FIFTH REGULAR MEETING OF THE OEA/Ser.W/XIII.6.5
INTER-AMERICAN COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION CIDI/CIE/doc.8/10
November 9-10, 2010 November 3, 2010
Guayaquil, Ecuador Original: Spanish
PROPOSED PROJECT PROFILE
PROJECT: “INTER-AMERICAN TEACHER EDUCATOR NETWORK (ITEN):
A COMMUNITY OF INNOVATIVE LEADERS IN EDUCATION”
(Document prepared by the Secretariat)
[Considered under point 3 of the Draft Agenda]
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PROPOSED PROJECT PROFILE
PROJECT: “INTER-AMERICAN TEACHER EDUCATOR NETWORK (ITEN):
A COMMUNITY OF INNOVATIVE LEADERS IN EDUCATION”
(Document prepared by the Secretariat)
[Considered under point 3 of the Draft Agenda]
Given the project’s strategic importance to the CIE Work Plan, support from the Ministers of Education, acceptance of teachers from the Americas in general, and the interest shown by strategic partners, the proposal to continue the ITEN is presented for consideration to the CIE.
/ GENERAL SECRETARIAT OF THE OASPROJECT EVALUATION COMMITTEE
PROJECT PROFILE
1 / Identification information
1.1 / Code
1.2 / Name of the project
Project “Inter-American Teacher Educator Network (ITEN): A Community of Innovative Leaders in Education”
1.3 / Beneficiary Country(ies)
All OAS member states (the budget specifies how the funds will be distributed)
1.4. / Estimated duration:
12 months (January 2011-December 2011)
1.5. / Estimated total (US $): 247,300
OAS / Contribution from other donors
US$113,300 - requested from the CIE
(CP RES. 831 or another source)
US$ 80,000 (in kind): / § CIDA: US$50,000.-(Up to June 2011. A new financing proposal will be prepared for the period from July 2011 to June 2012)
§ iEARN USA: US$ 2,000 (platform of online courses – in kind)
§ Fundación Evolución: US$ 2,000 (platform of online courses – in kind)
§ IESALC: Budget to be determined by close of 2010
§ ECLAC: Budget to be determine by close of 2010
§ Teachers Without Borders: an in-kind contribution in the form of articles and publications the costs of which have already been incurred (sunk cost)
§ PREAL: contribution in kind in the form of articles and publications the costs of which have already been incurred (sunk cost).
1.6. / Identification of external donor(s)
· UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC)
· Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)
· Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
1.7. / GS/OAS Coordinator/Executing Unit
Department of Education and Culture of the Executive Secretariat for Integral Development
1.8. / Name and post of the person responsible for preparing the profile
Adriana Vilela, Specialist in Education.
2 / Background, justification (include a brief description of the problem/situation that the project is seeking to correct).
Problem
Although the coverage of basic and secondary education has expanded considerably in Latin America and the Caribbean in recent years, the region is confronting a crisis in the quality of education, which will ultimately adversely affect the preparedness of millions of young people and thus their chances of finding a decent job and participating as active citizens in 21st-Century societies.
The quality of education–measured by what people know and what they can do–has a significant impact on their earnings and on economic growth.
Many studies, including a 2007 analysis by Hanushek and Wößmann, have found that the learning shortfall in the countries of the Americas is a far more serious problem than the shortfall in the number of students attending schools. There is growing evidence that “teacher quality has powerful impacts on student outcomes.”[1]/ However, in only five of the 29 countries of the Americas covered in a 2006 UNESCO study did the teachers have the minimum requirements to teach primary education.[2]/ To improve the caliber of teachers, it is vital that the initial teacher education they receive be strengthened.
