A Case Study on the Teacher Education Curriculum

to Promote the Quality Teaching and Learning Utilizing ICT and

its Related Technologies

Fumihiko SHINOHARA

Tokyo Gakugei University

Tokyo, JapanPrepared and presented at the International Conference on

the IMPACTS OF GLOBALIZATION ON QUALITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION SEAMEO RETRAC, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

June 20-21 2013

First of All

The author is here; as an Japanese, a teacher education university academic staff ensured in principle autonomous activities under the umbrella of National University Corporation, a researcher majored physics and educational methods, and a man with strong will to involve and contribute national and ‘Global’ or ‘Transnational’ educational reform.

Legal Basis of Education in Japan

Globalization

The process of increasing the connectivity and interdependence of the world business and trades, and moreover of thoughts and ideas as well.

This process has been accelerated dramatically in the last few decades as technological progress make it easier for ‘Ordinary’ people to travel, communicate, and carry out business as entrepreneurs internationally and more wided locally.

Globalization (cont’d)

Two major recent driving forces include advancement in telecommunications infrastructure represented by the growth of ICT and multimedia with the Internet.

In general, as economies become more connected to other social and cultural activities, they have increased opportunity but also increased ‘Competition,’ while the competitive environment includes the right to ‘Choice’ with careful consideration about the equality and equity.

Globalization (cont’d)

Thus, as globalization becomes a more and more common feature of world economics, education became no more an exception both in the developed and developing countries as discussed in the ‘Education at a Glance - OECD Indicators -’ by OECD and in ‘Education: beyond 2015’ by UNESCO.

Why ‘Quality’ and for What

In this context, based on the educational aims and purposes generally formulated by one of the education related stakeholders, governments, we university academic staff need to examine educational environment to prepare quality educational systems, including specified educational objectives and contents, for the future citizens under the spirit ‘Think Globally, Act locally’ to publish the salient research results.

What is ‘Quality’

Five dimensions of education quality are recognized by UNICEFF (2000) and UNESCO (2004); namely (1) Learner, (2) Environment, (3) Context, (4) Priorities, and (5) Outcomes.All, defined as general forms, are founded on the rights of the whole child and of all children, enabling them to survive and be protected, and providing for their development and participation.

The ‘Quality’ will be changed

In practical teaching-learning situations the indicators of the ‘Quality’ will be changed:Taking an example in the Japanese ‘Course of Study,’ Guideline of developing textbooks to sell and at the same time Guideline for school teachers to have to develop their own curriculum by school teachers, it is clearly realized.

History of Course of Study (1/2)

• 1947 ： Trial version• 1951 ： Fist revision

– Education based on dairy life (Expansion of Experience-oriented Curriculum)

• 1958 ： Second revision– Education based on Sequence(Sequential Learning)

• 1968 - 1970 ： Third revision– Modernization of Education (Scientific- and Discipline- Oriented

Curriculum)

• 1977 ： Fourth revision– Education based on human being （ more relax and enjoyable school

days)

History of Course of Study (2/2)• 1989 ： Fifth revision

– Education focused on learner’s characteristics （ Schools on New view of Education achievement)

• Thinking skills, Decision making skills, and Presentation skills

• 1998 - 1999 ： Sixth revision– Education in the information-oriented society (Promotion of ‘Zest

for Life’ and New Learning)• By learner’s own thoughts and experiences, he/she should (1) Find

out problems, (2) consider by him-/herself, (3) make decision by him/her own contribution, and (4) solve the problems with better way of thinking and methods considered.

– School periods for Integrated/Comprehensive Activities» Periods for Cross/Integrated Curriculum Learning» International understanding, Informatics, Environment, Welfare,

and Good Health» 2 – 3 hours/week in primary to upper secondary schools

Paradigm Shift in Education (1/2)

• Shift in Education Philosophy ： Educational Objectives– Presentation 、 decision making skill 、 thinking

skill 、 Explorable Learning 、 Investigation Learning/Looking-up Learning 、 Integrated/Comprehensive/Project Learning 、 Analysis 、 Synthesis 、 Evaluation with special emphasis on the utilization of information technologies

Paradigm Shift in Education (2/2)

