Violencia de género desde los modelos psicosociales.

Diploma in Teaching

Certificate in Teaching

Ar

ticula

tion + V

alue adding

Master of Education

qualification.39 _{The inability of current secondary science, technology, engineering, and}

mathematics teachers to effectively teach the content is fueling a debate regarding the suitability of the BEd for secondary teachers.

As noted earlier, the subject area knowledge of graduates coming out of the teacher training institutions has been a contentious issue and a topic of ongoing debate. Since the secondary teacher training institutions are part of government ministries, there is no external quality audit. The downside to graduates from traditional universities is that despite their deeper subject knowledge, they often lack applied pedagogical knowledge. There is need to review both the teacher training institutes and the university programs, and explicitly map their strengths and weaknesses. Recognition of the need to draw on the strengths of these institutions has seen many OECD countries increasingly consider options for a BSc or BA plus a BEd, MEd, or postgraduate diploma in education. In many of the countries participating in this study, the 3+1 and/or 3+2 programs are happening by default. Students enroll in general BA and BSc programs, and if they cannot find work after graduation, they take up the teaching pathway. Since these 3+1 programs are currently happening by default in most countries, it may be easily formalized, particularly for the secondary teachers. By formalizing the process, better monitoring for quality improvement may be achieved.

2. content of Programs

Some contemporary theories such as Vygotskian constructivism, which underpins student- centered learning, as well as Luria and Leontev’s active learning have been introduced through donor-led interventions. Unfortunately, many of these pedagogical practices have not yet been fully institutionalized. Student-centered learning is still viewed as teacher- driven, which undermines the importance of constructivism and resource-based learning, as well as self-directed learning where students use deductive and inductive reasoning, make inferences, and experiment physically and cognitively as they learn. (The next section, “ICT for Education,” describes how the resource-based approach can help students develop self-directed learning skills that, in turn, develop a disposition toward lifelong learning.) The instrumental approach used to introduce the new teaching and learning approaches should be supplemented with deeper research and critical inquiry to ensure sustainability and meaningful adoption. Universities and other preservice training providers have not fully adopted this in their programs, as these institutions were not part of the donor-led reform interventions. The institutions that provide preservice training are also the knowledge innovation hubs in each country and need to be directly involved in leading the reforms to ensure long-term sustainability. A review of the programs and the resources currently used by preservice training providers shows they are obsolete and very traditional, covering abstract theories with very little, if any, deconstruction of the theories to link to classroom practices (Gunawardene 2011). This is despite the many years of reform supported by donor partners.

The prescribed course textbooks and library resources, including education research journals used by the training providers in the region, are very outdated (over 50 years old), and are mainly local—there are few national and international journals. This illustrates the

39 _{The Singapore National Institute of Education offers a 4-year BA or BSc in education program that emphasizes}

both mastery of subject content knowledge plus the pedagogical knowledge. www.nie.edu.sg/files/ote/ Handbooks/General-Information_Jan-Dec_2014.pdf.

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31

risk in working with only the MOE to improve teacher quality through in-service and CPD training; and in not working with other stakeholders involved in preservice training. It is understandable to target in-service and CPD programs to have an immediate impact on the millions of teachers already in the system. However, this allows only part of the teacher training systems (in-service and CPD) to benefit. This leaves the MOE to continuously “play catch-up” to make up for poor preservice training. As noted elsewhere in this report, promoting partnerships among institutions providing preservice training and teacher education research is central to the adoption of new teaching and learning knowledge and skills.

Increasingly, even in developed countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom, the role of the teacher is expanding to parenting, policing, health care, and child protection (safe use of ICT, cyberbullying), among others.40 _{Consequently, teacher training}

programs now include a lot of extras that were once regarded as parent and community responsibilities. This overloads the curriculum and training becomes very thinly spread across a range of content areas, thereby compromising the core function of teachers and schools.41 _{Caution must be exercised when initiatives promoted by international NGOs}

and donor partners are adopted as a part of the core teacher training programs to ensure synergies and sustainability.

