ICT Competencies of Primary School Teachers

1. ICT Competencies of Primary School Teachers Esther Mwiyeria Education/Technologist Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI)

2. Outline • Introduction • Expectations – “Tell me something that I do not know” • Background and Contextual information • Exercise on the Wall • Group-work Output: Competencies to focus on in the next 8 months for the ACE teachers.

3. GeSCI’s Foundation WSIS UN ICT TaskForce GeSCI as a Global Programme Developing countries following the rest of the world by placing ICTs and ICTs in Education at the centre of their development strategies. However, developing countries are less equipped in terms of capacity and resources- human and financial- to successfully and effectively harness the potential of ICTs. With this in mind, GeSCI was founded by the UN ICT Taskforce in 2003, and began operations in 2005 working initially with Namibia, Ghana, India, Bolivia and Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya

4. GeSCI Activities 2009 - 2012 • Country programmes involving direct advisory engagement with developing country MoEs on a system-wide basis to provide high quality strategic advice and support to the countries’ own plans, policies and efforts to deploy and integrate ICTs in education. • Implementation (SME-ICT Project in Tz, Ghana SHS connectivity Project) • Regional programmes involving knowledge sharing between GeSCI and the partner countries and between the partner countries, at the regional level in Africa, Asia and Latin America. • In Africa (working with 12 African Countries on skills in ICT leadership) • Knowledge products and services through the identification of major knowledge gaps or common challenges related to ICTs in education. • Courses, Tools, Frameworks, Guidelines etc • Promoting partnerships and facilitating global dialogue by leveraging ICTs to promote communication and collaboration with a diverse number of partners, globally, regionally and locally.

5. Accelerating 21st Century Education (ACE) in Kenya

6. How does 21st century education look like? • Critical thinking and problem solving • Exercising sound reasoning and understanding • Making complex choices and decisions • Identifying and asking significant questions that clarify various points of view and lead to better solutions • Framing, analysing and synthesizing information in order to solve problems and answer questions • Communication • Articulating thoughts and ideas clearly and effectively through speaking and writing • Collaboration • Demonstrating the ability to work effectively with diverse teams • Exercising flexibility and willingness to be helpful in making necessary compromises to accomplish a common goal • Assuming shared responsibility for collaborative work • Information literacy • Accessing information efficiently and effectively, evaluating information critically and competently and using information accurately and creatively for the issue or problem at hand • Possessing a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of information

7. 21st Century Education • Media Literacy • Understanding how media messages are constructed, for what purposes and using which tools, characteristics and conventions • Examining how individuals interpret messages differently, how values and points of view are included or excluded and how media can influence beliefs and behaviours • Possessing a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of information • Computer Literacy • Using digital technology, communication tools and/ or networks appropriately to access, manage, integrate, evaluate, and create information in order to function in a knowledge economy • Using technology as a tool to research, organize, evaluate and communicate information, and the possession of a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of information Partnership for 21st Century Skills

8. 21st Century Education • Flexibility and Adaptability • Adapting to varied roles and responsibilities • Working effectively in a climate of ambiguity and changing priorities • Initiative & Self-Direction • Monitoring one’s own understanding and learning needs • Going beyond basic mastery of skills and/or curriculum to explore and expand one’s own learning and opportunities to gain expertise • Demonstrating initiative to advance skill levels towards a professional level • Defining, prioritizing and completing tasks without direct oversight • Utilizing time efficiently and managing workload • Demonstrating commitment to learning as a lifelong process • Social and cross cultural skills • Working appropriately and productively with others • Leveraging the collective intelligence of groups when appropriate • Bridging cultural differences and using differing perspectives to increase innovation and the quality of work Partnership for 21st Century Skills

9. Objectives of Primary School Education in Kenya • Acquire literacy, numeracy, creativity and communication skills • Enjoy learning and develop desire to continue learning • Develop ability for critical thinking and logical judgment • Appreciate and respect the dignity of work • Develop desirable social standards, moral and religious values • Develop into a self-disciplined, physically fit and healthy person • Develop aesthetic values and appreciate own and other people's cultures • Develop awareness and appreciation of the environment • Develop awareness of and appreciation for other nations and international community • Instil respect and love for own country and the need for harmonious co-existence • Develop individual talents • Promote social responsibility and make proper use of leisure time • Develop awareness and appreciation of the role of technology in national development

11. Kenya Vision 2030 Kenya’s Development Blueprint. “transform Kenya into a newly industrializing middle income country providing a high quality of life to all its citizens by the year 2030”. Human Resource Development “Kenya intends to create a globally competitiveand adaptivehuman resource base to meet the requirements of a rapidly industrialising economy. This will be done through life-long training and education”.

