Teachers’ conceptualization and enactment of twenty-first century competences: exploring dimensions for new curricula

Despite the advocated importance of twenty-first century competences in education, it appears that they are not systematically integrated in national curricula, school curricula and classroom activities. Potential explanations can be found in the current ambiguity of definitions for twenty-first century competences and the absence of educational actors in curriculum development. Responding to both shortcomings, this study aims to explore how teachers’ conceptualization and enactment of twenty-first century competences constitute dimensions that can inform curricular guidelines. An exploratory factor analysis of teachers’ self-reported classroom activities that foster students’ twenty-first century competences was conducted. The data comprised responses of 2,804 primary- and secondary-school teachers to a web-survey about the perceived occurrence of specific classroom activities targeting twenty-first century competences. Results suggested six coherent dimensions of classroom activities that foster twenty-first century competences: digital literacy, innovative thinking, critical thinking and communication, (digital) citizenship, self-regulated learning, and (computer-supported) collaborative learning. Nevertheless, there were substantial interrelationships among the six dimensions. This demonstrated that teachers did not perceive twenty-first century competences to be fostered by disconnected classroom activities, but that they already have a more integrative conception of the curricular innovation. The implications of these findings for curricula, teaching practice and research are discussed.     

Teacher educators' competences in fostering student teachers’ proficiency in teaching and learning with technology: An overview of relevant research literature

Teacher educators play an important role in preparing student teachers to integrate technology into their classrooms. This article presents an overview of research literature on teacher educators' competences in preparing their students to teach with technology. A literature search yielded 26 relevant research articles. Four domains of competence were identified: technology competences, competences for pedagogical and educational technology use, beliefs about teaching and learning and competences in professional learning. The literature focuses on teacher educators’ competences in using technology for teaching. Research on the competences that teacher educators need and have as second-order teachers is lacking. Recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Professional competences to teach English at primary schools in Turkey: a Delphi study

This research aimed to uncover the teacher competences that are necessary to provide age-appropriate English language teaching to primary school students in Turkey. The Delphi technique was implemented to propose a list of competences created through consensus among a panel of experts that consisted of 15 teachers and 16 teacher educators. The data were collected by administering three questionnaires in three rounds. Central tendency and consensus were measured through median and inter-quartile range, respectively. The findings led to a list of 29 teacher competences which were categorised into five groups: ‘theoretical and practical knowledge’, ‘knowing the young learner’, ‘planning and organising teaching’, ‘managing teaching’, and ‘competence in English’. Implications were made for improving the effectiveness of English language teaching to young learners: these included the design of pre-service and in-service teacher education programmes to equip teachers with the necessary skills and knowledge to teach English to young learners.     

Teaching in a Digital Age: How Educators Use Technology to Improve Student Learning

A successful digital conversion for classrooms, districts, and states is not determined by the technology, but by how technology enables teaching and learning. The purpose of our multisite case study was to document digital instructional strategies teachers use to enhance and transform student learning, and align that use with learning research. We conducted focus groups and interviews, and observed classrooms in seven exemplary schools across the United States. We surveyed teachers' familiarity, use, and comfort with technology as well. We document six common strategies used across the seven sites and identify five roles that technology plays in enhancing teaching and learning, and discuss how these strategies benefit teachers and learners. (Keywords: technology integration, digital instructional strategies)     

网络时代对大学英语语言学习环境的要求

学习风格显示了学习者如何感知学习环境及其与学习环境的相互作用。在建构主义教学所设置的学习环境中,语言学习是建议性的而不是规定性的,学生需要随时对学习活动和学习目标进行调整。仅仅设计课内语言教学是远远不够的,教师要充分利用网络技术和学习软件拓宽课堂空间,设计知识链接节点,为学生创建充分的语言实践环境。利用高校校园网络创建校园英语学习平台可以包括语言基础、语言功能、语言运用、语言文化等内容,将语言实践设计为有趣的游戏或有目的性的任务。学生根据各自不同的学习需求、不同的学习风格实践不同内容的语言。     

