Designing Open and Distance Learning for Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: A toolkit for educators and planners

Everyone remembers a good teacher. Good teachers are the key to educational expansion and improvement. In many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, there is an urgent need to expand the number of primary and secondary teachers. In all African countries, there is an equally important need to improve the quality of teaching. To achieve this, it is clear that new approaches to teacher education are essential. Existing institutions of teacher education will continue to play an important role, but, alone, they will not meet the goals of Education for All (EFA) by 2015. It is fortunate that, just as the twin needs to improve the quantity and quality of teachers become imperative, so new forms of education and training are becoming available. The world is witnessing a revolution in information and communication technologies (ICTs), which can offer training and support of a type and at a cost hitherto impossible to consider, and thus, must be fully explored given the scale and urgency of demand. In doing so, however, it will be necessary to build on existing and well-tested strategies, including the best models of open and distance learning. This toolkit is the third in a series of recent publications by the Africa Region Human Development Department of the World Bank to share knowledge and experience on how distance education and ICTs can support education in Sub-Saharan Africa. It emphasizes the rigorous process by which new forms of distance-education programs for teacher education can be planned and implemented. The best models of established programs are considered along with the potential for incorporating, as the means become available, new modes of communication. Most forms of teacher education, particularly those concerned with qualification upgrading and ongoing professional development, will have to be based in schools. The authors demonstrate how school-based programs, appropriately resourced and supported, have the potential not only to raise significantly the number and quality of teachers, but also to improve classroom practice and school organization, generally. The guidance and advice, which is drawn from many years of experience in design and implementation, and embraces a range of case studies from across the region, will be of considerable value to those preparing new policies and programs of teacher education and to those seeking to improve existing programs

The Interface of Technology in Culinary Arts Education

Introduction: A culinary educator must make many decisions that affect the day-to-day activities in both the classroom and the lab. One of the more important decisions is how to select the most appropriate technology to implement for use in teaching and administrative activities. The research presented here is intended to help the educator identify specific needs, decide where the use of technology is desirable, and offer information designed to help the educator make an informed decision about using technology as a teaching tool. Purpose Statement: The purpose of this paper is to inform the culinary educator about the technology available for use in both the classroom and the lab setting. There is an ever-increasing pool of technology, making it more important than ever that the educator choose the appropriate lab/kitchen equipment and software programs for use in a specific culinary program. Making an informed decision ensures maximum usefulness of the technology in the setting

Towards Twenty-First Century Education : Success Factors, Challenges, and the Renewal of Finnish Education

Peer reviewe

Educating Professional Teachers in Finland through the Continuous Improvement of Teacher Education Programmes

The purpose of this chapter is to explore and analyze the kind of knowledge curriculum integration required of teachers and how teacher education should be developed to prepare teachers better for curriculum integration. The chapter is organized as follows: First, the concept of curriculum integration (CI) is briefly introduced in the context of the Finnish curriculum for comprehensive schools. Then Lee Shulman’s theory of teachers’ knowledge is discussed and applied to the framework of CI to identify the challenges teachers may face in implementing CI. Finally, implications for teacher education are suggested based on the current challenges identified in the Finnish context.The chapter analyses teacher professionalism and how professional teachers are educated in Finland and will be educated in future. Second, successes and challenges in the Finnish educational context and the role of teachers in education are discussed. The third section examines shortly primary and secondary teacher education at the University of Helsinki as an example of a teacher education programme in Finland. The main topic concerns how Finnish teacher education is aimed to be improved through broad-based collaboration. The Minister of Education nominated 100 experts from universities, the ministry, the teachers’ union, student unions and municipal union to a Finnish Teacher Education Forum and asked them to analyse research outcomes related to teacher education, to identify best practices based on teacher education strategies and policy documents in other countries, organise a national brainstorming process related to the renewal of teacher education and, inally, prepare a Development Programme for Teachers’ Pre- and In-service Education (life-long professional development) in Finland. Furthermore, the forum was asked to identify key actions to undertake to improve teacher education and support the implementation of the development programme, and also to create the conditions through inancing pilot projects and organising meetings for the renewal of Finnish teacher education through professional development projectsPeer reviewe

Discovering OIL: the role of online international learning and international field trips in enhancing student engagement and performance

Online International Learning (OIL) is an innovative teaching paradigm that facilitates intercultural competence via meaningful online discussions between higher education practitioners and students in distant locations (de Wit 2013). OIL has been elucidated as a collaborative form of pedagogy that enhances ‘virtual mobility’, collaborative learning and the student experience (ibid). Similarly, international field trips allow students the opportunity to enhance their cultural awareness by active learning and immersion in new, dynamic and exciting learning environments (Jakubowski 2003). Piggott (2012) argues higher education students revel in experiencing real situations that can often bring what is taught in the classroom ‘to life’. The case study integrated OIL and international field trips as a combined pedagogical strategy with the intention to deliver a best practice policy in assessment. This platform provided the opportunity to share ideas and views, discuss good business practices, explore cultural differences and encourage debate on current global affairs. It is contended that this practice not only fills a ‘gap’ but is in fact a unique strategy that has not been identifiable in any literature to date and is much deeper than the OIL-only strategy conducted by Villar-Onrubia and Rajpal (2015)

