Eötvös Loránd University
Faculty of Education and Psychology Doctoral School of Education
Teaching and Learning Programme
Doctoral (Ph.D.) Dissertation Theses
Dóra Lévai
Educator competencies in the teaching-learning process within online learning environment
Date of submission of dissertation: 19 th December 2013
Budapest
Eötvös Loránd University
Faculty of Education and Psychology Doctoral School of Education
Teaching and Learning Programme
Doctoral (Ph.D.) Dissertation Theses
Dóra Lévai
Educator competencies in the teaching-learning process within online learning environment
Leader of the Doctoral School: dr. Éva Szabolcs, Professor Leader of the programme: dr. Ágnes Vámos, Professor
Supervisor: dr. János Ollé, Assistant Professor
Members of the committe
Chairman: dr. Mária Nádasi, Professor Emerita, ELTE PPK
Reviewers:
Internal reviewer: dr. Judit Szivák, Associate Professor, ELTE PPK External reviewer: dr. Sándor Forgó, Professor, EKTF
Secretary: dr. Lívia Borosán, Assistant Professor, ELTE PPK
Additional Members
dr. András Buda, Assistant Professor, DE BTK Turcsányiné dr. Márta Szabó, Associate Professor, ELTE IK
Kraiciné dr. Mária Szokoly, Collége Professor, ELTE PPK
Date of submission of dissertation: 19 th December 2013
Budapest
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Justification of the choice of subject and the structure of paper
In the information society the educator competencies and roles can be approached from many different ways. These ways give different interpretative frames. The present paper deals mainly with Pedagogy and from this we can approach towards the questions of educational IT, this way we can examine the role and the competence of the teacher in the processes of information Society and its educational methods.
Many new challenges appeared in our Society in the past decade and even more question were raised regarding the renewal of education, transformation of teaching profession, the competences of teachers and about the classifications of their methods (ISTE, 2000, Falus, 2005;
Falus, 2006, ISTE, 2008, Kotschy, 2011; Antalné Szabó et al, 2013).
The widespread use of electrical devices -changing our everyday life- and Information and communication technology (ICT) prompts teachers, scientist and education and information technology specialist, to change their mindset, initiate dialogues with eachother and start discussions. (Kárpáti and Hunya, 2009, Molnár, 2011; Kárpáti, 2011; Ollé, 2013a, Ollé et al. 2013a) In the first part of this dissertation I describe models, which are generally represent the teachers competences and role interpretations both in a national and international level (Falus, 2006; ISTE, 2000; ISTE 2008, OECD, TALIS 2009, Kotschy, 2011; Antalné Szabó et al. 2013). Later the
„digital citizenship” competence model, introduced internationally in 2011 (Ribble, 2011) will be explained; in this case, just like in the others with special focus on teaching activities.
Following international practice, but further considering many aspects of the model we have introduced the hungarian modell of digital citizenship as pioneers in Hungary, which can ensure a complex theoretical background defining the activities of the teachers of the 21st century.
After the thorough and detailed description of the models, we have designed and executed a large- scale empirical study derived from the national digital citizenship together with the Information Society Education and Research Group from the Eötvös Loránd University (Ollé et al. 2013)
The results of our study will be analyzed and interpreted and at the last section of the dissertation we draw conclusion in the light of the results and give guidance for the teachers of the information society.
Interpretations of teacher competence and teacher competency models
The interpretence of competence will be discussed in general first and later the exact
definitions will be narrowed down to special fields like pedagogy or the competency of teacher in
this dissertation.
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Following the definition of Quinn, stating that competency defines a certain knowledge or skill to fulfill a given role or execute a given task (Quinn et al. 1996). Through the explanation of national and international scientist (Coolahan, 1996, Nagy, 2007) we will finally arrive to the definition given by Iván Falus (Falus, 2006) recalling that „Competency is the system of such psychic formations, which encompass a persons knowledge, views, motives and practical skills this way ensuring effective performance.” In the further and detailed understanding of the psychic formations we invoke the so called „onion model” of Korthagen, which is saturated by the reflectivity and self-reflection, what appears as an unavoidable duty during teaching activities (Korthagen, 2004, Szivák, 2010).
After the discussion of teacher competence profiles the domestic and international teacher competency models will be introduced.
