This paper presents the findings of a study carried out in the academic year 2014-2015 at the faculty of Education of the University of Murcia with first year degree students in Primary Education studying Research and ICT. The study started with the application of the DIGCOM questionnaire to analyze the digital competences of 134 students. The questionnaire served as an initial task to help students reflect on their digital competences. The subject was developed around tasks which adopted a transversal approach and used the nature of the contents itself to direct and improve students’ digital competencies. Finally, the initial questionnaire was reformulated and run in order to ascertain the students’ self-perception of their improvement in these competencies through the tasks they had performed. Below we present the tasks carried out, the organization of each subject and the most relevant data regarding the self-perception of digital competencies of the future primary school teachers enrolled at the University of Murcia. The data reveal, on the one hand, that the students participating consider themselves to be competent in the most basic aspects of digital competencies and, on the other, their perception that the work done in the subject has helped them quite a lot in improving their competencies.

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Evaluation and Development of Digital Competence in Future Primary School Teachers at the University of Murcia

Purpose




The quality of education depends upon the quality of teachers, i.e. professional competence. The purpose of this paper is to empirically identify the state of faculty’s quality in technical higher education institutions of Punjab (India) in terms of their competences. Later, differences in the quality of the faculty of both public (government funded) and private (partially or not funded by government) technical institutions were examined.




Design/methodology/approach




In total, 35 technical institutes were selected to conduct a field survey and total 594 respondents including teachers, students and administrators had responded to the present study from different departments of engineering and management. The state of faculty’s quality in terms of their competences has been examined through confirmatory factor analysis in AMOS 20.0. Discriminant analysis in SPSS 20.0 has been performed to find the differences in faculty of both the public and private sectors.




Findings




This paper provides a broader picture of the poor quality of teachers in technical institutions of Punjab (India) in terms of lacking most of the competencies. The study also reveals significant differences in the faculty of both public and private sector institutes in terms of select competences.




Originality/value




This paper demonstrates an alarming stage of poor-quality state of teachers. Therefore, educational administrators and policy makers need to show their concern for the improvement of teachers’ quality in technical higher education institutions of Punjab (India).

Quality of teachers in technical higher education institutions in India

This study aims to identify and classify various competences and competencies that educational leaders should essentially possess.,The systematic review of the literature was conducted to identify various competences of educational leaders in the institutions. Later, an empirical research was conducted. The data were analyzed through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using AMOS 20.0 to classify these competences according to their relative importance considering natural gaps in standardized beta (s) values. In all, 96 administrators of 35 technical institutions of Punjab (India) offering engineering and management programs and 93 veteran educational experts had responded in a survey.,The results of the study identified five competences: pedagogical, leadership, innovative, research and evaluation competences. The competencies “help others in improvement and not blame circumstances”, “set high benchmarks” and “align class activities with learning objectives” have qualified among the “most important” competencies for the educational leaders.,The sample was specific to one state. There may be the chances of response bias in a few situations. Therefore, there are few reservations in generalizing the findings.,The study has several implications for both the faculty and the technical education degree institutes. The study provides a link between the characteristics and competencies of educational leaders. This study also contributes in terms of mapping of these competencies while recruitment of the faculty to test whether the candidates possess the potential of becoming educational leaders.,The administrators can test these competencies in their faculty for the purpose of identifying both the educational leaders within their institutes and the potential educational leaders in future by assessing “requisite” and “important” competencies.

Competences Desired among Educational Leaders of Technical Education Degree Institutions.

Qualified teaching staff is a crucial condition for ensuring the quality of national education. In this regard, the training of competent teachers and the standardization of teacher education is the focus of educational policy in various countries. Basic elements of standardization of teachers’ professional education are professional standards of different levels and types. The aim of the study is to determine the conditions for the introduction of professional standards in teacher training in modern Russian university. The hypothesis of the study is that the effective conditions for the standardization of teacher education are: the relationship of Federal state educational standards with the professional standard of the teacher, with educational standards in the field of General education standards in all the diversity of their typology, quality standards, safety standards, etc.; scientifically grounded selection of educational material on the basis of its didactic significance taking into account psychological features of perception and preservation of educational information by students; compliance of educational technologies used in professional training of future teachers at the university with the concept of educational standards; focus on ensuring the quality of pedagogical education that meets the social requirements of modern teachers and ensure their readiness for continuous development. The experimental part of the study was implemented at the Mari State University (Mari El Republic, Russia). The data obtained during the experiment confirm the hypothesis of the study and show the importance of standardization of teacher training to ensure the quality of pedagogical education that meets the social requirements of modern teachers and provide their readiness for continuous development.

