Teaching Competency Development

Abstract

Higher education's overall educational quality depends on effective teaching competencies. Teaching competencies are more than just knowledge and skills; they involve capabilities to meet complex demands by drawing on and mobilizing psychological resources in a particular.

Higher education's overall educational quality depends on effective teaching competencies. Teaching competencies are more than just knowledge and skills; they involve capabilities to meet complex demands by drawing on and mobilizing psychological resources in a particular context (Nessipbayeva 2012). Therefore, systematic planning and actions are required to develop teachers’ teaching competencies.

This chapter first proposes a framework of teaching competency development in higher education (Sect. 4.1) and then discusses how to develop teaching competencies at an international level (Sect. 4.2), governmental level (Sect. 4.3), societal level (Sect. 4.4), institutional level (Sect. 4.5), and individual level (Sect. 4.6).

4.1 Framework of Teaching Competency Development

Teaching competency development in higher education is a complex systematic project that not only involves the overall development of higher education and teacher development policies in the countries, but also includes expectations of and investment on teaching development, commitment to teachers, and teachers’ intrinsic motivation. The framework of teaching competency development includes action goals, action subjects, action object, action content, action method, and action evaluation (see Fig. 4.1).

Fig. 4.1

Framework of teaching competency development

Action Goals. The demand for developing teaching competencies includes teachers’ desire, higher education institutions’ needs for innovative teaching, and society's expectations for the quality of higher education. Therefore, the development should consider three action goals: (1) providing quality education and cultivating talents based on society’s needs, (2) developing quality courses and implementing teaching plans to enhance teaching competencies, and (3) the self-development of teachers in universities.

Action Subject. The subject in developing teaching competencies include international organizations, government education authorities, higher education institutions, social organizations, and individual teachers. International organizations are primarily responsible for initiating measures to develop teaching competencies in higher education and launching international cooperation projects. The government is responsible for developing standards and norms, creating policies and processes, allocating finances, and conducting quality assessments. Colleges and universities implement development actions including establishing organizations, formulating rules and regulations, managing funds and human resources, and developing competency improvement projects. Social organizations such as foundations, societies, and private institutions mainly provide support in terms of funds, organizational implementation, resources, and platform construction.

Action Object. Teachers are not the only goals and main body of the action of improving teaching competencies but also the object. Teachers at different stages have different status quo and development characteristics, and the content, methods, and evaluation of their teaching competency development are different. Although studies do not always agree on how to divide its stages, teaching competency development in higher education is commonly classified into pre-service and in-service stages. Newly hired teachers are objects during the in-service stage. The actions to develop teaching competencies in the pre-service stage mainly involve courses, internships, and seminars for pre-service teachers who are still at universities.

Action Content. The content construction of teaching competency development was guided by the standards framework and teaching competency standards at the national, regional, and university levels provided in Chap. 3. The content includes professional value recognition, the required teaching knowledge and skills, and the core competencies of teaching practice. The development process consists of three stages: application, deepening, and innovation. The application stage mainly aims at pre-service teacher training and new entry-stage teachers by developing teachers’ essential teaching competencies. The deepening stage primarily concentrates on teachers’ post-service professional growth process, improving the teaching ability development of in-service teachers, providing them with necessary knowledge and skills, and promoting the gradual formation of teachers’ professional abilities suitable for professional development. Finally, the innovation stage is oriented toward the target needs of teachers’ excellent teaching and provides teaching paths and methods for teachers to innovate teaching practice and cultivate future learners.

Action Method. To ensure the effect of enhancing the teaching competencies of teachers in higher education, educational institutions, and higher education authorities need to issue relevant policies and measures to support the activities of teaching competency development. They must also establish standards and norms to guide the progress of teaching competency development and evaluate the effectiveness.

Teaching competency development in higher education includes the domain knowledge and skills and applying and reflecting relevant knowledge and skills in teaching practice. With the differences among action subject and the development stages, various formats for teaching competency development are used such as consultation and guidance, course lectures, workshops, seminars, support services (resources, technology), teaching awards, teaching evaluation, and teaching funding. Panels to discuss specific topics in a field are options. Workshops to introduce teaching methods and educational technology training to teachers can be used, especially for new teachers and teaching assistants.

Universities should consider the technological tools and resources required in training and applications in teaching practice to promote teaching competency development in higher education. In the digital environment, stakeholders should also consider building training websites to provide digital resources, training lectures, pedagogical books and literature, educational technology software, and training courses.

Action Evaluation. Teaching competency improvement includes evaluating the quality of action. The quality evaluation includes developing evaluation standards, determining evaluation methods, and organizing evaluation. External, internal, peer, and self-evaluation are classifications of evaluation methods into. Please refer to Part III of this handbook for evaluation criteria, methods, and tools.

External Evaluation. External evaluation is to evaluate the effectiveness of the teaching competency development program by institutions outside the main body of action. Generally, external evaluation assesses the improvement actions implemented by the main body such as international organizations, social organizations, and universities. Certification, award, qualifying examinations, and project closing are some of the most used formats for evaluation. A third-party evaluation agency or an educational authority conducts the assessment.

Internal Evaluation. Internal evaluation aims to improve action whose implementation subject is organizational type. The implementation subject and the evaluation subject are both from the same organization. For example, colleges and universities organize training programs to improve teaching competencies and evaluate teachers after the program. Evaluation can use measuring scales and feedback from experts.

Peer Review. Peer review is highly versatile for various improvement actions, especially teaching and research. Usually, teachers from the same subject or field observe each other's education and provide feedback.

Self-evaluation. Self-reflection and evaluation are necessary for teaching competency development. Self-evaluation is informal and uses informal structures such as scales, tests, and questionnaires.

The Kirkpatrick Model includes four levels of evaluation of reaction, learning, behavior, and result. The four evaluation levels evaluate the implementation difficulties from easy to complex and low to high cost. The most commonly used level is the reaction evaluation, and the most practical level is the result evaluation. The importance of teaching competency development determines whether to evaluate and which evaluation levels.

Kirkpatrick Model

Kirkpatrick Model was first proposed by Professor Donald L. Kirkpatrick at Wisconsin University in 1959. It is the most widely used training evaluation tool globally today. It mainly includes four levels of evaluation:

Level 1—Reaction, which evaluates the satisfaction of the trainee. It mainly includes the response to the design of learning content, response to the learning content and quality, answer to the organization of learning activities, and whether the knowledge and skills learned can be used in future work.

Level 2—Learning, which measures the learning acquisition process of the trainee. This level involves whether teachers have improved or changed their knowledge, skills, and attitudes at the end of their learning.

Level 3—Behavior, which examines the degree of knowledge application of the trainee. This level involves whether teachers have improved their behaviors at the end of the learning.

Level 4—Result, which calculates the economic benefits created by training. It helps understand the effect of changes in educational organizations and systems brought about by learning from the enormous scope of the teacher's department, university, region, country, and more.

(https://www.kirkpatrickpartners.com/the-kirkpatrick-model/)

4.2 Teaching Competency Development at International Level

International organizations have taken many actions to develop teaching competencies in the global higher education. Some nations’ education authorities and social institutions have established several international cooperation programs to develop teaching competencies. Regarding how to carry out international cooperation in enhancing the teaching competencies in higher education, this handbook suggests the actions from the following dimensions (see Table 4.1).

Table 4.1 Dimensions of international cooperation actions to develop teaching competencies

4.2.1 Teaching Competency Development in UNESCO

UNESCO has proposed a variety of teacher development suggestions and plans, established specific organizations, and guided and participated in establishing regional teacher professional development policies.

Teacher Development Initiatives and Advice. Both ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers (1966) and UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel (1997) emphasized the importance of teaching competency development. They included specific recommendations for teaching competency development (International Labor Organization, 2008). First, the improvement of education depends largely on the qualifications and competencies of all teachers and individual teachers’ pedagogical and technical abilities. Second, teaching is a profession and a form of public service that requires teachers to acquire and maintain professional knowledge and skills through rigorous and continuous learning. Third, when considering the educational policy and purpose, allowing collaborative, systematic, and constant research and effort in teachers’ preparation and in-service training is essential such as developing joint projects and exchanging research results at the international level. Fourth, teachers’ professional practice should provide students with sufficient grants or financial assistance for their studies, and the competent authorities should establish a possible teacher training institution system. Fifth, students and others interested in teaching should always access information on teacher preparation opportunities, grants, or financial aid.

