Curriculum development as a tool for professional development

This study investigates teacher participation in national curriculum development in Myanmar. The purpose of this study is to explore teacher learning and reflection during the process of curriculum development through collaboration and communication. A qualitative research method has been applied in this study. Six participants participated in the study through individual interviews. The participants include six school teachers from Basic Education High Schools, specifically, two curriculum developers, two teachers who delivered the subject content of the new curriculum to their colleagues and two school teachers who were trainees for the content. The results showed that teachers experienced significant development in their professional knowledge, especially in their understanding and connection to the subject matter content across different grades and pedagogical content knowledge when they learnt from their colleagues. Moreover, the results also highlighted improvement in their reflective thinking and analytical skills. Because of the challenging tasks during the curriculum development process, teachers became more motivated in their teaching and learning which led to enhance their work performance.

Beliefs and Attitudes that Influence Learning

Mind, Brain, and Education (MBE) is a transdisciplinary area that joins neuroscience, psychology, and education to inform teaching practice and educational policy with research that can be translated into applicable and reflective tenets and principles of how students learn more effectively. It is well established in the MBE literature that what leads students to success are not only cognitive abilities but also beliefs and attitudes towards learning, which forms a complex and multifaceted universe with different levels of influence. This study has conducted a literature review on the contributions of MBE concerning these beliefs and attitudes and attempted to summarize them into a useful guide that might help students reflect on their academic achievement throughout life. Four essential elements were analysed and discussed, namely: growth mindset, metacognition, self-efficacy, and neuroplasticity. It is argued that these concepts are of paramount importance to anyone who wishes to accomplish both academic and career goals and they are aligned with the notion of lifelong learning.

Generic Skills, Academic Achievement, and Means of Improving the Former

In Canada, in general – and in the Province of Ontario in particular – academics, employers, and government agencies are concerned with the low generic skill levels of university students and graduates. The assumption is that such deficiencies detract from academic and job success. Despite this concern, in Canada, research has not focused on potential links between objectively measured generic skills and grades recorded in administrative records. In view of this lacuna, the current research has two objectives. First, to assess the net effect of objectively measured generic skills on academic achievement as recorded in administrative records. Second, to determine the efficacy of an online course dedicated to the development of generic skills. Overall, I found that generic skills were better predictors of students’ achievement than high school grades used in admission processes; the relationship between high school grades and generic skill levels was weak; students’ generic skill levels did not improve over time; and an online course devoted to increasing students’ generic skills was effective in boosting skills to an acceptable level. Accordingly, if they are concerned with academic achievement, universities in Ontario and in other jurisdictions in which students are admitted to university primarily based on their secondary school grades might make the development of generic skills a priority; however, unless such skills are demanded across the curriculum, they will atrophy.

Investigating 21st Century Skills Level among Youth

Twenty-first century skills are a set of capabilities and competencies that students need to cultivate and develop to succeed in the age of information and technology. The success and growth of today's youth in the labour market and the knowledge economy depend on the level of 21st century skills they possess. Hence the key objective of this study was to answer the questions: to what extent do the youth possess 21st century skills? Is there a difference between levels of 21st century skills on account of various demographic variables? The researchers used the descriptive survey method and selected 160 college students randomly from various higher education institutions of Kerala, the southern part of India, for the study. The significant findings of this study revealed that 15.6% have a Low level, 68.1% have an Average level, 16.3% have a high level of 21st-century skills. No significant difference exists between males and females and stream of subjects of college students with respect to the level of 21st century skills, but there is a substantial difference between the youth who belong to the urban and rural locality.

Teaching Digitally-Ready Soft Skills for Employability

The coronavirus pandemic triggered an abrupt change to emergency e-teaching and has accelerated the adoption of digital teaching practices in higher education. This transition from in-person instruction to online-only teaching took place globally and disrupted the conventional lecture format. While the catalyst, namely COVID, was the same throughout the world, a growing body of research confirms that instructors across the educational spectrum are experimenting with, and implementing, a plethora of methodologies based on their digital abilities and experiences. This paper will critically analyse several online-based methodologies and digital tools developed and introduced at the University of Europe for Applied Sciences within an undergraduate module called Employability. The authors will use the six areas of the European Commission’s DigCompEdu framework as a reference to analyse and summarise digital tool implementations and enhance students' digital collaboration skills, online experience, and learning outcomes. The methodological focus is on teaching soft digital skills for employability, namely, digital communication, problem-solving, collaboration skills, as well as, digital content creation and media literacy in tandem with the main content of the course. Possible issues when teaching the Employability module in post-COVID offline or hybrid classrooms will be discussed, particularly with regards to ensuring that teaching formats are fit-for-purpose in increasingly digital, and remote, work environments.