网络远程教育教师能力框架实证研究:学习者视角

教师能力是影响教学质量的重要因素,也是教师专业化发展的核心内容。本研究从学习者的视角探究网络远程教师的能力框架。研究结果表明,学生认为主讲教师的能力框架应包括三大维度,即职业素质、网上教学和评价考核,共计15项能力;学生认为辅导教师的能力框架应包括四大维度,即职业素质、网上答疑、促学活动、学习活动的组织与管理,共计25项能力。     

Mining Effective Learning Behaviors in a Web-Based Inquiry Science Environment

Analyzing learners’ learning behaviors helps teachers understand how learning behaviors of learners influence learning performance. To determine which learning behaviors influence learners’ science-based inquiry learning performance, this work develops an xAPI (Experience Application Programming Interface)-based learning record store module embedded in a Collaborative Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (CWISE) to record detailed data about students’ learning processes. This work discusses whether the significant correlation and cause-effect relationship among science inquiry competence, learning time, and learning performance exist, and examines whether remarkable shifts and differences in the learning behaviors of learners with different learning performances and inquiry competences exist by using sequential pattern mining and lag sequential analysis. The results demonstrate that inquire ability, total learning time in the designed inquiry learning course, and learning time in an inquiry buoyancy simulation experiment are positively correlated with learning performance and can predict learning performance, and the learning time in the inquiry buoyancy simulation experiment appears to be the most significant predictor. The results of lag sequential analyses indicate that learners with high learning performance and high inquiry competence re-adjust hypotheses after performing an inquiry buoyancy simulation experiment, while learners with low learning performance and low inquiry competence lack this critical inquiry learning behavior. This study presents a systematic analysis method to insight the effective learning behaviors in a web-based inquiry learning environment based on mining students’ learning processes, thus providing potential benefits in guiding learners to adjust their learning behaviors and strategies.

     

Mapping context-based learning environments: The construction of an instrument

The current trend in science curricula is to adopt a context-based pedagogical approach to teaching. New study materials for this innovation are often designed by teachers working with university experts. In this article, it is proposed that teachers need to acquire corresponding teaching competences to create a context-based learning environment. These competences comprise an adequate emphasis, context establishment, concept transfer, support of student active learning, (re-)design of context-based materials, and assistance in implementation of the innovation. The implementation of context-based education would benefit from an instrument that maps these competences. The construction and validation of such an instrument (mixed-methods approach) to measure the context-based learning environment is described in this paper. The composite instrument was tested in a pilot study among 8 teachers and 162 students who use context-based materials in their classrooms. The instrument’s reliability was established and correlating data sources in the composite instrument were identified. Various aspects of validity were addressed and found to be supported by the data obtained. As expected, the instrument revealed that context-based teaching competence is more prominently visible in teachers with experience in designing context-based materials, confirming the instrument’s validity.     

What do science teachers think about developing scientific competences through context-based teaching? A case study

ABSTRACT

In this paper we explore the views and opinions of four secondary education science teachers regarding the teaching of scientific competences. Their views were gathered in the context of a training programme in which they had to design, implement, and assess their own teaching unit for developing students’ scientific competences by means of context-based learning. Analysis of the data yielded a set of 14 categories distributed across 5 areas: scientific competence and context-based teaching; the teacher and his/her professional environment; implementation in the classroom; development of the teaching unit; and assessment. This process also identified the aspects which teachers believed either facilitated or acted as an obstacle to the development of scientific competences through context-based teaching. We discuss the implications of our findings and suggest ways in which a shift towards a context-based approach to teaching scientific competences can best be achieved, and consider a series of factors related to teachers’ professional identity that may influence this process.     

Perspectives of teachers on differentiated teaching in multi-cultural South African secondary schools

South African teachers encounter numerous challenges in the creation of differentiated activities to include diverse learner needs in effective teaching and learning. These challenges include the inability to identify learning barriers and adapt the curriculum, teaching and assessment methods according to the learning styles and readiness levels of learners. The study aimed to explore secondary school teachers’ (n = 262) perspectives on the implementation of differentiated instruction in public secondary schools (n = 27), using qualitative and quantitative approaches. The results indicated that teachers cannot always assist their learners when they need them; show them how to solve problems; or allow learners to work on their own. In addition, various limitations, such as inadequate teacher training, large class sizes, workload, undisciplined learners, lack of resources and parental involvement, second language instruction, inadequate support services and socio-economic barriers contribute to the use of teacher-centred methods. The study recommends that intervention programmes in the form of workshops on how to create differentiated activities should be prioritised in the professional development of teachers.     