• Complex/Varied of Learning and Information– Difference of information collected and reorganized

based on learner’s value– Increasing of ability on Audio-visual literacy/Promoting

the Motivation and its continuity of interests to visual and communication technologies/information

– Based on learner’s experience and knowledge customization and re-organization of information collected and expresses is allowed as his/her original idea

Philosophy of Course of Study-2008

*1 　 Comparison of the results of common regions of 2000 and 2003

＜ Top group＞Score of 550

(2nd of 32 countries)

Scientificliteracy

＜ Top group＞Score of 557

(1st of 32 countries)

＜ Top group led by Finland＞Score of 522

(8th of 32 countries)

＜ Top group＞Score of 534

(6th of 41 countries)

Mathematical literacy

Readingliteracy

＜ Top group＞Score of 548

(2nd of 41 countries)

＜ Level comparableto the OECD average＞

Score of 498(14th of 41 countries)

PISA 2003 SurveyPISA 2000 Survey

○PISA 2003 survey showed significant decline in reading literacy

※１

Japanese Situation in ＰＩＳＡ Survey

　 PISA Shock！

Issues of Japanese Education as Seen from the Survey

○ 　 High percentage of being in the lower ranks when compared to the top countries○ 　 Lack of a guidance system for students requiring support and guidance○ 　 Lack of interest and hesitant attitude towards learning

Overall logic problems

○ 　 Poor at reading and interpreting materials and information and connecting them to one’s own knowledge and experiences○ 　 Poor at clearly writing what one wishes to express○ 　 Poor ability to connect and utilize knowledge in various situations

Sectoral problems

Improvement of the Educational System

Improvement of Learning Content

Another Evidence- ‘Interaction’ till 2008 -

- ‘Interaction’ since 2009 -

Then, What We Should Do-to Contribute to ‘Quality Education’-

1. By specifying the educational measures in the form of generally described with consideration about both their recent studies and global issues closely related to them,

2. develop the syllabus and lesson plans, which include appropriate teaching-learning activities for the target students, and to keep on carrying out scientific research and practice so as to publish the salient and evidence-based results.

Recent Studies on the Research Trends of Technology and Teacher Education

The top subject term is ‘Attitudes,’ while the leading topic is ‘Technology Integration,’ though these findings may be reflected by the scope and mission of journals examined, and moreover both of them have been pointed out at least since 2003.

ICT-Pedagogy Integration

• Power of OS– Higher speed Networking – Higher capacity storage– Video and Audio editing capabilities

• Progress of mobile phones– With Digital still and video camera

• Free Access and space of video and audio websites to select and to re-organize with careful attention to one of the global issues, ‘Intellectual property rights’– YouTube

Needs to Visual Literacy incl. development

Current Trends of Education•Child-centered Education

–　 Constructivism–　 Cognitive Approach

•Basic Education– Promotion of ‘Education for All’ to enhance basic and fundamental knowledge

and skills•ESD (Education for Sustainable Development)

– Development and implementation of ESD -oriented curriculum both in formal and non-formal education

•ICT-Pedagogy Integration– Multimedia under the concept of AV education rather than ICT

•EBE (Evidence-Based Education)– ‘Knock on a stone bridge and keep on knocking,’ rather than ‘Knock on a stone bridge and cross it.’

Issues in the Contemporary Education

• Learning in the affective domain: zest for life, independent self learning

　　　　　 learning will/desire, mind to pursue　　　　　 fostering learner’s interest and curiosity

• Instruction and nurturing in education

　　　　　 instruct vs. nurture (B.F. Skinner) (C. Rogers)

Issues related to ‘Affective Domain’

• Effects of visual images on motivation, interest, attitude, sense of values

　 … .. Effects on the emotions• New education issues: learning desire, interest,

attitude, view of life, taste etc.• Instruct : Nurture

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Present Course Syllabus

Present Course Syllabus (cont’d)

Present Course Syllabus (cont’d)

Brief Explanation of Present Course in the Curriculum Structure

Present Course ‘Special Lecture and Practices of Educational Media Produce’ is newly developed for the second semester of the 3rd year students, who are assumed to complete several required subjects such as;

1. the ‘Introduction to Educational Professions,’ 2. the ‘Information Processing,’ 3. the ‘School Education and Information,’ 4. the ‘Lecture on Educational Management,’ 5. the ‘Introduction to Clinical Education,’ 6. the ‘Lecture and Demonstration on the Educational Observations and Experiments,’ and

7. the ‘Lecture on the Contents and Methods in Primary Education,’ while students are highly requested to learn the course ‘Lecture and Demonstration on Educational Technology’ offered as one of the electives in the 1st semester for the 3rd year students.

