical and vocational education and training (TVET), however, should not be assumed. Occupational learning requires educators to determine when a digital representation can adequately support learning, when physical performance remains indispensable, how digitally mediated activities may affect workshop safety, and whether institutional conditions allow technology to be implemented responsibly. Against this background, the paper examines the conceptual foundations underpinning MyDigCompTVET, a digital teaching competency framework developed for TVET educators in Malaysia. The empirical development of the framework is reported separately; the concern of this paper is to explain what makes digital teaching competence distinctive across classrooms, laboratories, workshops, simulations and workplaces. An integrative conceptual synthesis was undertaken using established educator-competence frameworks, complementary theoretical perspectives, selected vocational education studies and relevant Malaysian policy documents. The sources were examined through an extraction matrix that compared their principal constructs, assumptions about teaching environments, treatment of practical performance and implications for TVET. This comparison brought three recurring tensions into view: digitalization and occupational authenticity, innovation and physical safety, and individual capability and institutional readiness. Together, these tensions provide a basis for interpreting the five domains incorporated within MyDigCompTVET: Digital Knowledge; Digital Skills; Professional Development and Lifelong Learning; Digital Ethics and Readiness; and Technology Integration in TVET. The paper argues that technology integration in TVET is fundamentally an exercise of professional judgement rather than a matter of technology use alone. It also distinguishes educators’ capabilities from the organizational conditions under which those capabilities are enacted, thereby avoiding the attribution of institutional limitations to individual competence. The paper’s contribution lies in clarifying the conceptual reasoning underpinning MyDigCompTVET and identifying considerations relevant to its interpretation, implementation and subsequent validation within Malaysian technical higher education.