Background
The project is based on the following events of the past:
1) An international seminar on the policies and practices in teacher education, which the OAS (SEDI/OEC) and the Ministry of Education of Trinidad and Tobago held in September 2006, titled “New Approaches to Policy and Practice for Teacher Educators in the Americas.” The seminar consisted of a week of dialogue, research and planning on the trends in teacher education. It also featured a discussion of the findings of a survey conducted among teacher educators in the Americas. One hundred participants, from 25 countries of the Americas, met to work on plans of action that could help to reform policies in the field of teacher education.
2) The four-year hemispheric project of the OAS-FEMCIDI (Special Multilateral Fund of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development): “Responses to the challenge of improving the quality of recruitment and selection, initial formation, professional development and evaluation of teachers in countries in the Hemisphere.” As a result of this project, two subregions (Central America and the Caribbean) have established the fundamental principles for the new models for teacher education.
3) A seminar in which education policymakers, teacher education institutions and teachers unions participated, held in Trinidad and Tobago in October 2008. During this seminar the results of the FEMCIDI project and the first seminar were shared with the OAS member states.
In 2009 and 2010, the project has achieved the following results:
A course titled “Teacher Training for the 21st Century” was created, consisting of 12 weeks of interactive online learning. The course was designed to demystify the use of ICTs (information and communications technologies) in teacher education. Through active discussions and practical activities, participants from various countries learn how to incorporate 21st-century collaborative teaching tools and skills. The English-language version of the course involved 78 participants from Guyana, Jamaica. St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, St. Lucia, The Bahamas, and St. Kitts and Nevis. The Spanish-language version involved 179 participants from Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Haiti, Brazil, and Paraguay.
After implementing the first edition of the course on “Teacher Training for the 21st Century”, an evaluation was done to identify possible ways to improve the course when held again. The purpose of the research was to determine which facts had been instrumental in making the project a success and what obstacles were encountered that made the course more difficult to implement. The evaluation suggested the need to determine whether the course had succeeded in improving the quality of education and determine whether the course helped to bring about changes in the participants about the basics of teaching and learning in the 21st century.
A strategy was devised and a plan developed to make the course on “Teaching Training for the 21st Century” financially sustainable in the future, which included an opinion from those surveyed on the formative evaluation (see point 2).
The online course for teacher educators was adapted so that it could be offered on the platform of the “Educational Portal of the Americas.” The portal brought to the project years of experience in online courses on a mass scale, opening up the possibility of expanding the reach of the course to include many more teacher educators in the Americas.
In order to create an ITEN concept paper, an online survey was put together and administered, targeting the potential users of this network. A total of 530 survey questionnaires were completed, compiled and analyzed, and produced suggestions for the network’s components, its content, sections, and so on.
The ITEN Web page was created and will be accommodated in the OAS, through the Department of Strategic Communication and Image.
In cooperation with the OAS’ Department of Information and Technology Services, the Telligent platform was acquired and adapted for the ITEN Virtual Community.
A project logo was created, as were descriptive brochures and promotional videos.
Justification of the Project
The present project is a continuation of the one approved by the Project Evaluation Committee under the nomenclature SID0622 and executed from 2006 to 2010. The project proposes to build on the achievements made thus far, in order to act on the urgent need within the region to deal with the topic of the quality of elementary- and secondary-school teacher education with a view to ensuring that the teachers and professors have the preparation they need to deliver an education that is effective and relevant to the 21st century. This is one of the priorities that came out of the Fifth Summit of the Americas and the VI Ministerial Meeting in 2009.
It has been suggested that an education relevant to the needs of the 21st century requires, in addition to the traditional courses, that students cultivate technological skills, innovative learning skills and life skills about cooperation and teamwork. As the world economy changes and new technologies are introduced, students must acquire critical skills that prepare them in such a way that they are able to meet the demands of the job market. Professors, too, need to receive proper training and support to develop and integrate these skills in the classroom. Specifically, an active, hands-on and innovative training that uses technology as a tool for communication and instruction may help to teach not just technical skills, but an appreciation of other educational innovations as well.
