Teaching staff in constant evolution: frameworks for teaching development

Teacher training and preparation are, today, a crucial part of universities’ strategies and an essential tool for ensuring the quality of teaching and the development of their educational model. Training systems that favour the professional development of teachers through continuous improvement in different facets of their work are key to maximizing their potential.

Identifying teacher training initiatives can greatly help to build teacher training projects, guiding their creation and informing decision-making while they are being formulated and implemented. eLinC Educational Trends and Innovation Observatory researcher, Desirée Gómez Cardosa, has produced a report (in Catalan) on the state of affairs, describing initiatives in universities and higher education institutions and identifying programmes, models, policies, action plans, and systems that create opportunities for teacher development. The report also examines accreditation programmes and systems for acknowledging learning by teaching staff.

Europe: home to initiatives and policies to maximize teachers’ potential

As a result of the Bologna process and the creation of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), the premise of work based on sustainable development has led to a rethinking of the strategies of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The aim is to now link research, teaching and learning and to provide the specialized skills students need in a changing socioeconomic framework driven by new technologies. In this context, mechanisms such as teaching frameworks for teachers and appropriate regulation to guarantee their certification, as well as possible financial support from individual governments or Europe, are of particular importance. Their purpose is to be certain that professionals responsible for teaching have this knowledge and ensure that students acquire it.

The European Commission has carried out various studies through differentworking groups and proposes strategies to combine policies that guarantee excellence in teaching development. The Transforming higher education: how we teach in the digital age (European Commission, 2020) project brought together representatives of public authorities and higher education institutions from 19 countries to establish a series of points of interest to combine policies effectively.They highlight the need for comprehensive national policy frameworks with a global higher education strategy that integrates excellence in teaching and learning, funding and other support, a mechanism for permanent dialogue between the government and institutions, the development of skills among teachers and institutional leaders, and a system for monitoring and assessing progress.

As part of the framework of the European Skills Agenda, the European Universities initiative of the Erasmus+ 2021-2027 programme and Horizon Europe, together with the European Competence Framework for Researchers, aims to make lifelong learning and the circulation of talent a reality.One of the projects is OpenEU, an initiative coordinated by the UOC.

There is now a favourable regulatory environment for professional teaching development frameworks for HEIs in Europe, with a thriving ecosystem that supports the implementation of digital identity initiatives, the recognition of credentials and electronic wallets, and which can accommodate projects for the acquisition of teaching skills. Europass, a free set of online tools for managing skills and planning your learning and your career in Europe, allows you to create a free profile that brings together all your skills, qualifications and experiences in one safe place online, responding to the rise of competency-based CVs and teaching, and reflecting the demand for professionals who can adapt to a changing market.

Europass infographic

The responsibility of higher education institutions

Universities are also responsible for the competency training of teaching staff and for creating training plans so they can offer the best and most up-to-date knowledge and learning methodologies to students, reinforcing the skills that both groups need for their work and personal lives. Aligning teacher development programmes and quality systems with a strategic vision of where the institution needs to go not only allows them to enhance career development and teacher satisfaction, but also to increase levels of engagement and the quality of students’ learning outcomes (Paricio Royo, 2018).

The ideal situation for teaching development begins with the HEIs’ action plans: the institution must draw up a clear strategy for introducing competencies and assessing and accrediting them that is in line with its strategic plan, that can be implemented throughout the institution, and that is applicable to different professional categories from new teaching staff to senior faculty. It is also essential to take the opinions and joint work of the teaching staff into account during the strategic creation of the development plan and its implementation. Strategies based on processes such as open innovation or bottom-up initiatives should also be considered, together with the time needed for the institution to implement its plans in a stable and effective form, and the costs involved, so that a sustainable strategy can be developed. It is also strategically important to ensure advances in teaching competencies are built into digital badges or certificates such as blockchain-based digital accreditation.

