Teacher Capacity

Global practice on teacher capacity in use of technology in class

Teachers are main actors of schools. They are not only knowledge transmitters, but also actors of changes in schools. Teachers have new roles; teaching is becoming a new profession! Digital native pupils will change schools!

Digital natives bring new challenges for teachers. Let us quote eight of those new challenges for teachers:

Teachers have to take into account the digital native generation. They have to understand the new characteristics of the ‘generation Y’, to be aware of their new abilities, and to respect their new relationship to knowledge.
Teachers have to take into account the new forms of knowledge and competences, and the missions of schools. They must be aware that knowledge is not only a list of items in a curriculum: it has complex and transverse components. They must have the knowledge to address the main questions of the next century. They must be aware of the core missions of schools in the society and of the values school has to transmit.
Teachers must work in networks, take part in networks, and consider that their role is to develop human networks for learning. Being part of a network, being able to behave in a network, to take benefit from networking demand teachers themselves experience such networked activities.
Teachers must work in the framework of collective intelligence and prepare pupils for collective intelligence. This means that teachers themselves must act collectively, take part in collective missions, experience collective learning, collective intelligence, develop collaborative activities. Schools now need ‘collectively intelligent teachers.
Teachers have to be ‘e-teachers’. This means not only to be able to use digital technologies, tools and resources, but also to change the pedagogy, to integrate ICT as technologies and, more important, as tools for pedagogical enrichment.
Teachers have to be ‘blended teachers’, mixing digital activities and nondigital ones, mixing presence and distance, dealing with time and space and all the possibilities offered by ICT in the management of time and space (distance and presence, synchronic and non-synchronic).
Teachers have to be ‘LLL-teachers’. This means that they have to prepare their pupils for lifelong learning, mainly by making them learning how to learn, making them able to learn all their life long. This implies that teachers themselves are involved in lifelong learning. Teachers have to be lifelong learners.
Teachers have to be actors of the changing school in a learning society. They cannot just wait for the reforms elaborated by policy makers! They must contribute to decision making, they must be aware of their political role in the educational policy.

Teacher capacity building for ICT in education in Korea (click to read more)

Two types of teacher competency indicators for ICT in education on were developed in 1999–2002 and 2004. The first indicator, the ICT Skill Standard for Teacher (ISST), focused on teacher computer literacy and information on processing based on the teaching career, while the second indicator focused on teacher use of ICT for education based on career and subject.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) established the ISST in the late 1990s to facilitate teacher skills of ICT literacy and information processing. ISST was developed for both the certification system of teachers’ abilities in ICT and teacher training. For certification, the ISST based assessment instrument was developed for the teacher, ICT master teacher, vice-principal, and principal levels. The government supported the ISST certification system for 10% of all teachers annually. The ISST certification system played an important role in motivating teachers to improve their ICT skills. The government offered incentives to applicants with ISST certificates in teacher recruitment. Several Metropolitan and Provincial Offices of Education (MPOEs) also provided incentives to promotion and transfer candidates.

Teachers are considered to be important agents of ICT in education, as they are the final decision makers who select what kinds of ICT to use and how to do that. In this respect, Korea’s government has provided teacher training for both ICT literacy and integration purposes since the late 1980s.

At the early stages of introduction of ICT in education, ICT education in the sense of computer literacy is at the primary focus, rather than ICT in education (i.e., curriculum integration). This was the case for Korea in 1988–1995.Topics of computer education generally include hardware and software programmes such as programming programmes, operating systems, word processors, spreadsheets, presentation programmes, etc.

In particular, the Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) was included in teacher training at that time, but many limitations for integration into classroom teaching were reported, because CAI did not fit into school teaching methods.

Accordingly, several authoring tools such as New Korea Net, GREAT, and GREAT II were developed to support teachers in their development of teaching materials (Son, 2009). Regional offices of education implemented teacher training to facilitate the effective use of these tools. The arrival of 32-bit PCs, Windows OS, and the Internet supplies in 1995 was followed by teacher training for development of multimedia materials and Internet, and the number of teachers participating in training programmes radically increased.

Teacher training (click to read more)

Beginning from 1996, teacher training was conducted within the Second Master Plan for ICT in Education and had a stronger focus on technology integration. Teacher training at this phase was divided into general courses for classroom teachers and special courses for training-of-trainers and inspectors. Teacher training was focused on the development of multimedia materials and the introductory level of integration. The first phase of ICT teacher training covered over 25% of teachers per year. At that time training had limitations for teachers’ ICT integration into both their pedagogy and curriculum (Son, 2009).