Sample Material handed over to Students- Production Flow of video materials -

Sample Material handed over to Students- Free Software available and relevant to Multimedia or ICT utilization in Schools -

1. 　 Documentation 　 MS Word 　　　　　 2. 　 Education statistics 　 MS Excel

3. 　 Management/Database MS Access

4. 　 Presentation 　 MS PowerPoint, Macromedia Captivate

5. Idea processing or Mind-Mapping 　 FreeMind

6. 　 Authoring software 　 MS Word, Macromedia Director, Macromedia Authorware,

Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe Flash, Adobe inDesign

Mathematica

7. 　 Audio and video image editing with storyboarding 　 MS Moviemaker, Photo Story2 or 3,

Photo Flash Maker, Muvee autoProducer(VideoMagic), Any

Video Converter, DVD Fab Decripter 、 Adobe Premiere

8. Still image processing MS Paintbrush, Gimp (for raster format), Inkscape (for Vector format),

Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator

9. Animation Blender for 3DAnime and modeling, Giam for gif-animation

10. Sound and music processing Sound Recorder, Audacity, Studio ftn Score Editor, Winamp,

Retro Music Editor, BatchWOO!

11. e-Leaning Moodle, Hotpotatoes, Macromedia Captivate

12. Programming languages Visual BASIC Express, Visual C++ Express , LISP, JavaScript, Ruby

13. Video conferencing 　　 Skype, Yahoo messenger

14. Packing on CD/DVD/BD imgBurn

Sample Material handed over to Students- Design and Development of Web pages *) -

*) Encourage students to cultivate logical thinking and writing skill

Technological Approach vs. Rashomon Approach

Technological Approach Rashomon ApproachObjectives Behavioral objectives and

be specificNon-behavioral objectives andBe general

Teaching Materials

Sampling from material pool and “planned allocation”

Discovering the value of materials in teaching-learning processes

Teaching-Learning Process

Pre-decided impromptu

Emphasis Structures and design of teaching materials

Pre-service and in-service teacher training

Sample of an End-Product - ‘Summer Festival in Aomori Prefecture’ -

Results of Course Evaluation*)

Level Evaluation Type Results Tools

1 Reaction Feel very happyBy Questionnaire and direct Observations

2 LearningVery simple but spent more time than expected

By Questionnaire and direct Observations

3 Behavior Highly Cooperated By Questionnaire and direct Observations

4 Results Not difficultBy Questionnaire and direct Observations

*) By the simplified Kirpatrick’s Evaluation Form

Recommendations

• At the beginning of the course, guide students to devote them to know that seeds of learning resources are existing around them in their daily life and to create visual images with the use of relevant free software such as MS-Live MovieMaker.

• Both at the beginning and throughout the course, just request students to try to question to themselves stimulating their own imaginations at every moment upon receiving information from communities and families; for What, When, Why, to Whom, for Whom, Where, and How to expand and integrate information into their experiences with the use of relevant free software such as Free Mind. Brainstorming among persons from different sectors will be also highly recommended.

Recommendations (cont’d)• Carry out the daily teaching-learning activities to compile and

publish with keeping mind about the key-words ‘to combine,’ ‘to integrate,’ ‘beyond,’ to step forward,’ ‘to expect synergy,’ ‘to challenge,’ ‘to innovate,’ taking for examples.

• Carry out research and development on ICT and its related education to publish its research results coping with contemporary education and technology issues such as learning in the affective domain, media literacy and learning process, in consideration about the future learning environment and culture.

• Collect and develop resource materials utilizing teachers’ and students’ curiosities with the use of simple media like digital camera, cellar phones for examples.

Recommendations (cont’d)

• Develop locally-dependent indexes for information retrieval of contemporary and future education contents in collaboration with specialists from several different areas like business sectors to make them standardized from the global point of view.

• More careful attention to the issues on intellectual property rights utilizing appropriate free software and cultivating logical thinking and writing skills, aiming at standardizing the course in Asia and the Pacific region.