Governments and teachers should recognize the value of in-service education and ensure that the quality and content of education and teaching techniques are systematically improved. Teacher training goals should develop each student's general education and unique culture, lead toward teaching and educating others, be to understand the fundamental principles of good interpersonal interactions, and ensure a sense of responsibility to contribute to the social, cultural, and economic growth through teaching practice. Teacher training programs should include: (a) general research; (b) research on educational philosophy, psychology, sociology, educational theory and history, comparative education, experimental pedagogy, school management, and pedagogies for various subjects; (c) research related to the subject teaching area; and (d) the teaching practice and extracurricular activities under the supervision of competent teachers. In-service continuous education should consider different aspects that can lead to success. First, governments must collaborate with teachers to develop a free comprehensive in-service education system for all teachers. The system provides a variety of arrangements and allows the participation of teacher training institutions, scientific and cultural institutions, and teachers’ organizations. Second, the need to structure a curriculum that enables teachers to enhance their qualifications allows growth. Teachers can change or expand their working scope to advance in their careers and stay current on the latest innovations in their topic and field of education in terms of content and approach. Supplying books and other materials to teachers can help in professional development. Teachers should also have opportunities and incentives to participate in courses and use facilities.

Further, schools should make efforts to ensure that teachers have opportunities to apply research findings to the subject and teaching methods. Encouraging and supporting teachers, as a group or as individuals, to receive education both in and abroad to facilitate professional growth. Finally, developing and complementing financial and technical cooperation on an international or regional basis could expand professional opportunities.

Teacher Development Organization. UNESCO has formed several organizations to help teachers enhance teaching competencies. UNESCO established the Teacher Education Center (UNESCO TEC) in Shanghai in 2015. UNESCO TEC strives to encourage the development of teacher education worldwide, focusing on developing countries such as Asia–Pacific and Africa to improve teacher quality and education quality. With the support of UNESCO, TEC is devoted to becoming a global service provider, standard setter, and research and resource management center in the field of teacher education. TEC would have four essential functions of knowledge production, capacity building, technical service, and information sharing.

Teacher Development Policy and Standards. The UNESCO Regional Directorate for Education for Latin America and the Caribbean (OREALC/UNESCO Santiago) implements the Regional Strategy for Teacher Policy. It aims to facilitate the development of professional policies for teachers in Latin American and Caribbean countries through generating and disseminating expertise. The Centre for Research supports this strategy in Educational Policy and Practice (CEPE) of the Catholic University of Chile (UNESCO, 2015). The UNESCO Joint Committee recommends that the ILO Governing Body and the UNESCO Executive Board encourage member states to make ICT competencies a core component of the teaching profession and at all teachers’ levels. It suggests integrating ICT into all aspects of professional activities such as teaching, research, planning activities, administration, relationships with students, colleagues, parents, and other partners, and school management. Member States should also include ICT pedagogies into their pre-service and in-service teacher education programs. The Joint Committee recommends that the ILO Governing Body and the Executive Board of UNESCO encourage ILO, UNESCO, Member States, higher education institutions, and other relevant organizations to organize events and joint regional workshops, seminars, and symposia. They will follow the 2008 Convention to reach a consensus, share experiences, and provide advice. Maintaining higher education teaching specialization, from onboarding to lifelong professional development, requires higher education teaching staff to develop new teaching skills that emphasize improving instruction for junior higher education teaching staff. It advises the Member States to promote a culture of quality teaching in higher education by developing teaching skills for higher education teaching staff and college students to prepare for careers in higher education through courses, workshops, and teaching/learning centers. Establishing platforms that deliver the best teaching practices also promote quality teaching. Co-teaching opportunities can lead to better results, especially among junior and senior higher education teaching staff. Implementing mechanisms to retain outstanding teachers in the classroom is part of this move to sustain quality teaching.

In terms of standard-setting, UNESCO published three versions of the “Teacher's ICT Competency Framework” in 2008, 2011, and 2016. The focus is always on using emerging technologies to cultivate teachers’ ICT capabilities. Teachers’ information technology competency framework must evolve dynamically to adapt to the changing technological environment and teaching ecology.

International Cooperation Projects to Promote Teaching Competencies. Supported by the Global Partnership for Education, UNESCO and Education International jointly implemented the program “Improving Teacher Support and Participation in Local Education Groups.” It includes the “Strengthening Teacher Education, Bridging the Education Quality Gap in Africa” project funded by China Trust, “Capacity Building of Teacher Trainers and Curriculum Support Teachers” project funded by the United Arab Emirates, as well for “Outstanding Academic Performance” project supported by the Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award (UNESCO, 2018).

4.2.2 Teaching Competency Development in Other International Organizations

In addition to UNESCO, other international organizations, government education authorities, social organizations, and higher education institutions also develop teaching competency development in higher education through various cooperation projects.

Higher Education Institutions Institutional Cooperation Instrument (HEI-ICI)

The Finnish National Board of Education released the Higher Education Institutions Cooperation Instrument to support the cooperation between Finnish universities and universities in developing countries. The agency promotes the improvement and development of higher education for both parties. It also provides opportunities for Finnish universities to participate in the strengthening of higher education in developing countries. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland from the Finnish Development Cooperation Fund funds the program, and the Ministry of Education and Culture manages it. Between 2017 and 2020, Finnish universities and institutions in partner countries worked together to develop and reformed nearly 30 degree-related programs and more than 50 individual courses in different fields of study. It enhanced teacher teaching methods and abilities and focused on learner-centered innovative approaches. The HEI-ICI plans to use distance learning platforms to enhance teacher teaching competencies in online teaching between 2020 and 2024 (https://www.oph.fi/en/programmes/hei-ici-programme).

4.3 Teaching Competency Development at Governmental Level

Teaching competencies in higher education significantly affect the quality of classroom learning. Consequently, many countries and regions’ education authorities have produced a series of policy statements, requirements, and suggestions to improve teaching competencies in higher education. At the same time, many national and regional education authorities have also developed various and specific plans and programs for teaching competency development. This handbook suggests that government education authorities can implement actions from the following dimensions (see Table 4.2).

Table 4.2 Dimensions of government’s efforts in improving teaching competencies

4.3.1 Teaching Competency Development Laws and Policies

Regarding laws and policies, the development of teaching competencies shows a trend from voluntary to obligation. For instance, most EU countries require teachers to complete professional development activities and assess the number of hours needed. Promotion, pay raises, and awards in countries that do not require professional development hours help recognize teacher efforts. In Latin America, teachers voluntarily participate in the activities such as networking, innovation, or expeditions. In China, novice teachers must receive orientation training arranged selectively based on the teachers’ current progress. The following sections discuss related laws and policies of teaching competency development in different countries.

China. The Chinese government has long emphasized developing teaching competencies in higher education. Over time, the government has issued several policies to advance teaching staff and enhance teaching competencies. The Outline of the National Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010–2020 http://www.gov.cn/jrzg/2010-07/29/content_1667143.htm) proposed to develop teaching competencies through training, academic exchanges, project funding, and more. It also encouraged the collaboration among college teachers, interdisciplinary and across-unit, to form high-quality teaching and research groups. The Key Points of the Ministry of Education's Work in 2011 first proposed to strengthen the “construction of teacher development centers (http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_sjzl/moe_164/201102/t20110210_114836.html).” In 2016, the Ministry of Education published Suggestions on Promoting the Reform of the Assessment and Evaluation System for College Teachers that emphasized the following teacher development requirements: (a) implementing a training system for all staff every five years, (b) strengthening teachers’ basic teaching skills and information technology application training, and (c) encouraging young teachers to take part-time training in enterprises and institutions by visiting high-ranked universities and research institutes in and abroad, and taking on-the-job training (http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A10/s7151/201609/t20160920_281586.html).

In 2018, the Ministry of Education issued Suggestions on Accelerating the Construction of High-level Undergraduate Education and Talent Training, which emphasized increasing teachers’ competencies to teach and educate people. It also proposed to strengthen the establishment of teaching development centers for teachers in colleges and universities, conducting comprehensive teaching competency development training, and implementing the national training programs for newly recruited teachers in the central and western regions and the visiting scholar program for young backbone teachers.

(http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A08/s7056/201810/t20181017_351,887.html).

In 2020, six departments including the Ministry of Education issued the Guidance on Strengthening the Reform of College Teacher Development in the New Era. The third point is to build a development platform for college teachers and improve teachers’ professional quality and ability, which stated that colleges and universities should: Improve the teacher development system, enhance the teacher development training system, as well as the security, incentive, and supervision systems, and create an environment that is beneficial to teachers’ long-term development.

• Actively respond to the challenges of new technology in terms of personnel training and improve teachers’ competence in using information technology to enhance teaching.

• Encourage and support college teachers to conduct domestic and foreign study tours and participate in international exchanges and cooperation.

• Continue to implement the demonstration training project for young teachers in colleges and universities and the construction project of a teaching innovation team for higher vocational teachers.

• explore the management of teacher training credits and incorporate training credits into the content of teacher assessment.

