National Workshops on Incorporating ICT Competency Standards into the Teacher Development Programme (Uzbekistan and Nepal)

In line with the “Supporting Competency-Based Teacher Training Reforms to Facilitate ICT-Pedagogy Integration” Project, UNESCO Bangkok has been assisting three Member States namely, Nepal, Philippines, and Uzbekistan in the development of their respective National ICT Competency Standards for Teachers for either pre-service teacher education or in-service professional development.

Supported by the Korean Funds-in-Trust, the project recently commenced the second round of national workshops that aimed to build the capacity of Ministry of Education officials in incorporating the newly developed ICT competency standards into the professional development programme for teachers. The workshops proceeded with an orientation on the newly developed standards, identification of gaps between the current curriculum and the standards, drafting of ICT-integrated competency-based teacher development modules/courses, and preparation of a work plan for future steps.

Held on 29-31 March 2016, the Uzbekistan workshop brought together officials from the Ministry of Public Education, Ministry of Higher Secondary Specialized Education, as well as the Centre for Secondary Specialized Public Education, members of teacher associations, teachers, and national experts. With the support of the Korea Education and Research Information Service (KERIS), the workshop involved experts and exemplary country cases to help incorporate the new standards in a holistic manner. The evident output of the workshop encompassed the understanding, design of, and follow ups on the national implementation of the updated teacher development programmes, aligned with the endorsed standards on ICT competencies for teachers.

The workshop in Nepal, held on 7-9 April 2016, was attended by various local stakeholders from the education sector, including representatives from the MOE’s National Centre for Education Development (NCED), Curriculum Development Centre (CDC), Teacher Service Council (TSC), Education Training Centres (ETC), universities/ Teacher Education Institutes (TEIs), teacher associations, and other key organizations. A handful of teachers also participated to share valuable insights about realities in the field. UNESCO BGK brought in Prof Geoff Romeo to share Australia’s experiences and resources as well as provide expert feedback and guidance to the workshop process and outputs. The Nepal Task Force also briefed the participants on the planned second round of the teacher readiness assessment survey that will reflect the new competency standards. This can serve as a possible pre-training assessment tool to support the provision of relevant and timely training modules based on teachers’ current competency levels.

The participants were able to draft an initial set of modules that are explicitly aligned with the performance indicators corresponding to the ICT competency standards. Workgroups looked into module learning objectives, assessment strategies, content and suggested activities, estimated duration, and required resources. Sample successful country cases were likewise examined and adapted, taking into consideration the local landscapes and realities of teacher development in the countries.

Both workshops received positive reviews from participants, spurred rich discussion and group work, encouraged further reflection on the standards and teacher development programmes. Built upon the gains from the workshops, each country’s project Task Force will meet again in a few weeks’ time to finalize the draft ICT-integrated teacher training courses/ modules as well as designate time allocations, linkages and logical combination of modules. In addition, the Task Forces agreed to review the current versions of the ICT competency standards to incorporate the comments from the workshop participants.

Contact info: Jonghwi Park, j.park[at]unesco.org; Maria Melizza Tan, mm.tan[at]unesco.org; Auken Tungatarova, a.tungatarova[at]unesco.org.