This report presents a synthesis overview of the Teacher Development for 21
st Century (TDev 21) pilot project, a partnership initiative between the World Bank (WB) and GESCI and the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT) in Tanzania and the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) in Nigeria.
There is a commonly accepted view that Education systems will need to effect changes to prepare citizens for lifelong learning in the emerging 21st Century Knowledge‐Based Societies. The global shift towards Knowledge‐based Economies will require a change in the traditional view of the learning process itself. It will require an understanding of how traditional (text based) and new (digital based) classroom technologies can be used to facilitate learning environments in which students are engaged in the kind of team and project work that can enable them to take greater responsibility for their own learning and construction of knowledge. It will require a 'reconceptualization' of teacher professional learning for a digital age.
Competence with technology integration is the basis for effective change. Teachers will need to lead by modelling effective ICT skills and lifelong learning strategies. Students will need to see their teachers applying technology in authentic and integrated ways that will enable students to engage in problem solving, project collaboration and in creatively extending their abilities and capacities to acquire and construct knowledge.
In November 2008 the UNESCO ICT‐Competency Framework for Teachers (ICT‐CFT) project was launched marking the culmination of many attempts made by governments, academia, and the private sector to establish a universal terminology and competencies for ICT use in teacher
development. The framework promotes a teacher development model for effective ICT
integration across six education system domains of Policy, Curriculum and Assessment,
Pedagogy, ICT, Organization and Administration and Teacher Development. ICT competencies or standards are descriptions of what a qualified teacher should know and be able to do with technology in educational settings.The adoption of an ICT competency framework has a number of advantages, namely:
a. It will be clear for all to see what is required of a qualified teacher in terms of knowledge,
skills, behaviours and attitudes for ICT use in educational settings.
b. If a clear framework of ICT teacher competence is in place, then:
i. all pre‐service teacher education institutions will need to make sure that they
graduate teachers to meet the required level standards of those
competencies (beginner, applying, proficient or transformative competency
levels);
ii. all in‐service providers will have to ensure that they provide ICT professional
development programs which meet national priorities as expressed in the
competency framework (beginner, applying, proficient or transformative
competency level priorities)
c. Student teachers, practicing teachers, administrators, teacher educators and other
educators will be able to see the minimum ICT competencies required of them and will
be able to place efforts towards achieving and maintaining those standards.
d. A competency framework can focus ICT integration on transformative practices at the
classroom level; where technology integration changes content as well as pedagogy
(what students learn as well as how they learn).
e. A competency framework can focus ICT integration on transformative practices at the
systemic level: leading to changes in the organizational and structural features of course
provision.
f. The general public can be confident that students are being taught by teachers/
educators who have achieved agreed and transparent ICT competency standards.
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