(Chinese Ministry of Education: http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2021-01/27/content_5583070.htm, paragraph 8).”

Policies related to the development of the teaching competencies of college teachers in Shanghai

Shanghai has issued a series of plans to develop teaching competencies in higher education and stipulated the training methods and duration, especially for young and middle-aged teachers. The government created an Overseas Study Program, which stated that outstanding young and middle-aged teachers with teaching, scientific research, and management background would have the chance to visit and study in high-level foreign universities and scientific research institutions every year (http://edu.sh.gov.cn/xxgk2_zdgz_jsgz_02/20201015/v2-0015-gw_406112012002.html). The Overseas Study Program benefits three types of scholars: senior research scholars, general visiting scholars, and core courses. Senior research scholars and visiting scholars generally have one year (or not less than nine months) for their study. At the same time, the enrollment in core courses is not less than one semester according to the requirements of the receiving school.

The Domestic Visiting Scholars Program for Young Backbone Teachers in Shanghai Universities plans to have 300 people as visiting scholars to visit and study in high-level colleges and universities nationally every year (http://edu.sh.gov.cn/xxgk2_zdgz_jsgz_02/20201015/v2-0015-gw_406112012001.html). The visiting scholars and their advisors jointly discuss and develop a study plan. Participants will join the scientific research and course teaching activities with the tutor’s guidance according to their study requirements and purposes. The duration of visiting study is generally one academic year.

The changes and focus of the relevant policy on teaching competency development in higher education in China have the following characteristics:

• The Chinese government has long placed a high value on pre-service training for newly hired teachers, viewing it as a crucial component of teaching competency development.

• The government places a high value on young and middle-aged teachers’ professional development and provides various forms of support.

• The government establishes related training programs for teachers at various stages, focusing on the long-term sustainability of teaching competency development.

• The government prioritizes the influence of information technology development on teaching competency development, provides comprehensive educational technology training for college teachers, and improves teachers’ competencies and proficiency with current educational technology.

United States. In the United States, the federal government's role in education is limited. The state and local governments set the majority of education policies. The United States government also highly values developing young teacher teaching competencies and has enacted several laws and regulations to encourage this growth. As early as the 1980s, the American higher education field began to pay attention to how university teaching promotes student learning. In 1984, The National Center for Education Research (NCER) published the famous report, Put into Learning. It advocated for the efforts of colleges and universities across the country to explore expressive teaching reformation measures that would allow students to make significant progress or changes in abilities, skills, and attitudes and increase their knowledge. The Higher education Law of 1998 emphasized the financial support for young teachers’ development of teaching competencies. The Beginner Teacher Induction: The Essential Bridge in 2001 brief noted that we should increase the intensity of induction training for young teachers. Induction into Learning Community in 2005 mentioned that the induction education of young teachers was vital responsibility in a learning society (Xiong & Liu, 2015).

The U.S. government had put forth standards and support for online teaching skills training for college teachers in response to the gradual penetration of information technology in education. Clinton suggested a new requirement to train 100,000 teachers to be ready to teach online in his State of the Union address in February 1997. Obama established a Chief Technology Officer position in the federal government to provide technical assistance to college teachers who taught online (Kitty & Han, 2009).

United Kingdom. The white paper called The Future of Higher Education, issued by the British government in 2003, stated that teaching competencies were crucial in promoting the high-quality development of higher education. The white paper suggested a national organization to develop professional standards for teachers’ teaching and requiring colleges and universities to provide teaching competency training, particularly new teachers hired after 2006.

The British government also released the higher education green paper called “Fulfilling Our Potential: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice”, advocating the implementation of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). The three reform goals of the TEF framework were to establish a competitive higher education market, give students more options for institutions, and strengthen the management structure of higher education. In May 2016, the British government formed the higher education white paper called Success as a Knowledge Economy: Teaching, Social Mobility, and Student Choice. The white paper highlighted the TEF framework's three reform goals and emphasized the necessity of applying it in identifying and motivating high-quality university teaching and helping students make better university choices. Then in 2017, the Higher education and Research Act included the TEF framework and the newly established Office of Students under the Ministry of Education in England to conduct the evaluation (Hou, 2018).

4.3.2 Teaching Competency Standards and Regulations

Because of the various types of institutions and disciplines in higher education, the teaching competencies that teachers must possess are highly diverse. As a result, national and regional education authorities’ relevant standards and norms of teacher teaching competencies usually appeared as standards and regulations.

The U.K. Higher education Research Association officially promulgated the U.K. Professional Standards Framework for Teaching and Supporting Learning in Higher Education (UKPSF) in 2011. The standard explicitly identifies three categories used as the outcomes and evaluation of teaching competency development in higher education including the activity field, core knowledge, and professional value (Advance HE, 2019).

In 2017, the European Commission Joint Research Center released the European Digital Competence Framework for Educators (DigCompEdu) to guide and enhance teachers’ digital teaching competencies to empower learners and develop competitive digital citizens (Zheng et al., 2021).

4.3.3 Teaching Competency Development Organizations

National and regional education authorities can promote the development of teaching competencies by establishing national and regional teacher development centers, bases, and other organizations.

In July 2011, the Ministry of Education of China and the Ministry of Finance decided to build 30 demonstration centers for teacher development in higher education to develop teaching competencies. In April 2012, the Ministry of Education of China (2012) promulgated the Guidelines on Comprehensively Improving the Quality of Higher education. It proposed “promoting the establishment of teacher development centers in colleges and universities and focusing on building several national-level teachers teaching development demonstration centers” (p. 27). In 2012, 30 research universities applied for and approved to establish “National Teacher Teaching Development Demonstration Center.”

To further strengthen the teaching competency development in Beijing, the Beijing Municipal Education Commission has established municipal college teacher development bases at seven universities in Beijing: Peking University, Tsinghua University, Beijing Normal University, Renmin University of China, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing Jiaotong University, and Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (http://jw.beijing.gov.cn/jyzx/jyxw/201801/t20180112_650387.html). Since 2011, those bases have admitted nearly 650 young backbone teachers from municipal colleges and universities for one-year training.

4.3.4 Teaching Competency Development Projects

Teaching competency enhancement projects are essential for the education authorities to promote the implementation of policies and standards. The development projects should target teachers’ needs and be implemented correctly. The project not only can be specialized for a particular type or stage of sustainable development, but also focus on specific aspects of teaching competencies. Education authorities usually have precise goals, particular functions, refined content, and diversified project evaluation.

Comprehensive Teaching Competency Development Program. The national and regional education authorities can build a complete teacher development project by combing various efforts and programs such as training, practice, competition, exchange, development of a teaching environment, and building teacher development organizations.

Piloting artificial intelligence (AI) to boost the construction of teacher teams in China

Based on the Guidelines on Comprehensively Deepening the Reform of Teacher Development in the New Era proposed by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, the Ministry of Education launched a pilot project using artificial intelligence to boost the construction of teacher teams. According to the Guidelines, the Ministry of Education would promote the integration of new technologies such as artificial intelligence into the building of teacher teams. It will also support teachers in adapting to the changes in new technologies such as informatization and artificial intelligence, which vigorously and effectively support the development of education and teaching.

The pilot was implemented in two batches. Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (Ningxia) and Beijing Foreign Languages University participated in the first batch. As Ningxia is the country's first Internet + education example province (region), the Ministry of Education implemented the first batch of AI-assisted teacher team-building pilot work in primary education there. Specifically, the pilot activities include: (a) the application of intelligent assistants for teachers, which selected a group of qualified schools as the experimental school for artificial intelligence to enhance the development of teachers; (b) future teacher training innovation initiatives, which established teacher education innovation bases in Ningxia University and Ningxia Normal University, and created labs in collaboration with critical enterprises and high-level universities of artificial intelligence; (c) teachers’ intelligent training that involves upgrading the Ningxia teacher network training platform, and the establishment of a teacher development evaluation system; and (d) education literacy improvement that includes selecting a group of outstanding principals with solid information management capabilities and backbone teachers with solid information technology application ability to carry out intelligent education leadership training and teaching competence training respectively. In addition, it also implements AI assistance for teachers in poverty-stricken areas and supports the construction and application of big data for teachers in Ningxia.

At the same time, as speech recognition and natural language processing is essential areas for applying artificial intelligence technology, Beijing Foreign Languages University is conducting a pilot artificial intelligence program to construct their teacher teams. The pilot program at Beijing Foreign Languages University includes: (a) constructing several smart classrooms, (b) operating intelligent education literacy training for college teachers, (c) establishing a competent laboratory for college teacher development, (d) conducting intelligent evaluation and diagnosis of education and teaching, collecting information on teachers’ instruction, scientific research, and management, (f) building big data of college teachers, and (g) establishing digital portfolios of teachers (Ministry of Education of China, 2018).