Designing innovative learning environments to foster communities of learners for students in initial vocational education

In this study, the concept of ‘community of learners’ was used to improve initial vocational education. The framework of a ‘community of learners for vocational orientation’ that we present offers both a theoretical understanding of teaching–learning processes in initial vocational education and heuristics for the design of innovative learning environments for optimising these processes. In a design research study, we investigated if, and how, learning environments designed on the basis of these heuristics fostered communities of learners for vocational orientation, in which students experience to learn in a shared, meaningful, reflective and transfer-oriented way. We examined students’ perceptions of the learning environment and their learning activities during eight curriculum units specifically designed to foster the communities of learners. During almost all of the units that we designed, students found themselves learning in a more shared, meaningful, reflective and transfer-oriented way than during regular units. We conclude that the proposed heuristics had been useful starting points for the design of innovative learning environments that foster communities of learners for vocational orientation. In addition, we show how the heuristics can be elaborated for a particular school, based on practical and pedagogical content knowledge of teachers, as well as students’ perceptions of the learning environment and their learning activities.     

Developing new “Professionals”: Service learning in marketing as an opportunity to innovate in higher education

The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) promotes the use of student-centered participatory methodologies and the design of curricula focused on the acquisition of competences. The objective of this paper is to identify the categories of competence that contribute the most to achieving learning outcomes through the practice of Service Learning (SL) in the teaching of marketing. Using the categories described in the Tuning model, we design a model to analyze the relationships between perceived learning outcomes and competences. The main findings are: 1) there is no evidence of any relationship between perceived interpersonal and systemic competences and perceived learning outcomes, 2) there is a relationship between perceived instrumental competences and perceived learning outcomes and, 3) students do not perceive that achievement of learning outcomes is the cause of the grades they obtain. These findings have important theoretical and practical implications.     

Newly qualified teachers’ professional digital competence: implications for teacher education

The professional digital competence (PDC) of teachers is of growing importance in classrooms, now that digital resources and digital media are becoming important parts of teachers’ everyday practice. This study explores how newly qualified teachers are prepared to use information and communication technology (ICT) in their initial teacher education (ITE). We present findings of a nationwide survey in Norway on 356 newly qualified teachers. It explores how these teachers’ ICT self-efficacy is related to how they perceive the quality of, and contributions from, their ITE related to ICT and the development of their PDC. In general, newly qualified teachers report fairly poor quality and contribution of ICT training during their teacher education. We claim that continuous effort is needed to review the quality of ITE and contribute specifically to the development of PDC and developing student teachers’ ICT self-efficacy in ITE.     

高中英语教师写作教学信念与实践的个案研究

本研究采用历时质性个案研究方法,对北京某重点高中两位英语教师进行了为期一年的跟踪调查。通过分析访谈、课堂观察等多种数据,本研究发现两名教师都认为英语写作教学应以培养学生的批判性思维和语言综合能力为目的,且与其他技能的培养相融合。她们采用体裁式写作教学方法,将写作教学嵌入日常英语教学活动,关注学生学习写作的过程。本研究发现表明高中英语教师在日常教学中可以突破应试束缚,切实培养学生的写作能力。     

A basic model of integration of ICT by teachers: competence and use

The process to integrate information and communication technologies (ICT), where teachers play a decisive role, is complex. The objective of this study is to build a basic model that connects teachers’ ICT technological and pedagogical competences with the use of these technological resources by teachers (both personal-professional use and use with students). The model also considers how personal and contextual factors influence this relationship. A secondary analysis study was used, whose sample included 1095 male and female Primary, Secondary and Higher Education teachers from the Valencian Community (east Spain). Information was collected with a questionnaire from two survey design studies. Using an MIMIC model, teachers’ integration of ICT was optimally modeled. This model shows a complex relation between competence and use. Technological competences influence pedagogical competences and personal-professional use, while pedagogical competences influence personal-professional use and use in class. Use in class is influenced by both pedagogical competences and personal-professional use. Personal and contextual factors influenced the four dimensions of use and competence. This basic model of the relationship between teachers’ ICT competences and using these educational resources helps us to understand the complex process of integrating ICT into classrooms. Therefore, this model is a key element to guide teacher training in ICT.     