In addition to the multi-element models of competencies, those standards and indicators will be analyzed, which were the source of today's national teacher competency model (Baratz, Snowden 1994) and can be found in the regulation Ministry regarding the national teacher competencies (EMMI, 8/2013) .
One of the most significant of the international competency models considering the topic of the dissertation is the model about the educators from ISTE, through which one can observe how methodology become more and more important as a factor regarding the possible aid of technological perspectives.
In the ISTE model from 2000 in addition to openness to innovation skills of device usage become crucial and eight years later the importance of methodology has also appeared as an additional factor (ISTE 2000, ISTE, 2008).
The national competence model describing teaching activities (Pedagógus Életpályamodell 2013) contains eight competency areas, but does not contain ICT-competence or digital competence, although each indicators belonging to the competencies and each area prefer digital competencies of teachers.
We believe that in the 21st century the promotion of digital competence is extremely
important regarding teacher activities, but this entity does not need to be a separated, independent
pylon, but rather has to form a bridge amongst the different areas and connect them.
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The typologies of domestic and international learning environments
Learning models, in which the teachers of the 21st century could appear will also be analyzed and interpreted as part of the dissertation.
The study of P21 called 'Learning Environments of the 21st Century' (2009) defines the learning environment as the following: “Learning environment is a supportive environment where all the conditions are given for people to perform and study the best possible way. Such a system takes into account the individual characteristics of the students and supports the positive human relationships that are necessary for effective learning. "
The first national chapter of the new typology of learning environments was the taxonomy of Bertalan Komenczi (Komenczi, 2009). The author connected learning environments to lifelong learning and to situations permeating every aspect of our life.
The typology of learning environments in the 21st century is evolving just as quickly as the interpretation of different digital competencies or the definition of digital literacy. As the tools and options available are spreading further and further, the underlying concepts and contents behind definitions are changing as well. The following groups can be identified in the separating typology of learning environments based on János Ollé (Ollé, 2013).
1. contact education environment
2. contact activities supported by networks 3. on-line learning environments
4. virtual learning environments
5. blended/hybrid learning environments
In addition to the separating taxonomies the author created a complex, all-encompassing model, which in our opinion can be coherently linked to the XXI. century teaching and learning activities and also fits better to everyday life situations. (Ollé, 2013b)
Researchers at the University of Florida has defined a matrix between 2005 and 2006, which helps distinguish between various forms of activities based on learning activities and depending on the level of ICT usage.
The matrix contributes to the support of the teaching activities, it reveals on which level teacher can use ICT tools during their collaboration with the students (associating the indicators to student roles, teacher roles and learning environments). Although the researchers renewed and extended this matrix in 2012, we think that even the first version, published in 2005 can induce significant changes in teachers attitudes and approaches. When we are talking about digital learning, digital environment, usually the
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same concept and content lies beneath the surface of different terms: we usually speak about learning activities supported by digital media and / or online environments. Considering the different stages of learning processes and the subtasks regarding learning, digital tools can support and applied on different levels including preparations for lessons, communication, collaboration, innovation, evaluation, content sharing, reflection and recreational activities.
The skills of the 21st century and the concept of digital literacy
Defining the proper methodological basis is essential in connection with the use of digital devices, also the definition of digital literacy is necessary necessary.
We need to re-interpret the concept of digital literacy and knowledge in the information society, because of the raped rate of technological development and the increasingly frequent use of digital devices (Csapó, 2008; Koltay, 2010, Molnár, 2011, OECD, 2012). One has to admit that it is impossible to prosper or even get along in the information society without the critical and targeted use of digital literacy and ICT tools regarding the skills of the 21st century (Catts and Lau, 2008; Covello, 2010, Law, Lee and Yuen, 2010; Tyler, 2005). It clearly shows the importance of the concept of digital literacy that it can be found in all documents describing the key-competences of the 21st century (OECD, 2012;
UNESCO, 2008, UNESCO and Microsoft, 2011).
Recognition, acceptance, understanding and application of the competencies of digital literacy can constitute a part of the professional and everyday actives of a teacher, just like organizing student groups or designing pedagogical processes. The concept of digital literacy often overlaps with several related concepts (eg. information literacy, media literacy, computer literacy, digital literacy), but nowadays there are clear and specific characteristics for each conceptual category, helping us separating and indentifying the proper definitions (Tongori, 2012).
