This post continues my effort to examine guidance offered should teacher training and professional development efforts focus more specifically on preparing educators to teach online. An observation I made when reviewing the National Standards for Quality Online Teaching was that those responsible for developing these standards emphasized the individualization of instruction to include what I would describe as “mastery learning” concepts such as competency-based progress in a way not apparent in standards more typically used to guide the preparation of future teachers to use technology (e.g., ISTE Standards). The blended learning competencies make similar goals very apparent.
Blended Learning Teacher Competency Framework
As I have continued my search for guidance in this area I have discovered the iNACOL Blended Learning Teacher Competency Framework (note iNACOL is now the Aurora Institute) which offers a similar, but more general perspective. Their use of the description “blended learning” does not assume all instruction will occur online, but does assume a similar focus on differentiated and personalized instruction which they contrast with “time-based” approaches to instruction. Again, the expectation of an instructional approach that is differentiated and personalized emphasizes different capabilities of technology as core in the development of teaching thinking and skills.
The organization responsible for authoring this guidance explain their preference for educator “competencies” in contrast to standards to expand needed teacher characteristics to include habits of mind and I would say values rather than limiting their guidance to what I would describe as knowledge and skills. They identify four areas – mindsets, qualities, adaptive skills, and technical skills – as competencies. The technical skills category is most similar to what I see as most similar to what I have described as standards and what for the sake of brevity I will emphasize here. The document I reference does offer details on these other areas and how they might be developed. I found the effort to explain competency development to be very interesting with a greater emphasis on modeling, coaching, and reflection for the areas other than “technical skills”. The full document is well worth a thorough examination.
Technical Skills
Competency – Data Practices
Standard A: Use qualitative and quantitative data to understand individual skills, gaps, interests, and use this information to personalize learner experiences.
Standard B: Continually assess student progress toward specific goals to identify when individual students need additional support.
Standard C: Use data from multiple sources including data systems to inform individual instruction and grouping.
Standard D: Help students consider their own data to promote independence.
Standard E: Evaluate instructional strategies to determine effectiveness.
Competency – Instructional Strategies
Standard A: Provide resources to enable independent and group work.
Standard B: Provide resources to generate evidence of skill and knowledge.
Standard C&D: With students, create customized learning pathways linking goals and experiences.
Standard E: Create learning experiences that promote content-area relevant problem solving and collaboration.
Standard F: Develop valid assessments, projects, and assignments that meet standards criteria and allow evaluation of the mastery of learning goals.
Competency – Management of Learning Experiences
Standard A: Manage face-to-face and online components of lesson planning
Standard B: Provide student opportunities for asynchronous and synchronous interaction
Standard C: Develop, model, and practice respective behaviors
Standard D: Demonstrate and model technology troubleshooting
Competency – Instructional Tools
Standard A: Use learning management systems and collaboration tools to organize learning environment
Standard B: Demonstrate skill in the selection and use of instructional materials, tools, and strategies and engage students in such processes.
Standard C: Provide assistive technologies
I have shortened and interpreted these standards for the sake of brevity. For serious consideration, please refer to the original document.
The authors include a section of this document to expand and explain the standards associated with each competency. A snippet of this section is included here to give an idea of what the authors have made available.
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