Enhancing Learners’ Engagement with Educational Apps

Technology-enabled learning environment provides increased opportunities for enhancing learners’ engagement, interaction and collaboration. With the advent of technology, educational applications (apps) have become popular in learning, teaching, and research at all levels of education. Learning through the use of apps is therefore gaining momentum as it affords flexible learning opportunities, coupled with 21st century learning paradigm. The nature of educational apps is varied, be it an app downloadable on a mobile device or customized apps, designed to provide bite sized information or a learning activity based on learning design. The core function of these apps remain the same, which is to provide learners an engaging and meaningful interaction with content and interface such that it enhances not only the learning experience but also success in learning. In short, apps are designed to enhance learning efficiency and effectiveness. The use of apps, from early childhood education through to higher education, provides continuous opportunities to enhance learners’ engagement with learning materials (Diliberto-Macaluso, & Hughes, 2016; Hirsh-Pasek, Zosh, Golinkoff, Gray, Robb, & Kaufman, 2015; Pechenkina, Laurence, Oates, Eldridge, & Hunter, 2017), however there is a need for more research in this area (Hirsh-Pasek et al, 2015; Pechenkina et al, 2017). Hamari, Koivisto, and Sarsa (2014) reported that integration of gamified elements into apps has the potential to engage students and motivate them in a way that it can in turn affect other factors, which influence the learning process

Digital technology and practices for school improvement : innovative digital school model

The aim of this study was to create a model which describes the main elements for improving schools with digital technology and helps to reveal differences between schools and identify their best practices and challenges. The innovative digital school model (IDI school) offers a framework for research but also a research-based model for schools to examine their own practices with digital technologies. The model combines previous research on school improvement, creation of innovations, and digital technology in education as a special case of innovations and learning as knowledge creation to define six main elements describing an innovative, digital school: visions of the school, leadership, practices of the teaching community, pedagogical practices, school-level knowledge practices and digital resources. The model was applied to investigate three basic education schools. The results indicate that the model worked: we found essential differences between the schools and their best practices and challenges for improvement. It worked particularly well for those elements, which are mainly the responsibility for leadership inside a school. The differences of various elements between schools were not based on socioeconomic background but on the school-level practices. As a conclusion, we suggest that to improve schools with digital technology, all elements of the model should be included in the evaluation and development process.Peer reviewe

ImpaCT2: learning at home and school: case studies

Strand 3 explored the nature of teaching and learning involving ICT in various settings, with a focus on the views of pupils, teachers, and parents. Working in 15 of the 60 schools selected for Strands 1 and 2, this project focused on: learning and teaching environments; learning and teaching styles; and the impact of networked technologies on the perceptions of teachers, managers, pupils and parents. ImpaCT2 was a major longitudinal study (1999-2002) involving 60 schools in England, its aims were to: identify the impact of networked technologies on the school and out-of-school environment; determine whether or not this impact affected the educational attainment of pupils aged 8 - 16 years (at Key Stages 2, 3, and 4); and provide information that would assist in the formation of national, local and school policies on the deployment of ICT

TEACHER EDUCATION DEADWOOD NOT CONSIDERED A HINDRANCE: REALITIES, A CASE OF ‘HALF BAKED’ PRIMARY TEACHERS

Development initiatives affirm the critical importance of teacher education and the role played by well-trained reflective teachers. However certain aspects of effective teacher education are not closely aligned to the subjects offered in the primary curriculum. Today teacher education should adequately prepare trainee teachers for the exact subject content they will teach in schools. Currently there are challenges in preparing teachers toward subjects’ specialisation. In making such observations qualitative research approaches were applied, mainly analysis of textual documentary sources of literature through constant comparison, note taking and coding data into themes, headings and subheadings. Research findings indicated that, all primary trainee school teachers in the 2.5. 2. programme specialise on a single major throughout their training, yet during teaching practice and after training they will be required to teach four-twelve subjects. This study concluded that, the current Zimbabwe teacher training programme is not adequately training primary teachers to be competent skilful teachers on all subjects offered in the primary school curriculum. Therefore there is a need to revisit the above concern. In alignment to the conclusion, this study recommends all primary teacher trainees to specialise in four major subject areas instead of specialising on a single major as currently prevailing.  Article visualizations