A large-scale implementation of predictive learning analytics in higher education: the teachers’ role and perspective

By collecting longitudinal learner and learning data from a range of resources, predictive learning analytics (PLA) are used to identify learners who may not complete a course, typically described as being at risk. Mixed effects are observed as to how teachers perceive, use, and interpret PLA data, necessitating further research in this direction. The aim of this study is to evaluate whether providing teachers in a distance learning higher education institution with PLA data predicts students’ performance and empowers teachers to identify and assist students at risk. Using principles of Technology Acceptance and Academic Resistance models, a university-wide, multi-methods study with 59 teachers, nine courses, and 1325 students revealed that teachers can positively affect students’ performance when engaged with PLA. Follow-up semi-structured interviews illuminated teachers’ actual uses of the predictive data and revealed its impact on teaching practices and intervention strategies to support students at risk.

     

Technology use and mathematics teaching: teacher change as discursive identity work

Teacher change towards developing competences for technology use in mathematics teaching has been the focus of current educational reforms worldwide. However, a considerable amount of research denotes the extent to which teachers resist a full integration of technology in mathematics classrooms. The present paper is based on an ethnographic study and focuses on how mathematics teachers – as they participate in an intensive training course – perform identity work whilst collectively articulating meanings concerning the potential of technology-based mathematics learning. By means of discourse theory, we analyse how they try to fix meaning as they engage and interact with varied discourses of ‘change’. Our findings indicate that mathematics teachers' attempts to articulate meaning are organised around discourses that concern directly societal and learning issues of technology use in mathematics teaching.     

Which variables predict teachers diagnostic competence when diagnosing students’ learning behavior at different stages of a teacher’s career?

Diagnosing is one of teachers’ key competences. Lately, a new model of teachers’ diagnostic competence and therewith a new measurement method focusing on diagnosing students’ learning behavior in an interdisciplinary approach have been developed. They can build a basis for promoting teachers’ diagnostic competence. However, some questions relevant to promoting teachers’ diagnostic competence concerning students’ learning behavior still remain unanswered: Which values do teachers-on-the-job in contrast to preservice teachers with or without teaching experience gain through experience and which are the relevant variables that lead to a high level of diagnostic competence focused on learning behavior? Thus, this study aims at enlightening these issues. In a sample of 293 participants (93 German grammar school teachers, 107 German teacher students in their second phase of teacher education, and 93 German preservice students in their first phase of teacher education), teachers’ diagnostic competence concerning learning behavior as well as teachers’ motivation, attitude, self-efficacy, knowledge, and reflection on experience concerning diagnosing was measured. Motivation, attitude, and knowledge were found to be substantial positive predictors of diagnostic competence concerning learning behavior, with differentiated predictions for teachers’ experience. Reflection on experience and self-efficacy unexpectedly was not found to be relevant. Teachers-on-the-job were generally better at diagnosing their students’ learning behavior than were preservice teachers without teaching experience. However, the diagnostic work of preservice teachers with teaching experience was as credible as that of the in-service teachers.     

后疫情时代的数字教育新图景:挑战、行动与思考——欧盟《数字教育行动计划(2021-2027年)》解读

新冠疫情的持续蔓延对世界各国的教育系统产生了巨大影响,为了更好应对后疫情时代的教育及构建教育新形态,欧盟于2020年9月底发布了《数字教育行动计划(2021-2027年)》。该报告聚焦于在数字教育中运用数字技术开展教与学以及培养学习者的数字能力,明确了欧盟层面未来需要推进的“促进高性能的数字教育生态系统的发展”和“提高数字技能和能力以实现数字化转型”两大战略重点,并详细列出了十三项行动计划。通过解读该报告,可为我国教育信息化2.0规划背景下优质、高效的数字教育应用与发展,带来以下启示:应开展科学评估和顶层设计,优化我国数字教育生态;推动数字能力评估,提升全民数字能力;加大共享与协作,构建更为开放的教育服务生态体系等。