12. The big picture? Curriculum Quality Access Assessment Equity Relevance Equity in quality Radio Television Computers The Web Students Teachers Policies

13. Development ladder Subsistence economy Commercial economy Emerging economy Information economy Kozma, B., (2009)

14. The development ladder • The subsistence economy: low agricultural productivity, poor coverage of public services, small amounts of exports in a narrow range of commodities, low living standards, farm production goes to immediate use rather than market, little capital investment for financing public infrastructure

15. The development ladder • Commercial economy: rural and urban households are part of the monetary economy, both save and invest as they can, manufacturing capacity drawing on low-skill, low wage labor, more people enter the workforce, save and pay taxes, large attraction of foreign direct investment

16. The development ladder • Emerging economy: complete coverage of basic infrastructure, basic education, basic health services, safe drinking water, sanitation, exporter of manufactured goods and information based products, increased capital investment, know-how and technology, not only importing technologies from abroad but also improving them.

17. The development ladder • Information economy: Technology-based economy – widespread tertiary education, extensive public financing of scientific studies, extensive private-sector-led research and development, foreign exchange earned by exporting knowledge and technological advances,

18. Implications on education system • Basic literacy: increase the number of people with basic literacy and numeracy skills, lecture methods, high S-T ratios, closely supervised curriculum etc • Knowledge acquisition: preparing a knowledgeable workforce, improving on quality, technology literacy, ICT as a subject add-on, factual recall, supplemental use of various technologies, computers in a laboratory • Knowledge deepening: increase ability of the workforce to add to add value to economic output, ICT integrated in the curriculum • Knowledge creation: learners develop the ability search for, organize, analyze information, communicate effectively, collaborate with others, critical, innovatively, and creatively, life long learning

19. Development ladder and education Subsistence Economy Basic Education Commercial Economy Knowledge Acquisition Emerging Economy Knowledge Deepening • Information • Economy Knowledge Creation

20. How do we get there?

21. What are Competencies? Teacher competencies are descriptions of what a qualified teacher/ educatorin a given country should know and be able to do. Thornton 2007 Thornton 2007

22. Why do we need Competencies? • Clear for all to see what is required • Training Institutes will need to procure lecturers & instructors to meet those competences • Training Providers provide training which meet country priorities as expressed in the competency framework • Teacher Educators and Teachers understand the minimum standards required of them • The community can be confident that students are being taught by teachers who have achieved agreed and transparent standards and comptencies.

23. Overview of different ICT competencies from around the world

24. Australia ICT CFT • 5 sets of standards for different professional development roles • Beginning Teachers with modest skills and experience in pedagogy and ICT use • Practicing Teachers who are beginning users of ICT range of pedagogy • Practicing Teachers who are accomplished users of ICT • School Leaders who require ICT standards to encourage and support their roles as effective leaders • Teacher Educators who require ICT standards to inform their own practice and to provide effective role models for their students Commonwealth Department of Education Science and Training (2002) UNESCO 2010

25. National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS) • Five Categories - Student Learning & Creativity; Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments; Digital-Age Work & Learning; Digital Citizenship & Responsibility; Professional Growth & Leadership • Different target groups - students, teachers, administrators, ICT technicians • Clear performance indicators - description of practices & master levels • Continual development phases – beginning, developing, proficient, transformative • Practical case studies – scenarios of technology use in classroom practice NETS 2008 UNESCO 2010

26. UNESCO ICT-CFT Breadth Depth Role: Teachers, Technology Coordinators, Principals UNESCO 2008; 2011 UNESCO 2010

27. Process of Contextualizing the UNESCO ICT Competencies

28. The GESCI Tools A Road Map with the ICT-CFT competency statements Add an ‘emergent level’ that prepares teachers with adequate skills to participate in ICT-CFT courses Organize the competency roadmap in progression phases for beginning (emergent level) , applying (technology literacy level), proficient (knowledge deepening level) and transformative (knowledge creation level) Create new statements where gaps have been identified in the progressions from ‘emergent’ to ‘knowledge creation’ levels Create general “performance indicators” for each domain GESCI 2008

29. What is needed… • A Continuum of ICT Integration Approaches in Teacher Development Ng, Miao & Lee (2008) UNESCO 2010

30. The GESCI Roadmap The GESCI Roadmap GESCI 2008

31. GESCI ICT–CFT Development Roadmap The roadmap can be used to contextualize or tailor a development path for ICT use in professional development to a particular country, its policies and its current educational conditions. The key to moving towards knowledge creation is to assess and leverage current strengths to advance other components in the system. GESCI 2008; UNESCO 2008

