East China Normal University

ztzhu@dec.ecnu.edu.cn; ztzhu@hotmail.com

ICT in teacher education in China: a brief review

In China, a new round of K12 curriculum reforms is taking place, which brings fresh challenges for K12 teachers who are required to integrate ICT into their teaching. Technology-pedagogy integration is becoming a critical component of their professional competencies. ICT has then become a crucial element for teacher education. In China, we refer to this phenomenon as “Teacher Education Informatization (TEI)”. Like the two sides of a coin, this terminology has dual implications: employing ICT to enhance teacher development for institutions and improving professional competencies in using ICT for educational personnel.

During the last five years, the MOE of China has made considerable efforts in TEI, many of which are cited here:

K12 Teachers’ Continuing Education (TCE) Programme

The TEC programme was targeted to give overall training of 190 hours to 10 million K12 teachers in three years (1999-2002). Most teachers under the age of 45 learned to use computers. Technology played an important role for the implementation of the programme. About 70% of training courses were delivered by satellite TV.

K12 Teachers’ e-Training (TeT) project

The TeT project was launched in June of 2000. During its first phase (2000-2002), 33 web-based curricula were developed, falling into 6 clusters:

n       Educational theories

n       Psychological health/consulting

n       Instructional technology

n       Training on teaching skills for subject teachers in primary schools

n       Training on teaching skills for subject teachers in junior secondary schools

n       Lectures on new trends in humanity and science

Teacher Education Informatization Programme

In March of 2002, the MOE announced a master plan entitled Promoting the Construction of Teacher Education Informatization _[1], which addresses a framework of TEI covering five facets:

n       Building information infrastructures dedicated to teacher development

n       Developing plentiful digital resources for teacher training

n       Fostering ICT skilled teaching staffs both in teacher colleges/universities and in K12 schools

n       Exploring and creating innovative models of ICT-integrated instruction and ICT-supported management through research efforts

n       Enhancing the leadership, management and evaluation of TEI process

The master plan is targeted to create a technology-integrated teacher development system in five years.  

Educational Technology Standards for Teachers

A latest effort initiated by the MOE for promoting TEI is the development of educational technology standards for teachers. The standards are expected to be published in autumn 2003. Predictably, as follow-up, standards-based training for K12 teachers will ensue.

Existing obstacles /difficulties

Though substantial efforts have been made as seen above, many obstacles /difficulties exist in the process of TEI in China, such as:

n       Investments into the construction of TEI are rather insufficient and the portion into the development of digital resources and staff training on technology-pedagogy integration is especially limited.

n       Conventional ideology and obsolete pedagogy which impede teachers’ innovative uses of technology in education;

n       Backward training models are still used in large, which isolate theoretical learning from instructional practice and separate technology from pedagogy;

n       Traditional test-driven approaches to instructional evaluation despise technology-facilitating innovations in teaching and learning

Ideas based on our experiences

Considering our experiences in carrying out projects of technology-integrated teacher development (TITD), any successful projects must embody the following elements/aspects:

Innovative training curricula

n       Advanced ideology and pedagogy: Innovative elements of modern educational practice, such as authentic tasks, collaborative learning, performance-based and/or process-oriented evaluation, should be embodied in the design of training courses;

n       Learning by doing: task-driven modules are preferred, in which trainees are asked to fulfill tasks demanding their hands-on and thoughtful efforts;

n       Case-based Learning: the provision of meaningful cases of technology-integrated instruction is crucial for such type of training, because good case studies can represent a convergence between theory and practice.

n       Experience-sharing: Trainees should be given opportunities to exchange ideas and share experiences during the course of training;

n       Evaluation and reflection: frequent assessments done by oneself and peers are another key element for effective training, as this enables teacher trainees to reflect their own work and make continuing improvements.

n       Facilitating structures: the efficiency and effectiveness could be explicitly improved when sufficient facilitating structures are available, including a readily accessed information environment, a diversity of supportive tools and the availability of expert consulting.

Diversified training approaches

A number of training approaches are found usable for teacher training, such as

n       Site-based training

n       School-based training

n       TV-based training

n       Video-based training

n       Web-based training

n       Virtual community

Each of these approaches has its strengths and weaknesses. A pragmatic decision should be made in according to local conditions. We hold that any a complete model of teacher development can not rely on a single training approach. We therefore insist that a blended model that combines several approaches in a reasonable way is more desirable.

Encouraging policies

The involvement of encouraging policies is absolutely necessary for the implementation of teacher development projects. Typical encouraging policies include:

n       Leave and allowance provided for teachers to take part in on-site training

n       Higher priority for teacher trainees to access information facilities

n       Awards given to teachers who use technology innovatively in teaching after training

Suggested approaches to teacher training on technology-pedagogy integration

We suggest the following approaches to teacher training on technology-pedagogy integration, which have been most successful in China.

