TRANSVERSAL COMPETENCIES IN EDUCATION POLICIES AND PRACTICE Preparing and supporting teachers to meet challenges of 21st century learning in Asia- Pacific TRANSVERSAL COMPETENCIES IN EDUCATION POLICIES AND PRACTICE   Central Asian Workshop on ESD and GCED, Almaty, Kazakhstan, 27-29 September Lina Benete, Education Specialist, UNESCO Almaty

What are transversal competencies, and why are they important? Skills, competencies, values and attitudes also called ‘transferable’, ‘cross-curricular’ competencies or ‘non-academic’ and ’21st century’ skills Required for the holistic development of learners such as collaboration, self-discipline, resourcefulness, and respect for the environment. Meeting changing labour market skill demands. Supporting social and cultural development and life-long learning of young people within a knowledge society.

What is UNESCO doing? (i) critical and innovative thinking; Asia-Pacific Education Research Institutes Network (ERI-Net) at UNESCO Bangkok examined to what extent teachers feel prepared and supported to integrate these transversal competencies into their classroom practice: (i) critical and innovative thinking; (ii) inter-personal skills; (iii) intra-personal skills; (iv) global citizenship; (v) media and information literacy; (vi) other skills. The research was conducted across nine countries in the Asia-Pacific including: Australia, China (Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai), India, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Republic of Korea, Thailand and Vietnam in 2015-16.

What are the implications of transversal competencies for teaching and learning? Teachers need to: Understand and be able to illustrate Be able to integrate competencies across traditional academic curriculum and standalone subjects and/or extra-curricular activities Become ‘facilitators of knowledge’ instead of ‘transmitters of knowledge’ Equip students with the skills to be able to learn and inquire for themselves

How are teachers able to integrate transversal competencies into their practice and what challenges do they face? Teacher Preparedness Professional Development Systemic support at school- level

Teacher Preparedness Majority of teachers are moderately confident in their abilities to support the learning of transversal competencies Low confidence for some teachers (3% in Mongolia and 18% in Korea) due to many mandated learning frameworks and management/admin tasks Passion for teaching and communication - essential skills Reflective thinking – the most needed skill (Australia and China) Teachers are less equipped with critical thinking skills (India, Mongolia, Thailand and Vietnam)

Professional development Pre-service training: practicum - the most helpful, compared with course work and induction programs. In-service training: a few that specifically tackle transversal competencies Frequency of in-service training: at least once or twice a semester Helpful school-based training (e.g., exchanging ideas with colleagues, lesson study and peer coaching) Gaps: specific training, together with greater access to transversal competencies- enriched learning materials

Systemic Support at School level Transversal competencies implicitly or explicitly reflected in school plans Challenges in implementing plans: Lack of school budget (e.g., for teacher training and learning materials) No access to detailed guidelines, good practices and specific assessment frameworks to measure transversal competencies attainment School leadership’s role: from dominated school environment by traditional and exam-oriented academic subjects -> more inclusive of transversal competencies School leaders are generally supportive of professional development and teachers’ efforts to integrate transversal competencies into practice. Some difficulties: school leadership’s lack of understanding of what transversal competencies are and of the challenges faced by teachers in facilitating them, and limited quality supervision.

Systemic Support at School level (cont.) A challenge in re-balancing’ school environments: parents and students value academic success over non-traditional methods of learning such as transversal competencies. Student interest and parental support -> two of the most influential factors for enabling the effective teaching of transversal competencies in schools (China-Shanghai case study) At a systems level, significant effort is underway on the part of some education authorities to move from a focus on improving the quantity of in-service training towards improving its quality. A clear strategic commitment -> to establish a progressive vision of education, encompassing transversal competencies.

Policy recommendations Enhance school environments to better enable teachers to implement transversal competencies learning in their practice. Expand opportunities for teacher professional development in transversal competencies learning. 1. Improve the quality of pre-service training by ensuring that pedagogy is explicitly taught and assessed as part of practicum, course work and induction program training. 2. Create in-service training programs that provide initial and grounded support through: (i) fostering teacher understanding of what transversal competencies are and how teacher roles need to change to effectively implement them; (ii) supporting teachers to develop critical skills that are essential for transversal competencies teaching; (iii) providing relevant and good practice examples of how to teach transversal competencies. 1. Ensure there is sufficient budget at school level to support quality teacher’s professional development and specific teaching/learning materials on transversal competencies. 2.Provide professional development training to school leaders: (i) help them establish school environments that are conducive to transversal competencies learning; (ii) to build their knowledge and understanding of what transversal competencies are and of optimal ways they should be implemented. 3. Make school leaders accountable through professional performance appraisal processes for: i) establishing a school environment that is conducive to the teaching and learning of transversal competencies; (ii) for the quality of supervision that they provide to teachers.

Policy recommendations (cont.) Provide system-level support to better guide the integration of transversal competencies in schools. Build understanding and advocate the value of transversal competencies within school communities. 1. Prioritize a sufficient proportion of local education budgets to support the full integration of transversal competencies in all schools. 2. Conduct a curriculum review to create more synergy for the teaching of transversal competencies, and to more realistically balance teacher workloads. 3. Create curriculum guidelines to assist teachers to integrate transversal competencies into their practice, and to actively identify and disseminate good practice examples of competencies teaching and learning. 4. Develop an assessment framework, with advice from teachers and teacher education institutions, to ensure that learning against transversal competencies is meaningfully assessed. 1. Organize transversal competencies advocacy with local education officials, school administrators, school leaders, and teachers. 2. Equip school leaders with knowledge and understanding of transversal competencies and resources to effectively advocate their importance to parents and students. 3.Assist school leaders to conduct open discussions with parents about ‘re-balancing’ the school environment from one that is focused on the teaching of traditional academic subjects to one that is also inclusive of transversal competencies.

Thank you!