The second batch of the pilot has been implemented at Peking University and other units. The relevant matters are notified as follows:

• 1. Strengthen top-level design and coordinate the promotion of pilot work. Each pilot unit should actively promote the integration of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and fifth-generation mobile communication technology (5G) with the construction of teacher teams. This batch of the pilot aims to explore new paths and models for new technology integration to boost the construction of teacher teams. The achievement of the goals requires efforts from colleges and universities and the local government. Colleges and universities should focus on promoting the following four tasks: creating an AI educational environment, improving teachers’ technical literacy and application ability, enabling the construction and application of teachers’ big data, and serving local education and teaching reform and innovation. Cities, districts, and counties should focus on promoting the following six tasks: promoting teachers’ application of AI assistants, innovating teacher training models, conducting teacher AI training, improving teachers’ AI education literacy, building, and applying teacher big data, and leading the development of teacher competence in rural schools and underserved schools with AI, and so on (Paragraph 2).

• 2. Adhere to the problem-orientation and determine the main development direction of the pilot project. Each unit should:

  • a. motivate teachers and students to utilize AI-assistants (e.g., platforms, systems, resources, tools), promote the reform of teaching methods and learning methods, reduce the burden on teachers, and empower teachers.

  • b. rely on the AI education platform system to explore and promote the “dual-teacher classroom” with human–human collaboration and human–machine collaboration; solve the problem of unbalanced education between regions, schools, and urban and rural areas; and explore new ways to alleviate the shortage of teachers’ supply.

  • c. explore the use of platform systems to improve teachers’ homework design and evaluation capabilities and reduce students’ homework burden.

  • d. explore the establishment or application of a teacher competence diagnosis and evaluation system, diagnose teachers’ learning and development needs, and carry out specific training.

  • e. build and apply teacher big data, collect dynamic data, form teachers’ profile, support teachers’ accurate management, and support evaluation reforms (Paragraph 3).

Teacher Training Program. Education supervising departments can conduct national and regional training programs to develop teaching competencies in higher education.

Teacher Classroom Project in Brazil

Assessments of developmental programs and ongoing teacher training activities made by educational institutions supported the project. To ensure the consistency of training, academic, professional development, and training providers are responsible for the policy continuity. Professional Development Groups are another strategy involving Education Departments in Brazil. Operational since 2009 in Minas Gerais, there are now 850 projects in existence. They are implemented through meetings held at educational institutions, and the activities completed reflect the practice that positively influence teaching quality. Problems in the development of these projects relate to bureaucracy in program administration. The project is now managed under the Poços de Caldas Regional Superintendency for Teaching to avoid those bureaucratic issues. The Teacher’s Room project serves as an intermediary body, and teaching quality is reviewed using semi-structured interviews as part of a qualitative assessment (UNESCO, 2015)

Higher education teacher training programs in Beijing, China

Beijing Higher Education Teacher Training Center (https://gaoshi.cnu.edu.cn/), found in 1992 under the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, is affiliated with Capital Normal University. It is responsible for training, organizing, coordinating, and consulting for college teachers in Beijing. In addition, the center has domestic training programs and overseas training programs. The domestic training programs include pre-job training for college teachers, educational technology (exam) training, domestic visiting scholars training, master tutor training, teacher development base training, young teachers teaching ability training, scientific research ability, teacher ethics training, management leadership training, and foreign language training. The overseas training programs include foreign visiting scholars training, bilingual teaching training, bilingual domestic advanced training, English teaching training, in-depth cooperation with tutors, and so on.

Competition and Honorary Program. Teaching competition and honorary programs are vital to comprehensively cultivating and improving teacher teaching competencies and professional quality. First, teaching competition allows teachers to re-examine their courseware, the logic of knowledge delivery, case selection, and other teaching aspects that tremendously benefit their work. Second, it provides mutual communication and learning among teachers. The teaching competition offers an open platform for teachers to learn through observation. Teachers can learn teaching skills and methods from excellent teaching models. Teachers can also reflect on failed teaching experiences and assess their flaws to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

Education authorities can motivate colleges, universities, and teachers to improve teaching competencies through competitions and honorary program. The demonstration of competition works, and examples provide directions for teaching competency development in higher education.

Teaching Competition for Young Teachers in Chinese Colleges and Universities

The teaching competition for young teachers in Chinese colleges and universities is hosted by the National Committee of the China Education, Science, Culture, Health and Sports Trade Union—All-China Federation of Trade Unions. The fundamental task of the teaching competition is to cultivate a culture of developing outstanding teachers. It contributes to the development of teachers’ character and basic teaching skills and plays a vital role in improving the quality of teachers. Through the teaching competition, young teachers in colleges and universities can keep their educational concepts up-to-date, master modern teaching methods, and strive to develop a teaching group of high-quality and professional teachers with ideas and beliefs, moral sentiments, solid knowledge, and a warm heart, ultimately promoting the modernization of higher education in China. The competition divides the participants into five groups, which are liberal arts, science, engineering, medicine, and ideological and political courses. Young teachers under the age of 40 who are engaged in education and teaching in various institutions of higher learning across the country are eligible to participate

(https://www.acftu.org/lmgj/rybz/gxqnjsjxjs/?7OkeOa4k=qAqUqaqFDfLFDfLFD9itpGqbOU0lmX4X6UOxujPDBsgqqqqqqqqqqqqqDG).

4.3.5 Teaching Competency Development Resources and Platforms

Education authorities can lead and promote the development of teaching competencies by building digital teaching resources and informatization learning exchange platforms to improve the teaching competencies in higher education.

China's Higher Education Virtual Teaching and Research Platform

With 3–5 years of effort, China is planning to develop virtual teaching and research information platform in higher education with several advanced, comprehensive, and well-equipped virtual teaching and research sections. The platform will forge high-level teaching teams, cultivate a group of teaching staff, develop research and practice results, build a teaching development community and quality culture, and comprehensively improve teacher teaching competence.

The specific tasks include:

• (1) Innovating the form of teaching and research. This task encourages the full use of information technology, exploration of teaching and research model that breaks through time and space constraints, development of a combined format of online and offline teaching and research, finding new methods and paradigms for teaching organization construction and management, improving teacher teaching enthusiasm, and ultimately cultivating teacher teaching development.

• (2) Strengthening teaching and research. With the virtual teaching and research platform, teachers are encouraged to explore and strengthen their abilities in conducting research and professional development, implementing curriculum, developing teaching content, applying teaching methods, and conducting teaching evaluation. Teachers should also enhance their awareness of conducting research and promote research results.

• (3) Jointly building high-quality resources. Based on comprehensive research and exchanges, the members of the virtual teaching and research platform collaborate to develop teaching resources such as talent training programs, syllabi, mind maps, teaching videos, electronic courseware, exercises, test questions, teaching cases, experimental projects, practical training projects, and data sets, to contribute to a high-quality shared teaching resource library.

• (4) Providing teacher training. Necessary is to organize and plan teacher training with a regular plan. Led by the demonstration and national teaching teams, experienced teachers, and first-class courses, it helps to promote mature and effective talent training models and curriculum implementation plans and promote the teaching development of front-line teachers.

  (http://www.moe.gov.cn/s78/A08/tongzhi/202107/t20210720_545684.html).

4.4 Teaching Competency Development at Societal Level

Social institutions mainly include foundations, societies, associations, private institutions, and other subjects. To develop teaching competencies in higher education, social institutions can consider implementing corresponding actions from the following dimensions (see Table 4.3).

Table 4.3 Dimensions of social efforts in developing teaching competencies

4.4.1 Non-profit Organization's Initiatives in Improving Teaching Competencies

Non-profit organizations play an intermediary role in improving teaching competencies. The unified teacher professionalization standards are implemented into teaching competency training practice through various efforts such as ability standard formulation, program design, implementation, and evaluation. The teaching quality assurance system incorporates existing training of universities and other institutions

Development of Teaching Competency Standards. The U.K. Higher education Research Association officially promulgated the U.K. Professional Standards Framework for Teaching and Supporting Learning in Higher education (UKPSF) in 2011, the first set of teacher teaching competency standards globally. The standards framework outlines three key stages, which are areas of activity (A), core knowledge (K), and professional values (V). It can be used as the goal and outcomes of teaching competency development as well as the content of college teaching evaluation (Advance HE 2019).

Teaching Competency Certification. Quality Matter (QM), an online education quality assurance agency, aims to advance and enhance the quality of online education and student learning globally (https://www.qualitymatters.org/). QM members are mainly from universities in the U.S. such as Arizona State University and from other regions such as Fudan University in China. Teachers can participate in a series of workshops organized by QM to enhance online course teaching capabilities and receive Teaching Online Certificates issued by QM upon completion.