Standardization of teacher education in russia: from theory to practice

The article is devoted to the development of network forms of interuniversity cooperation that is one of the vital problems of higher education in Russia. The article describes theoretical basis for updating the elements (training modules) that already exist, as well as for developing methodological support and networking model of cooperation of partner universities. The necessity of using network forms in the activities of universities is emphasized in “Education Act of the Russian Federation” (dated 29.12.2012).  The current process of integration requires active and successful ways of network cooperation among universities in different fields (scientific, educational, and social). The algorithm description of the educational activities according to the implemented educational programs at the Departments of the partner universities  appear promising and relevant, and is able to  help activate the virtual academic mobility in accordance with the new objectives in education and new stages in the development of science.  The research is based on the cooperation of Mari State University and Ulyanovsk State Pedagogical University named after I.N. Ulyanov". The project presupposes the following: interdisciplinary, social and philosophical understanding of the phenomenon under study, the outcome of which will be clear theoretical and methodological foundations for analyzing and designing models of partnership networks with the participation of universities; optimization of activities in the social network, evaluating the effectiveness and predicting the results of partnership networking of universities. The partner universities stated in the project have the necessary facilities for carrying out educational process and scientific co-operation using on-line technologies as a way of implementing virtual academic mobility.

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Network form of interuniversity cooperation as a way of implementing virtual academic mobility

The aim of the article is to determine efficient educational technologies providing the formation of prospective teachers’ professional competencies during their practical training at school. In the conditions of implementing competence approach into the system of teacher training the issues of prospective teachers’ personality, their teaching skills, and the problem of undergraduates’ professional self-determination are of great importance. The article presents the results of the research where much attention is given to assessment of students’ professional activities and the criteria of this assessment. The research included comparing the results of the students’ self-evaluation and the experts’ evaluation of the students’ competence development level. Students’ practical training at school reveals some problems that can be eliminated by using competency-based methods and technologies. The process of students’ practical training at school presupposes proper planning of the activities, analyzing competencies formation, monitoring students’ learning achievements. The content of the article can be used by school teachers, moderators, university professors supervising students’ practical training at school.

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Technologies of Organizing Prospective Teachers' Practical Training on the Basis of Competence Approach

Augmented reality in the development of technological competence of primary schoolchildren

Contemporary conditions of the Russian school education require the teacher’s transition to the position of an active subject of professional and personal self-development. It is possible through accumulation and enrichment of personal experience of pedagogical activities. The article reveals theoretical questions and describes the examples of organization of future primary school teachers’ school practice based on the competence approach. During the practice, the future teacher not only acquires initial professional experience, but he develops personal and professional position, gets experience in solving pedagogical situations and problems. During school practice the student not only repeats and summarizes theoretical knowledge, but also develops his / her pedagogical thinking and creative abilities. The organization of school practice is individually-oriented; each student receives some tasks that he will deal with during the practice. Performing such tasks independently requires careful work with the literature, self-analyzing the activities, observations of pupils in class. The authors analyze the means that contribute to improving the effectiveness of students’ school practice: the use of interactive technologies, the introduction of assessment maps, the creation of a practice portfolio. The results of the studying the level of the 3rd year students’ professional competences are discussed. A new form of practice final exam, including 3 types of tasks of different complexity (reproductive, applied, developmental) is presented.

Developing professional competencies of future primary school teachers during school practice

The focus of modern primary school on personality development of schoolchildren involves the use of active technologies in professional training of future primary school teachers. Such students acquire their professional experience not only through classroom learning but during their field work at school as well. One of the main types of professional activities, which must be developed and improved at universities, is research training of students. The results of the diagnostics of young teachers’ readiness for professional activities have shown that the development of research skills should be started in the first years of their studies. More than half of the students indicated insufficient attention of university professors to analyzing pedagogical situations during lectures and practical classes, as well as predominance of traditional forms of teaching. The analysis of young teachers’ experience, carried out through the use of special diagnostics and research, makes it possible to reveal the difficulties faced by young specialists, determine efficient ways of overcoming them, identify ways for self-development, and work out an individual style of pedagogical activities. The analysis of Russian and foreign scientific literature and pedagogical experience has shown that one of the most important ways of developing research skills of students – future teachers is interactive learning technologies. Interaction between a professor and students, working in small groups, joint problem solving, modeling of pedagogical situations, as well as evaluation of mutual cooperation can successfully develop professional and research skills of future teachers. Dialogue-based training provides students with the opportunity to be critical of the conclusions, think over and solve problems based on the analysis of the information available, discuss alternate views of colleagues, Proceedings of SOCIOINT 20174th International Conference on Education, Social Sciences and Humanities 10-12 July 2017Dubai, UAE ISBN: 978-605-82433-1-6 725 make thoughtful decisions, and participate in discussions. The use of interactive technologies in the educational process at university will allow a future teacher to master the content of professional activities in connection with their practical application; as well as develop a new experience of professional interaction with practitioners in this field.

Elena V. Maltseva

Papers

Technologies of Organizing Prospective Teachers' Practical Training on the Basis of Competence Approach

Augmented reality in the development of technological competence of primary schoolchildren

Developing professional competencies of future primary school teachers during school practice

Research skills development of the future primary school teachers in the framework of interactive learning