Teacher training for ICT in education

An ICT role in key sectors of development of society. Standards in the field of ICT.

What isICT?

ICT is the systematic study of the feasibility, structure, expression, and mechanization of the methodical processes (or algorithms) that underlie the acquisition, representation, processing, storage, communication of, and access to information, whether such information is encoded in bits and bytes in a computer memory or transcribed ingenes and protein structures in a human cell. The fundamental question underlying all of computing is: what computational processes can be efficiently automated and implemented?

To tackle this seemingly simple question, computer scientists work in many complementary areas. They study the very nature of computing to determine which problems are (or are not) computable. They compare various algorithms to determine if they provide a correct and efficient solution to a concrete problem. They design programming languages to enable the specification and expression of such algorithms. They design, evaluate, and build computer systems that can efficiently execute such specifications. And, they apply such algorithms to important application domains.

What ICT Is Not…

ICT is not just about building computers or writing computer programs! Computer Science is no more about building computers and developing software than astronomy is about building telescopes, biology is about building microscopes, and music is about building musical instruments! Computer science is not about the tools we use to carry out computation. It is about how we use such tools, and what we find out when we do. The solution of many computer science problems may not even require the use of computers—just pencil and paper. As a matter of fact, problems in computer science have been tackled decades before computers were even built. That said, the design and implementation of computing system hardware and software is replete with formidable challenges and fundamental problems that keep computer scientists busy. Computer Science is about building computers and writing computer programs, and much much more!

Executive summary

Information and communication technology (ICT) has the potential to transform teaching and

learning processes. However, most countries face challenges in measuring the impact of investments in infrastructure, massive roll-outs of teacher training initiatives, and usage in the classroom. The lack of a comprehensive set of indicators can partly explain current challenges. Moreover, there is a growing recognition that added focus is needed to measure teacher training and usage holistically within a systems perspective whereby indicators are not viewed in isolation but reflect a complex pattern of how teachers are prepared and how teaching activities with pupils, in and out schools and the classroom are executed (Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development, 2010).

Following a technical advisory panel (TAP) meeting that brought together a diverse group of

statisticians and subject matter experts in the area of ICT in education from 9 to 10 December 2014 in Paris (France), this paper has been developed to help strengthen the conceptual framework of ICT in education with specific reference to the importance of collecting data relevant to teacher training in relation to ICT and its usage in the classroom. This paper is complementary to a paper authored by Broadley et al. (2015) on ‘Evolving Learning Paradigms’as well as another by Twining et al. (2015) on ‘Developing new indicators to describe digital technology infrastructure in primary and secondary education’. These three papers were commissioned by UIS to inform the planning of new ICT in education data collections and identifying core indicators for the post-2015 developmental agenda.

The UNESCO-UIS Guide to Measuring Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Education, Technical Paper No. 2 (UIS, 2009), put in place a common set of standardized internationally agreed indicators on ICT in education including a number related to teachers’ professional development and usage, which are drawn from administrative sources. This paper however argues that a more holistic approach, as per example the ICT Education 2013 Survey (CETIC.br, 2013) on the use of ICT in Brazilian schools, may be useful for shedding additional light on teacher dimensions of ICT in education.

More specifically, this paper attempts to asses current indicator gaps in teacher professional development and training by asking basic questions, including who is being trained in the use of ICTs, where and how are teachers trained, what kind of ICT training is provided and based on which certification standards, and finally, when and for how long are teachers trained? Based on an analysis of these issues, additional indicators are suggested. This paper also examines teacher usage of ICT in delivering instruction and makes a case for including cross-cutting elements that point to teachers’ usage of ICT-enhanced pedagogy, digital curriculum and assessment, ICT in education policy, ICT infrastructure, and ICT used for for administrative and organizational purposes. The teaching of basic computer skills and computing is also addressed. Finally, the importance of obtaining better gender-related data regarding teacher training and usage of ICT in education, including indicators disaggregated by sex, is highlighted.

