News

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has published a reflection on gaps and asymmetries in teachers’ training in information and communication technologies (ICT) across OECD countries, as well as changes to class composition and curricula brought by migration. The report argues that investing in teachers’ training and integrating global issues in curricula will be essential to ensure quality education for youth, to equip them with the skills they will need to adapt to the fast-changing, globalized job market.

The report is based on the third edition of the OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), which aims to help strengthen the knowledge and skills of the teaching workforce and to support its professionalism. The third edition of the TALIS features insights from 260,000 teachers and school leaders at 15,000 primary, lower and upper-secondary schools from 48 OECD countries and economies. The survey analyzed professionalism by exploring five pillars: the knowledge and skills required to teach; the perceived prestige of the profession; career opportunities; the collaborative culture among teachers; and the level of professional responsibility and autonomy of teachers and school leaders.

Just over half of teachers across OECD countries received training in the use of ICT for teaching as part of their formal education or training.

The publication, titled ‘Teachers and School Leaders as Lifelong Learners’, focuses on the knowledge and skills required to teach. The report notes that just over half of teachers (56 percent) across OECD countries received training in the use of ICT for teaching as part of their formal education or training, and less than half of teachers felt well prepared when they joined the profession. ICT training is lowest in Sweden (37 percent) and Spain (38 percent) and highest in Chile (77 percent) and Mexico (77 percent). About 18 percent of teachers across the OECD express a high need for professional development in ICT skills for teaching. However, the vast majority of teachers and school leaders who participated in the survey said that their schools are open to innovative practices and have the capacity to adopt them.

The report also found that migration flows have changed the makeup of classrooms. Almost one-third of teachers in OECD countries work in schools where refugees make up at least one percent of the student population, and 17 percent of teachers work in schools where at least 10 percent of students have a migrant background. The majority of school leaders (95 percent) report that their teachers believe that children and young people should learn about commonalities among people of different cultures and state that they teach their students how to deal with ethnic and cultural discrimination. In addition, 80 percent of teachers report working in schools that have integrated global issues throughout the curriculum. [OECD Press Release][Report Summary]

URL:

http://sdg.iisd.org/news/oecd-publication-analyzes-teachers-knowledge-and-skills-observes-increased-focus-on-global-issues/