Intensive site-training approach

One of our recent practices on in-service teacher training is the adoption and adaptation of the Intel-Teach-to-the-Future (ITF) teacher-training curriculum. Funded by the Intel Corporation, the ITF project represents an international effort that through training to enhance schoolteachers’ competence for using ICT in their classrooms. The goal of the curriculum is to train classroom teachers how to promote inquiry-based learning and effectively integrate the use of computers into their existing curriculum so that the students will increase their learning and achievement. The themes of the Intel Teach to the Future Programme include:

n       Effective use of technology in the classroom.

n       A focus on the ways students and teachers can use technology to enhance learning through research, communication, and productivity strategies and tools.

n       An emphasis on “hands-on” learning and the creation of curricular units and evaluation tools, which address state and national academic and technology standards.

n       Promoting engaging opportunities for students through access to technology.

n       Encouraging teachers to work in teams, problem-solve and participate in peer review of their units.

The IFT training curriculum consists of ten modules. The materials are localized before being used in the contexts of K12 education in China, in which cultural and pedagogical adaptations are involved. An outline of the localized curriculum _[2] is shown below:

Module 1 – Welcome and start to plan your teaching unit

Module 2 - Locating Resources for Your Unit

Module 3 - Creating Student Multimedia Presentations

Module 4 - Creating Student Publications

Module 5 - Creating Unit Support Materials

Module 6 - Creating Student Web Sites

Module 7 - Creating Teacher Support Materials

Module 8 - Creating an Implementation Plan

Module 9 - Putting Your Unit Plan Together

Module 10 - Demonstrate Your Unit Plans

The Chinese-IFT project began in the summer of 2000. This author is the experts-in-chief of the project. Up to the end of 2002, over 150 thousand K12 teachers from 18 provinces have been trained. Through a site-based intensive training of 40 hours, most participants learned to design a technology-integrated unit plan. The IFT training has been well received among K12 teachers and is considered to be the most successful teacher training project in China. The project will be further extended so that 500 thousand K12 teachers will be trained in next 3 years. A new development in China is to integrate the IFT resources into pre-service teacher training in 10 teacher universities.

Web-based training approach: two cases

During the last three years, this author has had the opportunity to undertake two projects in developing web-based teacher training curricula. The first was based on curriculum called Multimedia CAI, which pertains to the K12 Teachers e-Training (TeT) project granted by MOE. The curriculum consists of seven modules:

Module 1 – Start and Orientation

Module 2 – From CAI to MCAI

Module 3 – Application models of MCAI

Module 4 – Designing a CAI unit plan

Module 5 – Looking for unit support materials

Module 6 – Preparing learners’ facilitators

Module 7 – Implementing the CAI unit plan in classroom

The second project used web-based curriculum, titled Modern Instructional Technology: Stepping into Technology-Integrated Education (printed textbook is also available _[3]) is intended for distance master programmes in education. The candidates have over 5 years teaching experience in secondary schools. In this curriculum, we attempt to make a convergence between theories, technologies and pedagogical practice, with a focus on pedagogical practice. The curriculum consists of three parts: Practical Activities, theoretical lectures, and support materials.

Practical Activities: this part includes 8 modules, which involve a variety of hands-on and involving activities. To some extent, these activities embody essential elements of innovative instructional processes, including research-based learning, resource-based learning, collaborative learning, and performance-oriented evaluation.  We believe that learners who have acquired innovative experience during the training process would transfer these innovative elements into their own teaching practice.

Theoretical lectures: This part includes 8 lectures; each lecture either introduces new perspectives regarding the use of ICT in education, or addresses innovative learning models with support of new technologies, or discusses methodological points critical to the design of creative learning systems.

Support Materials: This part collects a set of tools, including lesson templates, lesson plan samples, students e-work samples, and evaluation rubrics, which are designed to support different practical activities.

As illustrated by Figure 1, this curriculum makes a better integration between theory, technology, and pedagogy.

Figure 1 A tri-part structure of instructional technology curriculum

Action learning approach

The development of teachers’ professional competencies in technology-pedagogy integration usually experiences four stages: Emerging, Applying, Infusing, and Transforming _[4]. We are considering various approaches for teachers to proceed through these stages. In our analysis, most training courses on ICT, such as the CDL (computer driving license), can help teachers to reach goals set with the emerging stage and application stage. ITF (Intel-Teach-to-the-Future) training can meet the needs from the infusing stage very well.

However, there is not any ready programme for teachers to transit from the infusing stage to transforming stage, since technology-pedagogy integration is a whole new challenge for teachers, and as such, demands their enduring efforts. Short-term training may not help them to become competent practitioners. We thus advocate action learning as a sustainable approach to teachers’ professional development.

Figure 2 The development of teacher competencies in technology-pedagogy integration: An evolutionary model and sample approaches

As shown in Figure 2, we have attempted to create a model for the evolution of teacher competencies in technology-pedagogy integration from emerging, application to infusing and transforming.