Introduction

As information and communication technology (ICT) plays a greater role across society including public and private education, countries around the world are more than ever in need of high quality internationally comparable statistics on ICT in education. In particular, indicators areessential for measuring and tracking the integration of ICT and its impact given investment canconstitute a significant portion of national education budgets, for many, if not most countries. In the United Kingdom (UK) alone, an estimated £567.8 million was spent on ICT in schools, excluding software (Twining and Henry, 2014).

This particular investment takes into account special attention given to teachers in providing them with the necessary policy environment, digital curriculum, skills, infrastructure, and professional development to make effective use of ICT in the classroom. Given the substantial size of investment in many countries, other literature sets targets for spending on teacher training suggesting that 30% of funding for ICT integration into schools should be devoted to professional development to ensure that ICT is used effectively (Twining and Henry, 2014). This target is based on the firmly held belief that teacher training and ongoing relevant professional development are essential if benefits from investment in ICT are to be maximized (Infodev, 2015).Meeting international goals (e.g. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs], Education for All (EFA], World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)) by 2015 and beyond requires substantial investment in teacher training institutions so that adequate pre-service and inservice training can be delivered (UNESCO-UIS, 2006).

The Education for All Global Monitoring Report (2013/ 2014) states that an education system is only as good as its teachers. While the introduction of ICT in education plays a role in shifting responsibility for learning from teacher to student, ICT does not however remove the need for classroom leadership, nor does it invalidate related traditional teacher skills and practices (Infodev, 2015). Developing teachers’ capacity to enhance the quality of learning remains essential and evidence shows that education quality improves when teachers are supported and deteriorates if they are not (UNESCO, 2014a).

While ICT has been used in various ways to support teachers, some of the literature points to the fact that little evidence exists supporting the claim that digital technology has transformed education (Twining and Henry, 2014). It is thus only by capturing better data on the integration, usage and impact of ICT in education that improvements to data collection processes can occur and best practices be scaled-up and rolled-out more effectively in countries.

International ICT in education assessments recognise the importance of measuring teacher training and usage in regards to ICT. However from a policymaking perspective, it is widely recognised that information needs differ amongst countries depending on the level of ICT penetration in the education system. For example in countries where ICT penetration levels are higher, there may be significantly more need for renewed training cyclically given the high turnover in digital technology. In contrast in countries where ICT penetration is less whereby fewer schools have ICT in place, training demands will also be significantly less (UNESCO-UIS, 2009). Data collection efforts should therefore aim to reflect relative needs.

Teacher training for ICT in education

The UNESCO-UIS Guide to Measuring Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Education currently (2009) explores the conceptual domain of teacher professional training and staff development with these three main indicators:

 ED8 Proportion of ICT-qualified teachers in primary and secondary schools

(ISCED levels 1-3) 1Total number of teachers trained to teach basic computer skills (or computing) in primary and econdary schools based on national standards, expressed as a percentage of the total number of teachers at these levels of education;

 ED35 Proportion of primary and secondary-school teachers trained via ICTenabled distance education programmes (ISCED levels 1-3): Total number of primary and secondary school teachers who were trained via ICT-enabled distance education programmes, expressed as a percentage of the total number of teachers;

 ED38 Proportion of primary and secondary-school teachers trained to teach

subject(s) using ICT facilities (ISCED levels 1-3) Total number of teachers trained to use ICT to teach subject(s) in primary and secondary schools, expressed as a percentage of all teachers for ISCED levels 1-3 (UNESCO-UIS, 2009).

These three indicators do not however capture the full scope of teacher training in relation to ICT in education. The following section will explore additional indicators that can shed light on teacher training for ICT in education.