Steve Covello identified a number of sub-areas and classified information literacy, media literacy, communication literacy, visual literacy and technological literacy as parts of digital literacy (Covello, 2010).
We define digital literacy as the ability of using the skills of digital technology and knowing when and how to use this skill-set, based on the definitions of ISTE. According to this, the concept of digital literacy encapsulates how to learn and teach in the information society.
In May 2011, UNESCO published its policy called "Digital Literacy in Education ', which discuss the connection between learning, teaching and digital literacy in detail (Kárpáti, 2011).
The author of this directive lists digital literacy as one of the components of life skills, without which no one can prevail in the 21st century.
Digital literacy is essential for effective learning and teaching because it incorporates activities such as organizing, screening, evaluating, creating and transferring information.
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Nowadays digital literacy also requires innovation, creativity and openness from teachers, in supporting their students by new methodologies and tools, not only in the classrooms, but also outside the school walls as a supplement of classroom activities.
Models of digital citizenship
Issues about digital citizenship played a central role in the literature over the past couple of years (Ribble, 2009, Kárpáti, 2011, Thiemann, 2011; Ohler, 2012). Hungarian specialists and researches studying Information technology of education can be informed by the summarizing publication of János Ollé, which study summarizes the different approaches and interpretations of digital citizenship and presents the areas of the model developed by ISTE (Ollé, 2012).
In the model developed by ISTE one can find the following nine classes of digital citizenship following regarding the world of education (Ribble, 2011):
● digital access
● digital literacy
● digital communication
● digital obligation and responsibility
● digital etiquette
● digital security
● digital commerce, E-commerce
● digital rights
● digital health and well-being.
The model developed by ISTE is focusing mainly on the stakeholders of the educational environment. It analyses and describes the competences of students in details, however generally the digital citizenship concept is independent from age or role.
In this paper the digital citizenship concept is connected to the educational sciences and we do not want to synthesize the different concepts nor explain or interpret the group of concepts that describes digital citizenship as the services related to the e-government and digital administration.
The first group that researched the digital citizenship phenomenon (Ollé et al, 2013;
www.digitalisallampolgarsag.hu
) redefined the area of this competence group and by applying the Ribble-type classification (Ribble, 2011) they created three larger competence groups.1. Communications and device use 2. Activities and behaviour
3. Value creation and productivity
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The above mentioned areas typically interpreted in an environment that is extended by digital tools and online applications.
However the digital citizenship concept generally interprets the activities independently from roles and ages, we are analyzing in more details the roles connected to the educational scenes. In the hungarian model that describe the digital citizenship concept different sub-competencies are involved in the competences as presented below:
1. Communications and device use a. digital communication b. digital access
c. digital device use 2. Activity and Behavior
a. digital health b. digital self-display c. Digital coexistence
3. Value creation and productivity a. value creation
b. productivity c. time management d. content management
The different sub-competencies have been split into levels, which are representing the levels of the redefined and rethought Bloom taxonomy. (Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001). The original cognitive and the later developed affective areas can be also found in the rethought levels, where the levels are built on each other. Compared to national educator competence models, these levels describe in more details the measure of knowledge, ability and skill and involve potential measurability and upgradeability.
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Digital citizenship research, 2013Based on the national model of the digital citizenship the Digital Citizenship Research Group within the Information Society Education and Research Group of ELTE
Education and Psychology Faculty (
ELTE PPK ITOK DÁ, 2013) implemented a large-scale empirical investigation. In this investigation the competencies related to the theoretical model and the sub-competencies from the rethought Bloom taxonomy have been measured, analyzed and in the can be also developed.As part of the large-scale examination a questionnaire has been prepared for students, educators and non-educator adults. All three target groups received four compiled questionnaires with basically the same content, and differences appeared only in relation to the embeddedness in the situation related to the different roles and in wording. (For this paper we analyzed only the questionnaires for educators).
