Ge SCIMINEDUC Partnership Focus Group Discussion ICT Teacher

Ge. SCI-MINEDUC Partnership Focus Group Discussion ICT Teacher Professional Development Matrix Standards and Competencies Mary Hooker mary. hooker@gesci. org Research Project Manager Ge. SCI 13 th May 2010 Conference Room, National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC)

Standards and Competencies What are standards or competencies?

Standards and Competencies What are standards or competencies? • Standards or competences are descriptions of what a qualified teacher in a given country should know and be able to do Thornton 2007

Standards and Competencies What are standards or competencies? • The knowledge and skills required of a teacher in order to teach in the schools Thornton 2007

Standards and Competencies Knowledge • The content knowledge, professional knowledge, emerging and contemporary knowledge and practical understanding that a teacher needs to perform his or her duties Thornton 2007

Standards and Competencies Teaching Skills • The instructional processes, strategies and classroom management techniques that a teacher uses to enhance learning Thornton 2007

Standards and Competencies The nature of competence • Competencies include high levels of knowledge, values, skills, and personal dispositions, sensitivities and capabilities — and the ability to put those combinations into practice in an appropriate way The National Competency Framework for Beginning Teaching (Commonwealth of Australia, 1996)

Standards and Competencies Why Teacher Competency Standards?

Standards and Competencies Why Teacher Competency Standards? • • • Clear for all to see what is required of a qualified teacher in terms of knowledge, classroom skills, behaviour and attitudes. All teacher education institutes will need to make sure that they graduate teachers to meet those competences All training providers will have to ensure that they provide training programs which meet country priorities as expressed in the competency framework rather than focusing on their own agendas Teachers and other educators will be able to see the minimum standards required of them and will be able to place efforts towards achieving and maintaining those standards Parents and the general public can be confident that their children are being taught by teachers who have achieved agreed and transparent standards Thornton 2007

Standards and Competencies Teacher Training Colleges Leaver’s Profile TTC combination 1: Science and Mathematics The student should have acquired basic knowledge, skills and attitudes which will enable him/her to: • Teach Mathematics, Science and Elementary Technology at primary level; • Teacher at nursery level; • Give to his/her pupils a human education that is useful and adapted to the national realities; • Contribute to national development, avoiding genocide ideology and other negative ideologies and teach it to his /her pupils; • Carry on certain administrative functions in primary school level; • Help pupils with different problems through guidance and counselling; • Have access to higher studies in Higher Learning Institutions and Universities mainly in the following faculties: • Education and science (minor) • Psycho pedagogy • Clinical psychology • Physiotherapy National Centre for Curriculum and Development, Rwanda (2010)

Standards and Competencies Why ICT Teacher Competency Standards?

Standards and Competencies Why ICT Teacher Competency Standards? Expansive TPD transformation Institutions and schools in collaboration with the community (local, national, regional) ICT a core technology Given Programmes ‘Transition’ ‘Infusing’ ‘Knowledge deepening’ Teacher professional development focus on the use of ICT to guide students through complex problems and manage dynamic learning environment 3 ‘Transformation’ ‘Transforming’ ‘Knowledge creation’ Teachers are themselves master learners and knowledge producers who are constantly engaged in educational experimentation and innovation to produce new knowledge about learning and teaching practice 4 1 2 ‘Traditional’ ‘Transmission’ ‘Emerging’ ‘Applying’ ‘Technology add-on’ ‘Technology literacy’ Teacher training focus on the use of ICT as Teacher training focus on the development of digital an add-on to the traditional curricula and literacy and the use of ICT for professional improvement standardized test systems ICT a complementary technology Institutions and schools as relatively isolated from the community Experimentation in context with varying solutions A consolidated continuum of approaches for ICT Integration in Teacher Professional Development UNESCO 2008; Ge. SCI-MINEDUC 2009

Standards and Competencies ICT Standards for Four Dimensions 1. ICT skills, knowledge and attitudes are added into the school program through a separate ICT subject 2. Focuses on integrating ICTs into the daily work of all teachers 3. Transformative at the classroom level: it changes content as well as pedagogy (what students learn as well as how they learn) 4. Transformative at the systemic level: leading to changes in the organisational and structural features of schooling as well

Standards and Competencies A Continuum of Standards? Three different approaches to standards framework • • • a set of generic standards for beginning teachers a set of standards that describe a highly accomplished teacher standards which involve multiple levels or a continuum of development

Standards and Competencies Generic v specific standards? • generic standards which can be related to any discipline area and any level of teaching • subject specific standards, in particular those under development in Science, Mathematics and English Literacy

References Commonwealth of Australia 1996. National Competency Framework for Beginning Teaching. Canberra: AGPS Ge. SCI-MINEDUC 2009. Concept Note: Workshop - Teacher Professional Development for Tomorrow, Today. Kigali: Ge. SCI-MINEDUC National Curriculum Development Centre 2010. Teacher Training Colleges Leaver’s Profile. Kigali: NCDC Thornton, B. 2007. Fundamental Schools Quality Project. Report on Setting of Competency Framework. Dili: Ministry of Education UNESCO 2008 a. ICT Competency Standards for Teachers: Policy Framework [Online]. Available from UNESCO at: http: //unesdoc. unesco. org/images/001562/156210 E. pdf [Accessed 11 April 2009]