The British Higher Education Academy (HEA) promotes the development of teaching competencies in higher education

The Dearing report issued by the United Kingdom in 1997 proposed establishing a professional teacher association called the Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher education to develop teaching standards and provide training for college teachers

(http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/dearing1997/dearing1997.html).

It would require all new teachers to finish training to become association members during their internships. The institute formed in 2000 due to the government’s efforts. It was the U.K.’s first national institution dedicated to improving college teacher teaching capacity based on the government's advocacy. In 2003, the Higher education Teaching and Learning Association combined two other institutions to form the Higher education Academy (HEA). After establishing the HEA, the government allocated funds through three funding committees in England, Scotland, and Wales. The government also implemented long-distance supervision of HEA through three methods: personnel dispatch, financial inspection, and management and governance. The government terminated funding in 2017 but allowed HEA to charge fees when providing services to third parties. Therefore, HEA actively developed a business service model and obtained funds for the operation through a comprehensive, diversified, and sophisticated service project for colleges and universities. HEA expanded its business in the U.K. and internationally such as in Asia and Oceania to conduct teacher teaching ability training projects.

HEA is the executor of government policies at the middle level and the provider and quality guarantee of various teaching training programs for teachers in colleges and universities. First, HEA implements national procedures. In 2006, HEA formulated the U.K. Professional Standards Framework (PSF) upon the government’s requirements. The framework clearly defines the structure of teaching knowledge and competencies of college teachers according to the different stages of teaching ability development and their professional roles in teaching. It also categorizes the specific and detailed standards of teaching ability that each type of teacher should achieve. This standard framework provides a unified and transparent basis for developing college teacher teaching competencies and effectively promotes the professionalization of college teaching development. The framework is of great significance to improving the quality of teaching practice. Secondly, based on the professional teaching standards, HEA provides rich and high-quality teaching ability training for college teachers and offers personalized and customized services for colleges and universities. Finally, HEA must certify or recognize member universities or other professional organizations that have established teacher teaching ability training mechanisms. This ensures that colleges and universities’ teaching ability development projects meet professional teaching standards.

With HEA as an intermediary, the development of British college teacher teaching competencies exhibits traits of independence, cooperation, and restrictions. The government completely supports the autonomy of colleges and professional organizations, and the three work together and share mutual constraints and synergies.

Other Cases to Develop Teaching Competencies. To help African countries improve the quality of teachers and enhance teaching competencies, the Chinese government cooperated with UNESCO in 2012 to fund the establishment of a trust fund called the UNESCO-Chinese Funds-in-Trust Project (CFIT). It is dedicated to developing education in Africa, aiming to enhance teacher education and bridge the education quality gap in Africa (https://en.unesco.org/events/unesco-china-funds-trust-project-harnessing-technology-quality-teacher-training-africa-phase).

The Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher education (POD) network established in the United States in 1974 has members including teachers, teacher development specialists, graduate students, and university administrators (North and Scholl 1979). The organization serves its members by providing resources, publishing articles, organizing conferences, consulting, organizing awards, and more.

The Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Distinguished Academic Performance in the United Arab Emirates was used to support the effort of teacher training and curriculums to support teaching competency development (https://globaltalentmentoring.org/about-us/hamdan-foundation/).

Projects of Teaching Competency Development.

Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Pre-service Teacher Teaching Competency Development Program

Teacher researchers in the United States think that a college teacher's career starts before they begin their teaching position. In 1993, the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) launched the Preparing Future Faculty Program (PFF) aimed to prepare doctoral students who would become future teachers in higher education. The program provides them pre-service education to help build competency (Zhang & Wu, 2016). The program’s strategies for training teachers include:

• (1) Postgraduates take elective courses related to teaching and obtain corresponding credits. For example, Cornell University offers two higher education courses for graduate students: Teaching in Higher education and Teaching as Research in Higher education. The Teaching in Higher education course covers effective teaching and professional development related to the teaching profession in colleges and universities, the context and culture of higher education, teacher roles and responsibilities, teaching styles, teaching methods, and teaching techniques. The Teaching as Research in Higher education course urges students to participate in the teaching and research of their disciplines and improve postgraduates’ teaching ability by asking them to design and complete original research projects. In addition, Iowa State University has developed a series of 1-credit seminars and 3-credit elective courses and invited university teachers to share teaching experiences and guide students in teaching practice.

• (2) Teaching certificate programs or teaching certification plans. These programs aim to provide teaching training to graduate students interested in teaching. Upon completion of training, students receive a teaching certificate from the school. For example, Brown University provides a one-year teaching certificate program for graduate and postdoctoral students, covering various content such as curriculum and syllabus design, curriculum and teaching plan implementation, basic primary and evaluation strategies, and effective classroom communication and communication skillset. Harvard University’s teaching certification program requires participants to take at least three courses offered by the Bock Teaching Center to perform their teaching practice, critically reflect on their teaching, and write a teaching portfolio. Its content is based on the following key areas: pedagogy, curriculum and assignment design, professional communication, multicultural classrooms, assessment, and pedagogical reflection.

• (3) Graduate Teaching Assistant Program. The American postgraduate teaching assistant system originated at Harvard University at the end of the nineteenth century. The original intention was to reduce the heavy teaching tasks of teachers. The program has now evolved into one of the essential methods for developing graduate students’ teaching abilities. It plays a critical role in assisting graduate students in moving from not knowing how to teach to understanding teaching. Graduate teaching assistants are responsible for helping teachers complete teaching tasks in and out of the classroom including course teaching, occasional speech preparation, organizing discussions, lab guidance, and additional teaching tasks such as grading exercises, quizzes, and exams. Graduate teaching assistants receive specialized teaching training every term. This forward-moving model of college teacher teaching competency development connects the pre-service training of college teachers with the doctoral training system and effectively supports the improvement of college teacher teaching competencies. The project’s positive outcome has led to a wave of incorporating graduate students into the teaching development of teachers in American colleges and universities (Wulff & Austin, 2004).

China's teaching competition project for teachers

China’s Higher education Teaching Innovation Competition is a teaching competition hosted by China’s Association of Higher Education and supervised by the Higher Education Department of the Ministry of Education. On September 30, 2020, China’s Association of Higher education issued the Notice of First National College Teacher Teaching Innovation Competition to encourage the development of college teachers. The competition focuses on teaching innovation to cultivate morality and develop new engineering, agriculture, medicine, and liberal arts professionals. It sets off a learning revolution and guides college teachers to devote themselves to teaching and educating people, enhancing teaching quality and responsibilities, encouraging reform in colleges and universities, and comprehensively promoting the quality revolution of higher education.

China's teaching competition project for pre-service teachers

iTeach Students’ Digital Education Innovation Exhibition is hosted by China’s Education Information Industry Innovation Platform and the Guangdong Normal University of Technology. The exhibition takes advantage of industry-education synergy in educating people. It encourages more outstanding college students to pay attention to educational development, improve their innovation awareness, cultivate teamwork, and enhance their interest and potential in learning and applying information technology. It enhances college students’ overall quality through creative practices. The competition is open to full-time students in colleges and universities for any subject and grade (including junior college, undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students). To reflect innovation-oriented education application and facilitate activity management, the submissions are divided into four categories: digital media technology, courseware, tool system, and educational service application (artificial intelligence education)

Activities of Promoting Teaching Interactions. The interaction among teachers promotes the development of teaching competencies. For example, the China Teacher Education and Teaching Informatization Exchange Activity (referred to as “Teacher Exchange Activity”) sponsored by the National Center for Educational Technology (NCET) has gradually grown to be an important activity that has a wide range of influence. It covers all levels of education, targets teachers and professional technicians, and has developed interaction opportunities to promote ICT integration in the classroom and the development of educational resources since 1998. Its goal is to (a) increase teachers’ educational technology and network application skills, teachers’ information literacy, and software production skills, (b) promote the integration of information technology and subject teaching, and (c) motivate the wide application of information technology in teaching and learning.

4.4.2 Profit Organization’s Initiatives in Improving Teaching Competencies

Private sectors can participate in developing teaching competencies in higher education by developing resources, tools, and platforms and hosting related training programs.

Teaching Competency Enhancement Program by a Chinese Private Institution ( http://teacher-edu.cn/ )

Higher Education the Culture (Beijing) Education Technology Research Institute (referred to as “Higher Education National Training”) is a professional training institution approved by the national administrative department and composed of well-known education experts, educational technology experts, and scientific research management experts from Chinese universities. In addition to its core business on the training of Chinese college teachers, it focuses on higher education research and services, and research and promotion of scientific research technology. It has maintained long-term cooperative relations with many domestic colleges and universities, vocational colleges, and other social institutions. Committed to the development of China's education, its scope of services includes education and teaching in colleges and universities, education consulting, teacher training, teaching methods, and educational technology training, education reform project training, education management training, college students’ employment, entrepreneurship education, education informatization and software development, data management, and so on.