Wellbeing and Engagement in Hybrid Work Environments

This paper explores how working from home has impacted leaders and the workforce in corporate environments during the pandemic, how these experiences might influence the workplace of the future, and what role coaching could play to foster skill development in the 21st century workplace. Before the pandemic, plenty of research had already been done on what factors influence well-being and engagement in the workplace. Models explaining the elements of well-being and engagement, as well as, tools to measure their existence or the lack of have been reviewed, tested, and validated. We know little at this point about what combinations of factors caused the decline in well-being and engagement during the pandemic, and what skills in leaders, or requirements for the workplace would be necessary to hone and implement, to improve the situation of well-being and engagement in future work environments. This paper explores how coaching could support leaders in the 21st century workplace. The business world is facing challenges while moving into post-pandemic workplace scenarios. The plurality of interests increases the complexity of the topic. The literature on well-being and engagement has been reviewed. Data that was collected during the pandemic by different organisations and conclusions drawn from these were compared with what the literature says and it was combined with experiences the author made in the field while coaching leaders and their teams in corporate environments during the pandemic. This paper concludes with a recommendation on how to enhance coaching skills among leaders and to build their knowledge and literacy in the field of coaching, to result in positive effects on workplace well-being and engagement in contemporary work environments.

The Development of Competencies for Employability Digital Competencies

The term called Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is an umbrella-concept, which encompasses several elements from the latest technological trends influencing the human workforce and education. But the questions arise: Does the industry 4.0 concept itself change workforce competencies? What is the impact on education? Thus far, only the technological aspects have been investigated thoroughly, despite their well-known, and strong, influence on the economy and society. This study addresses the interactions, dependencies, and correlations between certain areas of social existence, as expectations change regarding human competencies and their continued role in economic sectors and technological innovation. The role of the human factor within society is unquestionable as we start to understand why industrial revolutions have appeared. Fundamentally, it is always human concerns that stimulate change and it is human/social aspects that are heavily influenced by the same changes. As the I4.0 concept has an influence not just on how products are manufactured but also on the practices of consuming “products”, governments, research institutes, education systems, and organisations all have a crucial role to play in managing the massive wave of change. We believe that the concept should be more deeply analysed and understood, as it might give rise to a new complex terminology for techno-social change, which eventually would feed into achieving economic goals more efficiently.

Can a Skill be Measured or Assessed?

This paper reviews historic and current definitions of skill as a concept, as well as frameworks that have been applied to analyse levels of skills development across the academic and professional spectrum. The author proposes a 6-level chart of skill development based on the “can-do descriptors” approach by CEFR, also known as the ability assessment approach, for further discussion, development, and application. The proposed chart is based on six levels. These are organized into two Entry levels, two Operational Use levels and two Strategic Vision levels. Further debate on the typology of skills by Deloitte, LinkedIn Research and World Economic Forum is presented as of 2020 documentation. Its dynamic manner of paradigms changing the importance of a wide array of skills (alternatively denominated as employability skills, soft skills and/or 21st Century skills) are analysed, both for educators and employers.

School-university Partnerships in Teacher Education

Myanmar, a country of developing status, is facing many challenges in reforming its education system. This article investigates the current practices of school-university partnerships from the perspective of student teachers and mentor teachers in Myanmar, where there is an ongoing process of teacher education reform. The aim of this article is to investigate the practices of school-university partnerships and the tension between partners in the training of pre-service teachers within the context of teacher education. A qualitative research method is applied in this study where six candidates were interviewed individually. Participants include three student teachers from educational universities and three mentor teachers from basic education high schools in Myanmar. The results showed that, except for student teachers’ practice teaching, there is no intensive collaboration between schools and universities. Trust is a major problem between student teachers and mentor teachers. Different opinions and perspectives towards teaching and learning are also causing tension between partners. Although there is tension between mentor teachers and student teachers, they handle this through alternative collaboration activities and negotiation between partners.