Provision of ICT infrastructure to schools was completed in 2000, teachers got computers and Internet connection, each classroom was equipped with a projector, thus teachers had to use computers in teaching. Therefore, in 2001–2005, teacher training was oriented to ICT integration into curriculum rather than ICT literacy. Training programmes included mandatory and optional courses. The mandatory ICT training delivered by the regional offices of education provided official training credits upon completion.

This training involved 33% of teachers per year. Optional ICT training programmes offered by schools for at least 15 hours per year included various topics based on the individual schools training needs with no official training credits.

Since 2006 teacher training for ICT in education within the National Master Plan III has entered the mature stage focused on u-learning and the knowledge society. The ROK government built the teacher training framework for ICT in education based on teacher career stages, from induction to retirement so that teachers and supervisors could know what training programmes were needed for each stage. School CEOs have played a critical role in ICT in education within each school. In addition to ICT literacy, training programmes for school CEOs included supervision for ICT in education.

ICT-applied school management, building a learning community through a school website, and case studies of ICT in education. As a result, 33% of school CEOs received annual ICT training during the period between 2001and 2008.

Cutting-edge technologies continuously evolve, thus the ROK government designed training programmes for integration of emerging technologies such as the Establishment of schools of the 21st century (Web 2.0), IPTV, etc., which at all times help teachers to integrate ICT into teaching practice.

Since its development in 2008, the National Teacher Training Information Service (NTTS) system helps teachers find appropriate information on teacher training, conduct self-assessments of teacher competency, and offers information on the current status of teacher training programmes.

Service (KERIS), and 16 MPOEs – contribute to ICT teacher training in the Republic of Korea, each playing its role in this process. MEST elaborates ICT master plans, including a wide spectrum of teacher competency development such as teacher training, teacher competitions, standards development, etc. Final decisions and support for teacher training are the responsibility of MEST. Based on MEST master plans and budgets, KERIS plans, implements, monitors and evaluates teacher training programmes.

KERIS has developed teacher-training programmes (e.g., Creative Lesson Planning and Teaching 21st Century Learners) and customized external programmes (e.g., Microsoft and Intel programmes). In addition, KERIS implemented T-T-T (Training-The-Trainers) sessions for all developed and customized training programmes.

This is the cascading approach that can effectively diff use training programmes to a number of trainees in a short time. KERIS activity focuses on master teachers and pilot sessions. All training programmes are implemented by designated MPOEs. Generally, MPOEs customize training programmes to suit their own training needs. Due to the fact that MPOEs are able to make the final decision with respect to the training budget, they build annual operation plans for the training programmes.

Teacher capacity development plan for phase II (click to read more)

SN	Activity	Recommendation	Timelines
1.	Create a sustainability mechanism through Teacher Professional Development in ICT, Online training.	Develop a sustainability model on teacher training, • establish centers of excellence in ICT to offer support at the zonal level • encourage teachers to use the online ICT training	December, 2019 (500,000 per center - 700,000,000 for 1,400 centers and 40,000,000 online training)
2.	Motivation for integrating ICT among Teachers	Institutionalize ICT as a requirement for promotion for teachers	On demand
3.	M & E for training activities	Carry out M&E on DLP activities training	Annually
4.	Training of teachers for classes 4 and 5 operation of the devices and integration	Zonal training of teachers on operations and integration – 46,000 teachers	December 2019
5.	Training of deputy head teachers for sustainability	23,000 teachers	April, 2020
6.	Train school ICT champions online	23,000 teachers	April, 2020

DLP phase II recommendations on teacher training (click to read more)

Adapt the model based on face to face for basic ICT skills followed by on –line for knowledge deepening
Establish a pool of trainers made up of QASOs, CSOs, ICTO, AICTO and ICT champions (teachers). The team will Train, Drive and Sustain the Programme.
Implement virtualized training where best teacher can conduct training vie the internet.
Establish a model ICT center in every zone (approx. 1400) to act as the training and support centers.
Incorporate ICT as one of the requisite courses for teachers.
Review and up scaling the current curriculum/content being used.
Institutionalize ICT competencies as a requirement for employment and promotion.
Training on DLP be carried out at ZONAL level apart from the ALSAL Counties.
Decentralization of training-by-training private college on DLP requirements and teachers be requested to attend their colleges at the zones on teachers’ pay. This will support teachers’ professional development in the TSC policy frame work.
Engage more partners to participate and contribute to the development and execution capacity building programme for teachers.
Develop programmes and budgets for all cadre of teachers to enable for in services trainings and online courses.