4.5 Teaching Competency Development at Institutional Level

Higher education institutions are the primary units that implement the actions of teaching competency development. Higher education institutions can consider and implement the corresponding actions from the following dimensions (see Table 4.4).

Table 4.4 Institutional efforts to develop teaching competencies

4.5.1 Framework for Developing Teaching Competencies in Colleges

To develop the teaching competencies in higher education, the institutions should provide support from the following aspects: organizational structures, policies, and resources.

Organization Structure. Faculty Development Center or Teaching and Learning Center (referred to as the teaching center in the following texts) is a crucial unit for developing teaching competencies in higher education institutions. According to conservative estimates, at least 21% of high education institutions in the United States had teaching centers in 2011, and this number was nearly three-quarters in research universities (Kuhlenschmidt, 2011). Teaching centers to meet the ever-changing needs of teacher development were established. The centers aim to have a collective impact on teacher development by integrating all institutions’ resources. Activities such as faculty training, industry-academic exchanges, teaching and researching, instruction consultation, evaluation management, and career development consultation were included. The teaching center supports instructors’ self-improvement by meeting the individual needs. Sorcinelli et al. (2006) pointed out that the key priorities of teaching centers were (a) addressing the needs of assessments in higher education institutions, (b) understanding the needs of diverse student populations, and (c) supporting the use of new technologies in instructions.

In most cases, the teaching center is not an evaluation unit, so it does not administer or be responsible for the teaching evaluation of an institution (Cook & Kaplan, 2011). When improving teaching in an institution, a teaching center serves all instructional audiences (we use “instructors” in the following sections to refer to this group) including new or in-service faculties and lecturers, postdoctoral fellows, graduate instructors or teaching assistants, and undergraduate teaching assistants. Teaching centers collaborate with instructors to improve instruction. Teaching centers staff usually include faculty committees, research scientists, educational technologists, instructional designers, research and assessment specialists, data analysts, and education specialists.

The Teaching + Learning Commons at University of California, San Diego (UCSD), United States: organization and staff (https://commons.ucsd.edu/)

UCSD's Teaching + Learning Commons is affiliated with Executive Vice Chancellor-Academic Affairs Office. As the core unit to support teaching innovation on the campus, the Commons has a diverse team of educational specialists, many of whom have doctoral and master's degrees to support teaching improvement. The Commons consists of six hubs, and three of them are engaging in activities to improve teaching.

The Education Research + Assessment Hub provides support related to course-level assessment, program-level assessment, teaching effectiveness, and research projects. The team of this hub includes a director, data specialists, assessment specialists, and others. The team adopts evidence-based and equity-focused approaches to conduct research design and data analysis.

The Digital Learning Hub supports online courses and online programs. The director of this hub leads a team of instructional designers and works closely with the information technology department. Through working one-on-one with instructors who plan to or are teaching online, this team supports the instructors in improving their online course design, developing instructional materials, and providing technical support about online teaching platforms.

The Engaged Teaching Hub mainly provides teaching consultation and classroom observation for instructors. The hub has a team of education specialists and postdoctoral fellows. They organize workshops and courses regularly to introduce new teaching methods and popular teaching tools to the instructors. This hub aims to improve teaching by engaging instructors in evidence-based, learner-centered, and equitable teaching practices. This team sometimes also takes the report from the Education Research and Assessment Hub and provides different personalized solutions for the instructor to improve their teaching effectiveness.

The teaching center often carries out five activities to support faculty’s advancement in teaching: teacher training program, consultation, teaching innovation research, teaching evaluation, and high-quality teaching resource provision.

Hosting training programs, including pre-service teachers training and in-service teachers training for specific topics. The Pennsylvania State University in the United States, for example, provides pre-service teacher training mainly through a series of courses (Feng, 2016). The most popular courses are pre-class instructional design and in-class teaching methods and skills including teaching and learning goal setup, syllabi development, questioning skills, classroom discussion organization, student evaluations, and more. The University of Oregon in the United States organizes workshops on different teaching and learning topics and provides training on teaching fundamentals (Duo & Zhong, 2017). The workshop is organized on different topics each semester, and an example theme is “how to build students’ sense of belonging in the classroom.” Training on teaching fundamentals includes basic skills for teaching, such as how to describe teaching concepts, lead discussions, and write online teaching profiles. Peking University in China provides a training program for new teachers (Wang & Yu, 2019). Designed based on the TPACK framework, the training program has four modules: (1) Peking University teaching and teacher professional development, (2) teaching concepts and teaching methods, (3) teaching with technology, and (4) teaching observation and practice.

Providing consulting services such as individualized feedback, diagnosis, and guidance for teaching. There are regular consultations and in-depth consultations. Generally, based on classroom observations, consultations provide individualized guidance on problems existing in teaching. Yale University's personalized teaching consultation uses discussion (Lu, 2017). The teachers obtain relevant recommendations by discussing with the consultant course objectives, semester plans, and any issues about teaching practice. The consultation team can also involve related members such as librarians, managers, and IT personnel from related departments to ensure that each teacher obtains appropriate teaching resources to support effective teaching. Mid-term Student Feedback (MSF), commonly used in China, is also a very effective way of supervision and consultation (Pang et al., 2018). The MSF is usually conducted during the beginning or mid-term of a course. The process includes teachers’ voluntary application, initial consultation, classroom observation, student feedback collection, report generation, consultation with teachers, and timely improvement by teachers in subsequent classroom teaching activities.

Sharing seminars and experience. Penn State University's Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence has a teaching excellence advancement program for in-service teachers. The program sets specific themes and conducts various activities such as salons, successful teaching experience exchanges, lectures, and small seminars. Those activities promote new technologies and methods in teaching, discuss new issues, and explore new knowledge related to instruction. Experienced and expert teachers that focus on one theme usually chair seminars, and discussions on a pre-prepared presentations are conducted (Feng, 2016). The seminar at the University of Oregon is a long-term event carried out every week (Duo & Zhong, 2017). The university provides a fixed conference room for the seminar at a specified time every week. Yale University has a monthly “Lunch & Learn” for teaching sessions that focus on a specific monthly theme to promote teachers’ communications and discussions on teaching practices (Lu, 2017). Yale University also has a “Cooperative Yale” series of seminars and an advanced teaching and learning seminar (Lu, 2017).

Supporting instruction with technology. Many universities have Educational Technology Centers. For example, the Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) at Penn State University provides technical training for teachers and students on the campus through seminars, lectures, and panel talks (Feng, 2016). TLT is also responsible for technical training for new teachers and providing learning opportunities for all campus populations in teaching, learning, and professional development. In addition, departments can request TLT to conduct special training or organize seminars for their faculty members to deepen their understanding of the strategies of using information technology in the classroom. Yale University has established the Rosenkranz Teaching Development Award, mainly used for teachers’ innovation and experimentation in digital teaching that focuses on supporting the development of online courses (Lu, 2017).

Providing resources and services to improve instruction. The teaching center at the university also provides teachers with teaching research resources and communication platforms to serve the professional development of teachers better. The teaching center often has a website to provide various online resources for teaching including library resources related to teaching, recommended educational periodicals, teaching excellence videos, courses and teaching websites, online open courses, unique course resources, and educational software resources.

Yale University's guide to teaching, “Becoming Teachers” (Yale University, n.d.), been revised several times since its publication in 2001. The book was written by Bill Rando, Director of Yale Teaching Center. This book provides a comprehensive guide to developing teaching skills from novice to experienced teachers. The “Teacher's Teaching Guide” defines the core principle of teaching competencies as “student-centered” and has detailed guidance for new teachers’ “teaching debut,” “five stages scheme” for lesson planning, lecture process, and leading discussion (Lu, 2017).

The “Typical Problems” library of teacher teaching at Yale University highlights the “problem solving” approach in teacher training and services. For example, to help teachers think openly and encourage designing courses based on student developmental goals, the Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning has prepared a three-step solution for teachers. The Center first sets the overall goal of the course by decomposing the goals and developing semester lesson plans. The Center then provides teachers with tips on managing the inclusive classroom. Finally, by developing “lectures,” the Center offers teachers with teaching strategy assistance and corresponding resource support (Lu, 2017).

When teachers conduct mid-term course evaluations, the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) at the University of Michigan collects students’ feedback and suggestions on the course from various aspects (Kang, 2019). Then, based on the feedback from students, CRLT puts forward actionable improvement strategies, so that the evaluation can effectively promote the professional development of teachers. CRLT has also launched a new online teaching diagnosis service in recent years. Teachers only need to upload classroom teaching videos to acquire professional feedback and guidance.