3.1 Expanding basic concepts and dimensions of teacher training related to ICT Definitions of training In some developing countries, ICT training for teachers is based on developing computer literacy, which is an important component for integrating ICT in education; however it is noteworthy that effective training should not stop at computer literacy but should model effective teaching practices (Infodev, 2015). Nevertheless, there are many other countries that provide little or negligible teacher training related to ICT in education. For example evidence from Europe shows that 70% and 65% of students in Lithuania and Romania, respectively, are taught by teachers for whom it is compulsory to participate in ICT training, compared to just 13% or fewer of students in Luxembourg, Austria and Italy (European Commission, 2013).

ED8 measures the proportion of teachers that are “ICT-qualified”; in other words it measures those teachers trained and thus best equipped to teach courses specifically on basic computer skills in primary or basic education and/ or computing in secondary education. In contrast UIS indicator ED38 measures the proportion of primary and secondary-school teachers trained to teach other subject(s) using ICT facilities (for ISCED levels 1-3). For both indicators, “trained” refers to national standards. In several countries across Latin America and the Caribbean (UNESCO-UIS, 2012), some Arab States (UNESCO-UIS, 2013), and some countries in Asia and the Pacific (UNESCO-UIS, 2014) varying proportions of teachers have received each type of training. Typically lower proportions of teachers have been trained to teach basic computer skills or computing (i.e. 10% or fewer), while the proportions of teachers trained to teach subjects using ICT varies more widely ranging from few in low income countries to the majority in some developed countries (Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development, 2014b).

In Asia and the Pacific it is suggested that countries such as Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, Malaysia and Singapore, where ICT is well integrated into curricula and nearly universally available across schools, all teachers are trained to teach using ICT in their classroom. Moreover, other data suggest that all teachers in these three countries are using ICT in their teaching. In contrast data suggest that few teachers are trained in countries where ICT is scarce including Philippines, Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan (UNESCO-UIS, 2014). Teacher training related to ICT in education is thus also related to existing infrastructure, as also highlighted by Twining et al. (2015). In other words, one anticipates a directly proportional relationship between ICT infrastructure and teacher training whereby as there is more and new infrastructure, training should increase. While training initiatives on ICT are far from covering all teachers in Africa, InfoDev reported that as far back as 2007 an estimated 61 different ICT-related teacher training and professional development programmes, projects, and courses were under way in Africa (Farrell and Isaacs, 2017).

Understanding the complex evolving nature of ICT in general, additional clarity regarding the concepts “ICT-qualified” and “trained to teach subjects using ICT facilities” is needed. Consistent with this need for further reflection, Twining and Henry (2014) in an article entitled “Enhancing ICT Teaching in English Schools: Vital Lessons” argue that the term ICT has changed its focus over time and refers to several specific aspects of the use of technology within schools, encompassing the specialist subjects, the use of technology to support learning across the curriculum, as well as digital technology itself.

Acknowledging the many dimensions to being “ICT-qualified” and “trained to use ICT to support teaching other subjects”, the UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for teachers provides a helpful guide to codify ICT competencies and therefore can inform the development of new indicators to measure teacher training and preparedness. The UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers outlines the competencies that teachers need to integrate ICT into their professional practice. It emphasizes the role that ICT can play in supporting six major education focus areas across three growth phases of knowledge acquisition (UNESCO, 2011).

Currently some international teacher training programmes are based on this framework, such as Partners in Learning from Microsoft or INTEL Teach to name only a few (UNESCO, 2011b).

Table 1. UNESCO ICT competency framework for teachers

Area of educational focus ‘Modules’ - Phases of knowledge acquisition. Technology literacy Knowledge deepening Knowledge creation. Understanding ICT in education Policy Awareness Policy understanding Policy Innovation

Curriculum and assessment Basic Knowledge Knowledge Application Knowledge Society Skills Pedagogy Integrate technology Complex problem solving Self management ICT Basic tools Complex tools Pervasive tools Organization and

administration Standard classroom Collaborative groups Learning

Organizations Teacher professional learning Digital Literacy Manage and guide Teacher as model learner Content of training

Indicators 8 and 38 indicate proportions of trained teachers; however they do not shed light on the content of teacher training and how it is delivered.