All the countries in the region have disproportionately high in-service and CPD training. In-service training in the participating countries is viewed as the initial training after a person has been hired as a teacher. As noted elsewhere in this report, teachers are first recruited and then sent for training with full salary—hence the term in-service. This model is not sustainable and should be replaced immediately, and all potential candidates should be trained before they are recruited. CPD is the training required to maintain currency of professional knowledge and skills and is often linked to teacher registration and licensure. Both types of training have been supported through government- and donor-funded programs. Wherever the training depends on donor funding, sustainability is questionable. Some countries have adopted compulsory CPD training, but there is a need for a more rigorous demand analysis to match demand with CPD programs. Currently, demand is identified through self-reporting by teachers, but often the demand is more of the same (subject-based training) rather than new innovative aspects such as ICT for education and new assessment methods.

3. information and communication Technology for education

ICT has huge potential to support teacher quality improvement. It can help in

management, communications, research analysis and reporting, record keeping and file archiving, and delivery of training for capacity development. Delivery modalities such as online learning, blended learning, and hybrid models with a mix of online and face-to-face present enormous opportunities. Current innovations such as massive open online courses (MOOCs) have sparked new enthusiasm for using ICT. As the ICT infrastructure improves and cost becomes affordable, online delivery of teacher training may be considered.

40 _{The current political strategy to appease all interest groups has had the net effect of both expanding the}

curriculum and exacerbating the perception of the curriculum as being “overburdened” (ACARA 2012, http:// www.acara.edu.au/default.asp).

41 _{Labaree (1997 and 2012) describes the competing public and private goals of schooling and notes that, 15 years}

later, the tension between the public and private purposes of schooling remains, whereby schools struggle to both meet social ideals and facilitate individual student achievement via an endless series of education reforms.

ICT may be used for preservice training and for CPD to maintain teachers’ currency of knowledge and skills and renew their licenses. However, connectivity limitations should not deter the use of ICT to support teacher development as there are other design applications that can simulate similar learning experiences. There are two target groups for ICT

interventions: (i) teachers engaged in training to develop their professional competencies and thus their ability to enhance student learning outcomes, and (ii) the students themselves. Therefore, ICT and e-learning resources can help teachers and students collectively improve student learning outcomes.

There is a common misconception that internet connectivity is necessary to benefit from ICT. Internet connectivity becomes necessary only when there is a need to access materials from the global database of online information that is the web. If the e-learning resources are hosted on a local area network (LAN) or nationally on a wide area network (WAN), the learners can still take full advantage of the strength of ICT for education by the following pedagogical activities:

(i) Visualization for abstract concepts;

(ii) Development of self-directed learning disposition;

(iii) Simulations for dynamic and interactive learning (simulated science, technology, engineering, and mathematic slab activities);

(iv) Student-centered learning and self-learning (can learn at the individual’s pace); (v) Repetition and practices (can be done independent of teachers); and

(vi) High-quality report preparation (word processing, graphs, pictures, video clips, etc.).

The concept of “teacher-led development of e-learning resources” advocated by many of the regional countries is risky as this does not happen in developed countries where teachers have time, access to technology, and examples of internationally recognized good e-learning resources. A few teachers in developing countries may develop e-learning resources, but a whole country’s e-learning system cannot be dependent on ad hoc

materials. Also, teachers in developing countries have full teaching loads during the working day and may not have access to a computer when they leave school. Thus, expecting them to develop e-resources may be overly ambitious. Current e-learning materials are professionally developed content repositories and libraries indexed to school curricula and grade levels. Encouraging teachers to use ICT in their classroom will require provision of e-learning resources, something that was neglected in previous reform projects and left teachers to find resources from the internet.

Teacher training for integrating ICT in the classroom should be guided by the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) approach (Figure 6). It is not about expecting teachers to develop e-learning resources. The capacity development should focus on how to use ICT in all subjects to enhance teaching and learning and improve student outcomes. As illustrated in Figure 6, teachers should be trained to appreciate the overlap between traditional pedagogical knowledge and technology knowledge and the overlap between technological and content knowledge. Typically, support has been directed to hardware and connectivity when the real change triggers are appropriate e-learning resources and training teachers to integrate ICT in routine classroom activities.

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33

To build the above capacities in teachers, there is potential to strengthen selected resource centers and education training centers as ICT learning hubs. These ICT hubs may attract interest for collaboration from universities and NGOs to enhance knowledge sharing while at the same time increasing utilization of the ICT hubs. This, in turn, ensures sustainability—when more people are using a facility and contributing toward its maintenance, it is more likely to be sustainable. High-quality e-learning resources that are relevant to school curricula can be procured and supplied to all ICT hubs for use by students and teachers.