Conducting teaching quality assessment and providing feedback for instruction. Using teacher teaching portfolios and collecting various data, Peking University builds a comprehensive evaluation system for teacher teaching development, thus providing data support for the design, implementation, and evaluation of teacher teaching development. The data collected in the portfolio include the teaching statement, teaching reflection, teaching output and results, and external evaluation (Yu & Feng, 2020).

The teaching improvement certificate project of Imperial College London has set up flexible courses of teaching development for teachers (Deng, 2019). The project issues three types of certificates: the University Teaching and Learning Postgraduate Certificate (PG Cert ULT), University Teaching and Learning Postgraduate Diploma (PG Dip ULT), and University Teaching and Learning Master of Education Degree (MEd ULT). The three types of certificates correspond to the three stages of this teaching and learning research project. Teachers can obtain corresponding certificates according to their needs and the completion of courses. The issuance of certificates stimulates teachers’ interest, improves their sense of achievement, and helps teachers overcome the problem of “job burnout.”

Teaching presentations and peer review. Yale University's Bulldog Day for teachers is a large-scale event across the campus. Teachers can enter other teachers’ classrooms to listen and experience classroom teaching innovations. Organized by the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning at Yale University, this event is held every semester for a week (Lu, 2017). Imperial College London has set up an Education Day (Imperial College London, n.d.). Each year, the Education Day will have a different theme, and well-known experts and teachers at the university are invited as speakers to share and discuss the latest teaching theories and issues of common concern (Deng, 2019). This event encourages all teachers at Imperial College London to participate in educational seminars, thus fostering a learning environment for all members. Through a wide range of experience exchanges, teachers benefit from this event by reflecting on and summarizing their teaching.

Organizing and guiding teaching reform research. Institutions can encourage all teachers to conduct pedagogical research by providing a variety of ways to support teachers in exploring new teaching methods, participating in various teaching forums, and exchanging ideas with domestic and foreign counterparts. In addition, by contacting external funding agencies, institutions can help teachers apply for research funding regarding curriculum instruction and undergraduate teaching practice. The seminars at the University of Oregon feature an interdisciplinary perspective and small-scale teaching experiments (https://ctl.uoregon.edu/innovation). Small-scale teaching experiments are typical in many U.S. universities due to their focus on quantitative research. Data obtained through these small-scale teaching experiments can test research hypotheses and provide evidence supporting the improvement of instructional design. Yale University establishes an annual teaching advancement foundation. This fund supports the exploration of the integration of teaching activities and undergraduate curriculum design, and covers teaching methods, techniques, and materials improvement. This fund supports expenditures on classroom supplies and equipment updates, teaching project development, student field trips, educational seminars, and guest speaker honoraria.

Policies. Institutions should have related policies and systems to develop teaching competencies. For example, institutions can establish a teacher professional development system and provide teachers with services such as workshops and consultations. Policies at the higher education institutions are generally the concretization of policies to improve teaching competence at the national or regional level. Guided by national or regional policies, individual institutions develop their policies to improve teaching competence by considering the specific circumstances of each institution.

Human Resources. Human resources mainly include three categories. First are organizational management personnel. Their primary responsibilities are carrying out the teaching competency development policy and implementing related projects. The second type of human resources is the leadership for teaching competencies. They can be expert teachers or teachers with outstanding performance in teachers’ online learning community. The third category of human resources is teachers participating in those teaching competency development programs. Those teachers are learners, practitioners, and demonstrators at the same time. For example, they can be teachers involved in various teacher training programs or teachers in cooperative or online learning communities.

Learning Resources. Learning resources refer to the materials needed during teaching competency development. The learning resources have rich content such as teaching concepts, instruction methods, information technology, and excellent teaching activities. The learning resources can have a diverse format such as lectures, reports, online courses or videos, and more.

Training and Supporting Programs. Faculty development supporting systems and related programs are based on the faculty development stages and different emphasis on teaching improvement. Examples of these programs include instructor onboarding training, core instructor development program, and educational technology training programs.

The teaching center in the United States usually initiates or coordinates faculty awards and grants for instruction. All these activities aim to create a teaching environment and build learning communities for instructors interested in advancing instructional methods and achieving teaching excellence. For example, the University of California San Diego (UCSD) in the United States has a foundation supporting teaching innovation called CDIIP (Course Development and Instructional Improvement Program, available at: https://academicaffairs.ucsd.edu/evc/cdiip.html). This funding helps and encourages instructors to try new instructional methods (e.g., flipped classroom), develop new digital instructional materials (e.g., public textbooks, online lab), or try any teaching innovations to help students succeed in the classroom. Instructors could apply for this fund and collaborate with the Teaching + Learning Commons and other related units at the campus to complete this teaching improvement project. In addition, UCSD has established The Center for Advancing Multidisciplinary Scholarship for Excellence in Education (CAMSEE). CAMSEE includes researchers, librarians, educational technologies, and others from diverse disciplines. The goal of this center is to encourage research on teaching, and thus, to improve program (especially STEM programs) development in the information age and to improve students learning interests and achievement. An example project covered by CAMSEE asks, “Does the frequency of interactions with faculty and teaching assistants (TAs) affect grades?”.

4.5.2 Institution-Based and Practice-Focused Approach

Teacher training is one of the methods to develop teaching competencies in higher education. It is one of the best ways to help faculty overcome the challenges. By focusing on sustainable teaching competency development and the continuous change of individuals, teacher training helps faculty advance their competencies in self-learning, innovation, teaching practice, and educational research. Teacher training helps faculty advance their competencies in self-learning, innovation, teaching practice, and educational research by focusing on faculty's sustainable teaching competency development and the continuous change of individuals. As an institutional strategy, teacher training often has a standardized learning process. Common teacher training activities include expert lectures and workshops. The expert lecture is an efficient and direct way for many teachers to understand the learning goals simultaneously. Workshops often delivered through group collaboration have recently become the most adopted faculties development activities worldwide (Phuong et al., 2018).

The flow chart for an institution-based and practical-focused approach is described in Fig. 4.2. The process mainly includes the following steps: creating training objectives, determining training content, developing training plans, implementing training, and training evaluation.

Fig. 4.2

Institution-based and practical-focused approach

Creating Training Objectives. The Teaching Center collects data related to training needs. It follows the training policies, establishes themes, and determines training objectives. According to the stages and dimensions of teaching competency development, goals are determined for different levels or dimensions. For example, for newly recruited teachers, the training aims at understanding education laws, regulations, and policies, mastering the fundamental theories of pedagogy and psychology, and becoming familiar with the professional requirements of teachers. The “educational technology training,” on the other hand, aims to enhance the initiative and consciousness of teachers in applying modern educational technology in the classroom through learning the fundamental theory of educational technology, practicing basic skills in real settings, and discussing cases of successful teaching examples. Institutions need to consider the different development needs of teachers when setting training objectives. According to Tough (1979), the first stage of learning for an adult learner is deciding where to begin. As adult learners, teachers should be involved in setting action goals, evaluating self-learning interests, and finding relevant information to identify opportunities.

Determining Training Content. Based on the training objectives, the Teaching Center chooses the content for training that includes selecting the most appropriate knowledge and skills to deliver and designing the training content system. Each type of training program usually corresponds to a series of content. For example, the new teacher onboarding training program includes education policies and regulations, teachers’ professional ethics, education concepts, education and teaching methods, online teaching technology, and online course design and development.

Teachers’ professional ethics mainly refer to relevant policies and regulations. Educational concepts and teaching methods involve basic theories related to teaching. Expert talks usually deliver this content. The experts determine training content according to the theme and design the training by subject areas. Online teaching technology includes the online learning platform's function, structure, usage, and operation. The main training content of online course design and development includes knowledge regarding instructional design and curriculum development. The course instructional design consists of three parts: preliminary analysis, overall course design, and learning unit design. The curriculum development also consists of three parts including fundamental content construction, curriculum structure development, and construction of learning units.

Developing Training Plans. At this stage, the Teaching Center needs to determine the training form and mode, establish a training plan, and choose the evaluation methods and tools. The forms of training are relatively diverse. According to how much technology is involved, teacher training can be implemented in three different forms: face-to-face, online, and blended.

Face-to-face training is in person, during which teachers participate in short-term training sessions in a fixed location. This training is mainly used for delivering completed learning content in a concentrated time to a large group audience through expert talks, seminars, workshops, and more. Online training offers teachers learning resources and communication channels through the internet.