The first questionnaire from the ones for the educators was a background survey and contained not only demographic questions but also every-day work and activity related questions and sections about educator roles and competencies. The three other questionnaires contained questions in connection to the three large areas developed within the frame of the theoretical model of digital citizenship:
Teacher background survey (26 groups of question)
Digital communications and tool use (32 groups of questions)
Digital activity and behavior (44 groups of questions)
Digital value creation and productivity (50 groups of questions)
For the research online questionnaire packages have been used, which were available for the three target groups of the examination (educators, students and non-educator adults). The questionnaire was available for three weeks (19 September – 10 October 2013).
The test sample
Based on the residence of the teachers (N = 403), 39% of them live in cities, 22% in village, 20% of them in county seat, and 19% live in Budapest. These ratios in the sample are following the ratios of the Hungarian teachers from the different settlements. From the respondent teachers (N=403) 23% were male and 77% were female, which again approach closely the gender split of the population of Hungarian teachers.
As for the age the number of fresh graduate educators are low, the majority of the respondents is falling into the 45-49 years and into the 50-54 years categories.
The teachers could choose multiple options for the type of institute, so we got 488 answers from the respondents (N=403). Based on this, 53,1% of the respondents work in elementary schools, 25.1% in vocational schools, 17.9% in secondary school, 8.4% in technical schools, while the remaining respondents work in other types of organizations.
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The hypotheses based on the teachers' responsesBased on national models of the digital citizenship, as well as on the theoretical background of this paper the hypotheses have been formulated in the following topics:
Teacher competence
Teacher role
XXI. century skills, digital literacy, digital literacy
Digital devices use
Value creation and productivity
Learning environment
Digital Communication
In the following chapters we will summarize the hypotheses and the results.
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Educator competencies1. Hypothesis: Where groups are based on the number of teachers' taught years, the difference in the knowledge level of educator competencies (based on the 2013 Ministry regulation) is significant
among the groups.
In connection to the hypothesis the teachers have been split into groups based on the categories of the Educator Career Model. According to the statistical calculations (χ2-squared test) there is no significant difference in the frequency distribution of the number of mentioning the competencies from the ministry regulation in none of the competence areas (p>0,05), so we need to confute our hypothesis.
2. Hypothesis: Where groups are based on the type of documentation of educational processes, the difference in the characteristics related to the application level of time management activities is significant among the groups.
The documents related to the planning activities were the lesson plan, the thematic plan and the curriculum. There is no significant difference in the characteristics related to the application level of time management activities between the group with teachers preparing thematic plans and with the ones creating curriculum (p>0,05).
There is no significant difference in the characteristics related to the application level of time management activities within the group of teachers creating lesson plan with one exception. We do see significant difference in describing the level in connection to the following statement: “I keep my environment in order and clean, I know where can I find my things” (F=2,716; p=0,031).
As a result of the variance analysis we need to confute our hypothesis.
3. Hypothesis: There is strong positive correlation between the online community development activities (supporting the students) of the teachers and th their own participation in online communities.
Based on the statistical calculations we see that the teachers' participation in online communities - both for professional (rped_szakmai=0,580; p<0,000) and for their daily personal activities (rped_személyes=0,489; p<0,000), there is strong positive correlation with the activities related to the online community development supporting the students. This means that our hypothesis has been confirmed.
Apart from confirming the hypothesis we can also see from the correlation matrix that not only the
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teachers' participation in online communities shows strong positive correlation with the online community development for students but also the two types of activities within online communities (professional and personal) are in strong positive correlation with each other (r=0,746; p<0,000).
Educator role
4. Hypothesis: There is significant difference in the belief about the teaching related interactions of the educators depending on the educators' mindset regarding their activities within or beyond working hours.
From the results of the T-test we can see that there are only three cases where we see significant difference among the characteristics related to the educators' mindset, so our hypothesis is only partially confirmed. There is significant difference in the manifestation of leading and supporting role in connection with teaching among teachers perceiving themselves educator only during working hours and the rest (beyond working hours as well). (t= -2,426; p=0,016)
There is significant difference among teachers depending whether they are in educator role or not in the communication process between students and teachers outside the schools in the verbal statements (t=2,055; p=0,041).
Finally we also see significant difference among teachers depending they are moving apart from educator role in non-professional activities whether their verbal statements are connected to the educators or to the students (t=-2,007; p=0,045).
XXI. Century skills, digital competency, digital literacy
5. Hypothesis: Educators who do not teach language are utilizing the supporting opportunities of digital tools for learning-educating process less extent than the language teachers.
