09/12/2019

Only 43% of teachers felt well or very well prepared to use ICT when they completed their initial education or training, according to the OECD's Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2018.

Findings like this are summarised and discussed in ITELab's third and final annual monitoring report, published this month. Looking at the collection of projects, studies, surveys and reports analysed in 2019, the authors highlight a continuing focus on policy measures to support initial teacher education (ITE) and, behind them, implied concerns that ITE could be improved to address teachers' criticisms of their initial training (as reported in TALIS for example). There are signs of pressure to align more closely initial with continuing teacher education to provide career-long learning and competence development. This is linked to moves to ensure closer collaboration between ITE providers and schools. Pedagogical digital competences, of both student teachers and tutors, are also in the spotlight, with more attempts to define competences and assess needs. Meanwhile digital technologies continue to evolve, and the possibly profound and disruptive implications of artificial intelligence for education are only just beginning to be addressed.

The Monitoring Report also includes summaries of the five case studies produced in 2019 by the project, three on industry and ITE collaboration, showing the mutual benefits of joint projects and partnerships, and two on ITE tutors' pedagogical digital competence. On this, the case studies showed how ITE universities are developing competences through buddy systems and working in teams trying out new methods and learning from each other in both virtual spaces and on-site future classroom labs.

Student teachers have become an integral part of the ITELab project and this year they produced a charter, setting out their recommendations to improve outcomes from their ITE institutions, improve their digital pedagogy skills and use the student teachers' voice to improve ITE courses.

The report ends with eight recommendations to better prepare teachers for their future career: integrating ICT in ITE curricula, preparing student teachers for their careers, developing teacher educators' ICT competences and overcoming organisational isolation.

Read the Report