Reference development frameworks

The report reviewed different development frameworks at the European level, such as the Digital Competence Framework for Educators developed by the EU Science Hub, as well as initiatives like the EFFECT programme set up by the EUA. Regarding the relevance of the topic for quality agencies, the Professional Standards Framework established by Advance HE and the DOCENTIA programme set up by ANECA emphasize the importance of teaching staff development within quality assurance systems.

These initiatives offer key resources for the training and development of university teaching staff, including progression models and certification systems in digital and teaching skills that can be useful in HEIs for the development of their own models.

Example of a development framework: Professional Standards Framework

Examples

A second part of this analysis is based on monitoring different training practices in HEIs, corporations and government bodies, to understand how different organizations tackle the development of competencies and the acquisition of knowledge among their staff.

Aligning teacher development programmes and quality systems with the institution’s strategic vision can significantly improve teachers’ professional development, their satisfaction and the quality of student learning outcomes.

Many universities focus their programmes for teachers on new teaching staff who need to reinforce the foundations of their teaching. An example would be the Training Programme for New Teachers (FDES) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, designed to enhance the teaching skills of the university’s teaching staff, covering the planning of teaching and learning, the use of teaching resources and strategies, and the student assessment system, within the framework of the EHEA. Training allows participants to obtain credits, as with the Formación Docente programme at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, which offers courses to help teachers acquire useful skills and abilities to round out their teaching profile.

Universities that excel in innovation and quality often delegate responsibility for teacher training to their teaching and learning centres, reflecting a commitment to educational excellence, although in many cases these activities do not constitute a clear pathway for teachers’ career development. This type of initiative often takes the form of courses, webinars, attendance at presentations or peer-to-peer sessions, in which colleagues share good practices. The eLinC at the UOC has developed training programmes for teaching and research staff (License) and for affiliated teaching staff (Dive into the UOC) which are also based on accredited training in the development of online teaching. The CEDDIE at the Tecnológico de Monterrey contributes to teachers’ development throughout their careers through learning and mentoring experiences that strengthen their teaching and educational innovation skills, such as its CADi discipline-based refresher courses. The LET centre at ETH Zürich in Switzerland offers the Competence view resource, a collection of courses taught at ETH, created by the teaching staff themselves, where transferable skills are explicitly encouraged.

Conclusions

The Spanish and Catalan legislative framework stipulates that universities are responsible for guaranteeing initial and ongoing teacher training for their teaching staff and for establishing initial training and lifelong learning plans that ensure the professional development of their teaching and research staff. In view of our analysis, we would emphasize that it is crucial to focus on recycling, familiarization with new pedagogical approaches, and skills related to digitization and ICT, as well as critical thinking, the gender perspective, teamwork, problem-solving and resilience to adapt to the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ and the Sustainable Development Goals, in a constantly evolving socioeconomic and technological environment. The ongoing development of teachers’ competencies is essential for the quality of teaching and the improvement of learning, and the incorporation of the concepts of upskilling and reskilling is as necessary in HEIs as it is elsewhere in the labour market.

In the light of current academic literature, we would conclude that the creation of carefully thought-out and well-implemented professional development programmes can increase staff loyalty and satisfaction. The professional development of teachers directly influences student outcomes, and related reforms, school contexts, curricula, partnerships, and formal and informal support activities are an integral part of this process (Sancar et al., 2021).

References

European Commission. (2020). Transforming higher education: how we teach in the digital age. Available at: https://wikis.ec.europa.eu/display/EAC/ET+2020+Digital?preview=%2F44165766%2F80969904%2F2016-pla-digital-higher-education_en.pdf

Gómez Cardosa, D. (2023) Informe de situació. Avaluació competencial, acreditacions, microcredencials i ocupabilitat. eLinC, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10609/150791

Paricio Royo, J. (2018). Marco de desarrollo profesional del profesorado universitario. Planteamiento general y dimensiones. Zaragoza, Spain: REDU. Red Estatal de Docencia Universitaria. Available at: https://red-u.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/MarcoREDU_Doc1_PlanteamGral_1.pdf

Sancar, R., Atal, D., & Deryakulu, D. (2021). A new framework for teachers’ professional development. Teaching and Teacher Education, 101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2021.103305