As for the possibilities of using digital tools, the language teachers scored higher in information and content sharing and in cost efficiency related tool usage than the ones who do not teach language.
Based on the results we need to confute our hypothesis. Among the listed factors there is no significant difference between language teachers and other teachers except one (p>0,05). As a result of the T-test it is important to note that there is significant difference in the extent of digital tool usage (“in the spirit of Life Long Learning, for holding the professional development at high level”) (p=0,007) and it is interesting that in this case the teachers teaching other than language scored higher in average.
Based on these we can say that among the potential motivations for using digital tools the Life Long Learning and the professional self-development are more important for teachers who do not teach
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language. While the language teachers scored higher in information and content sharing activities.
6. Hypothesis: Teachers who took part in digital competence development trainings typically do digital tool usage or communications competence realated activities more often.
We have to confute our hypothesis based on the statistical results. There is no significant difference in doing active (p=0,994) or passive (p=0,994) activities related to the communications and tool usage between teachers who participated in digital competence development training and the ones who did not.
Hypothesis 7: There can be detected considerable difference on the basis of the realisation methods of the improvement of specific skills between groups formed on the basis of the number of years a teacher has taught.
In connection with the hypothesis the teachers (N = 401) were divided into three groups according to the number of years taught: are new entrants, are located in the middle of their careers, or they experienced the teacher's entire career. We investigated the realisation method of four skills in connection with the hypothesis, and we tried to get answers to the following questions: What proportion are improved the written and oral communication skills, thinking and problem solving skills during the lession and outside the lession and which is the area in which the digital tools supported opportunities are used for a significant proportion by the teachers. We should disprove our hypothesis based on the analysis of the crosstabs related to the hypothesis, since no significant difference can be found for any of the areas between groups of teachers formed the basis the number of years taught (p > 0.05).
Digital devices use
Hypothesis 8: There can be detected significant differences based on the frequency of use of the
digital tools initiatived by the students between the groups formed on the basis of the number of
teachers teaching years
We should disprove the hypothesis, since there are no significant differences (p> 0.05) in the frequency of use of the digital tools initiatived by the students between the groups formed on the basis of the number of teachers teaching years.12
Value creation and productivityHypothesis 9: There can be detected significant difference in the frequency of the personal value creation activities supported by digital tools between the groups formed on the basis of the number of teachers teaching years.
On the basis of the groups formed on the basis of the number of teachers teaching years cannot be detected significant difference in any of the the partial statements related to the frequency of the personal value creation activities supported by digital tools (p>0,05), so the hypothesis may require us to disprove.
The partial responses and the related significance levels were as follows:
The contents created by me (photographs, texts, videos), which may be helpful to others, I share it with a wider or narrower target audience, (p = 0.917).
During my personal value creation activities supported by digital tools I try to set an example for others and try to create value in my work; (p = 0.569).
I correct the bugs and misspellings on the online co-edited sites (eg, online encyclopedias, manuals, technical texts); (p = 0.817).
Learning environments
Hypothesis 10: There can be shown significant difference between the non-information science and information science teachers in the view of to what extent they use the teaching supporting opportunities of the digital tools.
In connection with the hypothesis, a significant difference can be shown in our sample (N = 403) between the information science teachers (N = 85) and non-information science teachers (N = 318) related to any of the statements listed except only one, so our hypothesis was confirmed.
The information science teachers reached higher mean value (on the 1 to 6 scale) in the case of positively related statements associated to the learning support opportunities of the digital tools, while in the case of negative related statements associated to the learning support opportunities of the digital tools the reached lower average than the non-information science teachers.
Digital communication
Hypothesis 11: The teachers associate passive activities (eg. information retrieval) significantly
more frequently to the digital communication partial competence of the domestic digital citizenship,
than active action (such as content sharing , community forming)
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Based on the answer option related to the digital communication, we created two aggregate categories which describes the passive and active activities.
We've got interesting results based on the statistical procedures related to the hypothesis. There is no significant difference in the regularity of the passive activities related to the communication between the groups formed on the basis of the number of teachers teaching years (p = 0.820). However, in the regularity of the active activities related to communication shows a significant difference between groups formed on the basis of the number of teaching years (p = 0.05).
The hypothesis can be confirmed only partially by the results.
