Teachers competencies in evaluating digital sources and tackling disinformation: implications for media literacy education

This study examines teachers’ competencies in evaluating digital content and tackling disinformation through analysis of pre-test data from 243 Italian primary and secondary school teachers participating in a media literacy training program. Drawing on the DigComp 2.2 framework, we assessed seven key digital literacy competencies, including source evaluation, social media verification, and visual literacy. Our findings reveal significant gaps between teachers' digital engagement patterns and their critical evaluation skills, particularly in visual content assessment. Using cluster analysis, we identified four distinct teacher profiles: Skeptical and Vulnerable Teachers, Traditional Trust-Based and Uncritical Teachers, Digitally Engaged and Trusting Teachers, and Balanced Critical Evaluators. The results show that teachers are moderately good at finding assertive signs of reliability, but they have trouble with more difficult “inferred context” tasks, especially when it comes to judging visual content. The study shows that different types of professional development are needed and suggests specific ways to help teachers improve their media literacy skills in a world where digital information is getting more complicated.