The goal of this project is (1) to increase the exchange of experience and technical cooperation among countries on issues related to the professional development of working teachers; (2) to develop knowledge, skills and positive attitudes toward educational technology among the teachers who participate in the online courses and other activities of the project; and (3) through these measures, to have a positive impact on the development of effective policies and practices that improve the caliber of professors and, in so doing, improve the quality of elementary and secondary education in the region.
Given this situation, the present project is an attempt to provide a way to improve the education that secondary- and elementary-school teachers receive, by training them in innovative practices such as using information and communications technology to create a horizontal cooperation network (the ITEN’s virtual space) and offer courses online to teach technological skills for innovative practices like collaborative online work in projects that focus on constructive methods.
3 / Specific mandate that the GS/OAS received to intervene in the search for answers to the problem/situation identified.
“The Member States will cooperate with one another to meet their educational needs, to promote scientific research, and to encourage technological progress for their integral development. They will consider themselves individually and jointly bound to preserve and enrich the cultural heritage of the American.”
Charter of the OAS, Article 48
“In order to achieve its various goals, especially in the specific area of technical cooperation, the Inter-American Council for Integral Development shall:
c) Promote, coordinate, and assign responsibility for the execution of development programs and projects to the subsidiary bodies and relevant organizations, on the basis of the priorities identified by the Member States, in areas such as:
2) Improvement and extension of education to cover all levels, promotion of scientific and technological research, through technical cooperation, and support for cultural activities”
Charter of the OAS, Article 95
“The General Assembly RESOLVES:
1. To reaffirm the determination of the member states, as reiterated in the Declaration and Plan of Action of the Fourth Summit of the Americas and embodied in resolution AG/RES. 2308 (XXXVII-O/07), adopted by the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) at its thirty-seventh regular session, to take measures and pursue specific programs to achieve full literacy of the Hemisphere’s populations and improve the quality of education at all levels, as well as to overcome diseases that represent obstacles to integral development..”
AG/RES. 2387 (XXXVIII-O/08)
“TAKING NOTE of the commitments of the Summits of the Americas, in which the Presidents and Heads of State of the Americas identified education as the linchpin of hemispheric progress and human development, which impacts the political, social, economic, and democratic life of our societies; and highlighting the positive contribution ICTs can make to addressing the needs of the region’s education systems;
RECALLING that the Ministers of Science and Technology, the Ministers of Education, and the Ministers of Labor of the Americas recognized, in the Declaration of Lima of November 2004, the Declaration of Scarborough and Commitments to Action of August 2005, and the Declaration of Mexico of September 2005, the fundamental role that ICTs play in implementing their respective agendas;
DECLARE
17. Their request to the Secretary General to continue, through the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI) and the Inter-American Committee on Education (CIE), to support measures to increase access to schooling and the quality of education at all levels–essential factors in increasing human productivity–particularly for the most vulnerable groups, as well as efforts to ensure that inter-American action programs and horizontal cooperation strategies strengthen the quality of teaching processes in formal education and continuing and adult education, retraining, and lifelong learning, including the use of new ICTs.”
AG/DEC. 46 (XXXVI-O/06)
“Education is the foundation of economic growth, social inclusion, and the development of a democratic and productive citizenry. While the countries of the Americas have made significant strides in enrolling more children and young people in school, progress has been slow in improving the quality of education and in reducing disparities in access and quality between more and less advantaged groups. In this context, and in light of the mandates and priorities established by the meetings of the Ministers of Education and the Inter-American Committee on Education, efforts will focus on the following actions:
· Supporting member states’ efforts to achieve and evaluate educational equity and quality at all levels of the education system, including through the development of regional education indicators and by sharing consolidated experiences to improve educational outcomes for the less advantaged and most vulnerable groups, including strategies to combat school dropout and grade repetition;
· Strengthening the effectiveness of the teaching profession in member states, promoting cooperation and sharing successful policies and practices that help educational systems prepare, develop, recruit, and certify high-quality teachers;