Bridging Self-Efficacy and Digital Competence: A Comprehensive Scoping Review of Teachers’ Readiness for the Digital Age

In the digital era, the incorporation of digital technology into educational settings has underscored the critical role of teachers’ digital competence. Concurrently, self-efficacy has emerged as a key contributor to this competence, attracting significant scholarly attention. This study conducts a scoping review of journal articles published in the Web of Science Core Collection from 2000 to April 2025, aiming to explore the main interactive relationships and influencing factors between teachers’ self-efficacy and their digital competence in the context of the rapid development of educational technology. Research has found that there is heterogeneity in the definitions and measurement methods of self-efficacy and digital competence in the literature. Although existing literature relatively often adopts Bandura’s self-efficacy theory and the European Union’s DigComp digital competence framework, more scholars use self-designed or adapted questionnaires to measure and examine the relationship between the two. Moreover, many studies have confirmed a direct or indirect association between the two, but research on the complex relationship between them is lacking. In addition, factors such as professional development, collaborative practices, access to digital resources, and institutional support were found to play significant roles in shaping teachers’ digital competence and self-efficacy. Drawing on these insights, future research should strive to refine the operational definitions and improve the measurement techniques for evaluating teachers’ digital competence. Additionally, it is vital to delve deeper into the complex interplay between teachers’ self-efficacy and digital competence.