Action learning is a type of experiential learning in that the participants are learning while doing. Essential to action learning, is the need to learn from the experience of problems resolving in practice with the community. Its method can be adapted to different contexts, while its characteristics can be generalized as follows:

n       Learning is focused on the need to resolve the actual problems faced

n       Learning is motivated by the learner’s will

n       Personal development is as important as the problem solving

n       Action learning is a highly socialized process, which may bring organizational change

n       Action learning needs time - it’s not a short term training

Action learning is a repeated process of action and experience, the factors of the process are cyclical, including: action, reflection, summarizing, and further plan.

Given the fact that we are concerned with the instruction design and implementation toward ICT integration, which we consider the core of the professional knowledge and abilities, the action plan we created aims at leading teachers to experience the process of applying, infusing, and transforming. 

For the stage of moving through applying to infusing, the method in our action learning project, with the guidance of case studies, and with the action of instructional design and implementation, teachers go through the cycle of imitation, action, reflection, modification, and further action. From the experience of this cycle, teachers built confidence in their ICT implementation, absorbed the method of ICT integration, and made some changes to their didactic roles. This part of the action project consists of case-based instructional design, and action implementation.

For the stage of moving from infusing to transforming, the strategy in our action learning project is problem based: for the sake of resolving real problems faced in practice, teachers take part in the action learning groups, attempt to solve their problems, learning from their experiences and lessons, with cooperation and reflection.

We are carrying out an experiment in teachers’ professional development orienting technology-integrated instructional design through an action learning approach in Shanghai, with 60 K12 teachers taking part.

Some suggestions on the UNESCO-JFIT project

In consideration of the goals and conditions set by the UNESCO-JFIT project, I suggest that future efforts should be focused along three lines of action:

1.      Setting up guidelines

The first cluster of efforts should be put into creating a set of guidelines addressing common recognition regarding teachers’ professional development in the information age, which at least include:

n       An orientation document (white book) addressing the importance of teacher professional development in the information age;

n       Educational technology standards for teachers, which specify teachers’ performance indicators regarding technology-pedagogy integration;

n       Educational technology standards for facilitators, which specify instructional facilitators’ performance indicators regarding technology-supported education.

2. Creating pedagogical models/exemplars

The second cluster of efforts should be put into developing a set of pedagogical models/exemplars, including:

n       Developing a set of master modules, which should become exemplars and enables adaptations by different national bodies or cultural zones; 

n       Training master teachers, say 2,000-3,000 persons, who will become key trainers in their own organization;

n       Sponsoring workshops for educational leaders, for cross-cultural sharing of knowledge and experience in teachers professional development

3. Facilitating knowledge/Experience sharing

The third cluster of efforts should be put into building capacities for facilitating knowledge/experience sharing, including:

n       Creating a resource base, which collects training modules, lesson plans, instructional design template, evaluation tools, and research reports relevant to teachers’ professional development for ICT in education.

n       Creating virtual communities to support knowledge/experiences exchanges for educational leaders and teachers from different countries/cultural zones in the Asia-Pacific region

n       Creating a partnership among different educational entities for exchanges of educational resources regarding E-education oriented teachers professional development.

References

[1] MOE of China (2002). Master Plan of MOE on Promoting Teacher Education Informatization. (01/03/2002), [Online available] http://www.edu.cn/20020610/3058125.shtml

[2] Intel Corporation (2002). Intel-Teach-to-the-Future Teacher Training Curriculum (Chinese version 5.2).

[3] Zhu Zhiting, et al (2001). Modern Instructional Technology: Stepping into Technology-Integrated Education , Higher education publishings, Shanghai.

[4] Anderson, J. and van Weert, T. (Eds. 2002). Information and Communication Technology in Educations: A Curriculum for Schools and Programme of Teacher Development. UNESCO, Paris.

[About the author] Dr. Zhu Zhiting is professor of educational technology in College of Educational Sciences, asenior researcher of National Institute of Curriculum & Instruction, Director of Educational Information Center and Vice Dean of Online Education College, East China Normal University. He is also a distinguished professor at Nanjing Normal University.

Invited by the Ministry of Education, he is now also the Director of the Chinese e-Learning Technology Standardization Committee (CELTSC), a consultant for the National Project of Educational Resources, and a member of the Steering Committee for Teacher Education Informatization.

His research interests include e-Learning theories and models, system architectures and standardization of e-learning technology, knowledge management technology in education, and technology philosophy.

Since the mid-90s, he has published a dozen books, such as Instructional Technology in Information Age, Technology-Integrated Instruction: Promoting the Development of Multiple Intelligences, Network Applications in Education, e-Learning Technology, Educational Utilization of Internet Information Resources, International Overview of Information Education, and Cross-Cultural Portability of Educational Software, in addition to over 60 articles.

His recent research projects include e-Learning Technology Standards, Development of Web-Based Teacher Training Courses, Personalized e-Learning System, Theories and Practical Models of Educational Informatization, and Curriculum Paradigms in the Information Age, which are funded by several national programmes in China.