32. Where else has GESCI done this? • Kenya – Technical Education • Tanzania – Secondary Education • Rwanda – Primary and Secondary Education • Nigeria – Secondary Education

33. Plenary Exercise 1: ICT Competency Framework for Teachers Identifying and prioritizing the ICT competencies Stage 3: Consensus Building on Competencies

34. Assessment Continued Post Top Three Priorities with Stickers – on the wall • Review the performance indicators for each domain in the competency framework (Each group to be assigned one domain). • Pick one priority subdomain from each domain and use the BLUEsticker to identify this. • Post the RED sticker indicating what you consider to be your first priority on the wall charts at the corresponding development level indicating where the competencies you would like developed for the ACE teachers. • Post the GREEN sticker indicating what you consider to be your second priority on the wall charts at the corresponding development level of teachers indicating where the competencies you would like developed for the ACE teachers. • Post the YELLOW sticker indicating what you consider to be your third priority on the wall charts at the corresponding development level indicating where the competencies you would like developed for the ACE teachers. Stage 3: Consensus Building on Competencies

35. Assessment 1 • What patterns do you see and what does this tell you? • What seems to be highest ICT-Teacher development priority areas for the total group and what might be the reasons? • What ICT-Teacher Development areas seem to be lower priorities and what might this indicate? • What do the patterns tell us about ICT professional development gaps and needs? Stage 3: Consensus Building on Competencies

36. Contextualizing ICT Competencies for Teachers • Standards for Standards Stage 3: Consensus Building on Competencies

37. In groups of five • What was the top priority competency in each domain? • Each group should pick one competency from the six domains. • Use the templates provided to complete the following activities • Provide feedback on the contextualized competency with identified performance indicators for your competency

38. Standards for Standards • Under each system domain there are standards/ competencies which describe what a teacher should know and be able to do in a progression path of ICT use in teaching and learning. • Review the sub-domain assigned to your group using criteria of relevance, clarityand scopeto assess the progression of standard statements. • Provide comments/suggestionsyour group may havefor improving or modifying the statements and progression paths to make them more relevant, clearer or provide more coverage. Stage 3: Consensus Building on Competencies

39. Relevance Relevance General review What does the competency mean to the group? Does the competency have relevance for the teaching context in Primary Schools in Kenya? Do the competencies reflect what a teacher needs to know/ need to be able to do with technology in teaching and learning in primary schools in Kenya Stage 3: Consensus Building on Competencies

40. Clarity Will primary school teachers be able to understand what each of the competency statements mean? Will it be possible for teachers to use the competencies for self-assessment of their practice? Stage 3: Consensus Building on Competencies

41. Coverage Is there something missing? Are there other competencies that should be included? Are there competencies that should be excluded? Stage 3: Consensus Building on Competencies

42. Suggestions and Modifications If the group has any suggestions for modifications/ rewording(changes, additions, or deletions) to make the statements and progressions clearer, more relevant or more comprehensive for the teaching and learning context. Please enter these in the space provided. Stage 3: Consensus Building on Competencies

43. Additionalcomments of suggestions Are there any additional comments or suggestions that the group has for validating the competency domain reviewed? If so please list these in the space for further suggestions provided. Stage 3: Consensus Building on Competencies

44. Elephants – Policy: Proficient (UC) • Discuss and work collaboratively with others for vision and planning implementation that focuses on exploring new and more effective approaches for ICT integration across all subject areas in the school Stage 3: Consensus Building on Competencies

45. Lions – Org and Admin: Applying (UC) • Integrate the use of a computer laboratory into ongoing teaching activities Stage 3: Consensus Building on Competencies

46. Giraffe – Professional DevelopmentInformal learning : Applying (UC) • Identify and manage internet safety issues, use ICT resources to support their own acquisition of subject matter and PK. Stage 3: Consensus Building on Competencies

47. Cheetahs– Curriculum & Assessment (UC)Comm. & Collaboration: Applying • Use digital media for communication of information and ideas to students, peers to peers, Stage 3: Consensus Building on Competencies

48. Rhino – ICT (UC)Productivity tools: Applying Describe and demonstrate the basic tasks and uses of wordprocessors, such as text entry, editing text, formatting text and printing, describe and demonstrate the purpose and basic features of presentation software and other digital resources Stage 3: Consensus Building on Competencies

49. Five Groups • Elephants - Policy • Cheetahs – Curr. & Ass • Buffalos - Pedagogy • Rhinos – ICT • Lions – Org & Adm • Giraffes – Prof dev.

50. Conclusions Contextualized competencies are: Elephants: Policy Awareness – Proficient Discuss and work collaboratively with others for vision and planning implementation that focuses on exploring new and more effective approaches for ICT integration across all subject areas in the school