Online training is usually delivered through online courses, video conferences, discussions, and other forms in variable learning locations and with a long learning cycle. Due to the flexible learning time of online training, teachers can start and pause learning at any time and can learn repeatedly. In this way, online training conforms to different teachers’ learning habits and learning progress. In addition, online training is easy to manage in an institution, and the investment is generally less than that of face-to-face training.

Blended training not only ensures sufficient personalized learning for teachers, but also ensures the efficiency of interaction with experts. The blended training mode is the new normal of current teacher training because it not only ensures flexible learning time for teachers, but also facilitates the institution on management and evaluation (Wei & Li, 2017).

The concept of learning involves introducing fundamental teaching theories, practical examples, and encouraging and guiding teachers to actively participate in related activities. Based on the content, teacher training is divided into concept learning, technical operation, online course design and development, and workshop collaborative learning. Expert reports deliver the training.

The main goal of the technical operation training is to help teachers understand the function and structure of the online teaching and learning platform, and to solve the problems associated with teachers’ technical operation threshold. Thus, after completing the technical operation training, teachers know the functions of the online teaching platform and complete the operation tasks according to the functional requirements.

The online course design and development goal is the main online learning step of the teacher's teaching ability improvement project. At this stage, the main content of this training content is the knowledge of instructional design and curriculum development.

The workshop collaborative learning section includes lectures on the key and difficult concepts of course design and development, frequent Q&A (Question & Answer) sessions, production and application of instruction resources, and case sharing of course design and implementation. The case sharing session would invite teachers with certain teaching experience to share real cases on course design and implementation through talks or reports. Peer coaching has an important impact on what teachers have learned in daily teaching (Becker, 1996).

Zhu (2017) proposed ten common teacher training models: demonstration-imitation, situational experience, on-site diagnosis, case teaching, task-driven, problem exploration, theme combination, and self-regulated learning. The detailed introduction of these ten modes is shown in Table 4.5.

Table 4.5 Ten types of instructional models used in teacher training

Implementing Training. The development of teaching competencies is a process achieved through the continuous cycle of learning and practice. When implementing training, the first step is to identify training participants. For mandatory sessions, teachers are notified to participate. For optional sessions, teachers need to sign up and prepare for participation in the training. Secondly, after training is organized and implemented as planned, teachers participate and complete the learning activities in the training and apply what they have learned in teaching practice.

Teachers’ learning occurs in the entire process of teaching competency development no matter in training or practice. The structure of teaching competency development model is built around two stages: learning and application. Each stage consists of five components: learning unit, teaching models, support methods, learning outcomes, and learning evaluation. Among them, the learning unit is the main component. Teaching models, support methods, learning outcomes, and learning evaluation are designed based on the characteristics of each learning unit. The following section describes the five components during the learning and application stage.

Learning Stage

Learning Unit. The learning unit starts with “concept learning.” In the learning unit, workshops are primarily used to develop teaching competencies and establish professional relationships (e.g., one-on-one instruction, group guidance). Training courses and expert lectures are also commonly used as ways to develop teaching competencies (Phuong et al., 2018). Therefore, the in-person training process uses workshops. During the implementation of the workshops, group guidance promotes teaching effectiveness. The learning unit in the learning stage has six parts: in-person concept learning, in-person technical operation learning, online course learning, online learning assessment, in-person workshop collaborative learning, and in-person presentation and review.

Teaching Models. Different teaching models are adopted according to the characteristics of each step. The concept learning step is delivered by face-to-face expert reports in the traditional lecture mode.

The technical operation step mainly solves teachers’ technical problems when using unfamiliar online teaching platforms. This step involves procedural knowledge that teachers can learn through multiple trainings. Therefore, in this step, the most useful training format is letting teachers focus on practices and solve common operation issues face-to-face. This step uses the approaches of demonstration-imitation and case study. First, teachers are provided with case studies of different types of online course development, followed by the ideas and characteristics for developing each type of course. In addition, the operational functions of the online teaching platform are provided for teachers to learn and imitate.

The online course learning and online learning assessment are two steps for teachers to learn relevant pedagogical knowledge. The self-learning method is adopted for teachers to learn online by themselves. At the same time, the task-driven teaching mode is used to design sub-task after completing each learning unit. Teachers need to complete the sub-tasks of each learning unit to complete the training. Finally, online homework grading will assess teachers’ online learning results.

The workshop collaborative learning step continues the online Course Learning step. It mainly solves the problems and doubts that arise in the process of teachers’ online learning and task completion. This step adopts the form of collaborative learning in workshop groups, generally led by assigned experts to complete related tasks. In this step, all questions asked by teachers during the course learning process are answered through a centralized Q&A session. In addition, excellent assignment projects in the course are presented to all teachers so they can imitate the example.

The presentation and review is the last step of the training and learning stage. The main purpose of this step is to help teachers sort out the learning results of the previous five steps and conduct an on-site diagnosis of the results of the current stage. This step adopts the approach of a combination of participation-sharing and on-site diagnosis. Experts solve individual problems of each teacher in a targeted manner while bringing out common problems. In this way, all teachers are encouraged to participate in the discussion and share solutions to summarize, reflect, and improve.

Support Methods. According to the designed learning unit and teaching model, the support methods in learning stage is divided into two types: offline support and online support. The offline support mainly includes pre-training introductory material sharing, training requirements gathering, instructional materials distributing, on-site expert guidance and comments, and Q&A session by course design experts. Online support focuses on online course learning and evaluation, including online learning results review and online Q&A. In addition, regarding technical questions, teachers are continually supported through remote services such as telephone, email, and online Q&A.

Learning Outcomes. The learning outcome in learning stage mainly includes three parts: (1) the improvement of teachers’ understanding of teaching, (2) the mastery of knowledge and skills of online teaching and learning platforms, and (3) the mastery of knowledge and skills regarding teaching and curriculums.

Learning Evaluation. Given the above learning outcome, the evaluation of teaching competency development in learning stage includes teachers’ satisfaction with the learning process and the completion of teachers’ instructional design plans.

Application Stage

Learning Unit. The application stage is mainly for teacher self-learning during teaching practice. Teaching reflection at this stage is important to develop teaching competencies (Zhang et al., 2009). Teaching reflection is a process of multiple spiral developments repeated many times. In this stage, the teacher's learning process takes one semester as the practice cycle. During each semester, teachers first deepen their understanding of the knowledge and skills learned in the previous stage through course design and curriculum development of the target courses, and then implement the teaching. The teachers learn by themselves during the process of “discovering-exploration-solving” problems in teaching practice. Finally, teachers reflect on and share instructional design, curriculum development, and teaching implementation experience during the summary and evaluation stage before they enter the next cycle of “learning by doing.” In the process of teaching practice, institutions support teachers’ teaching practice by setting up teaching reform projects. Generally, teaching reform projects can last years. Therefore, all teacher teaching cases and projects are reviewed annually. Teachers reflect on their teaching practice during the reviewing process, which can help them improve their teaching ability further.

Teaching Models. The self-regulated learning model runs through the whole application stage. The teaching process mainly focuses on guiding teachers’ learning based on different teaching models or creating an environment to help teachers learn. In the application stage, the cycle is carried out every semester. In each cycle, teachers experience three units of “design and development,” “implementation,” and “reflection and communication.“ Institutional teachers often do not know how to plan due to a lack of experience in the process of implementing instructional design and curriculum development for the first time. Therefore, in the first round of the “design and development” step, case teaching is indispensable as the actual case study of the same or similar courses is significant for teachers. In addition, teachers have collaboration and exchange opportunities through provided teaching assistants and organized seminars with teachers teaching similar courses. Also, essential is to provide opportunities for reflection, sharing experiences, and brainstorming using the “participation-sharing” model.

Support Methods. The support methods in the teaching implementation occur online and offline. The offline support methods offered by the institution include a teaching innovation environment, implementation support, incentives, and organizational structure. Specifically, those supports include leadership support, management measures, working conditions, facility construction, resource services, communication and counseling, technical support, follow-up evaluation, incentive measures, and organizational structure. Agencies organizing training in the training and learning stage offer online support methods. Major methods mainly include providing continuous and real-time Q&A services through social media and inviting experts to guide, support, and discuss with teachers on teaching reflection.

Learning Outcomes. The learning outcome of an application stage needs to reflect the degree and quality of teachers’ usage of the newly learned knowledge and skills, which are slightly more complicated than the learning results of the training and learning stage.

Learning Evaluation. The learning evaluation is mainly carried out through a satisfaction survey and learning outcomes (Wang, 2016). The evaluation focuses on the effect of learning results in application stage, especially the application effect of new knowledge and skills in teaching.

Evaluation. Institutions need to supervise the training implementation process, find out the problems during the training, and give timely feedback. After training, the institutions would evaluate the training effect and identify new training needs.

4.5.3 Team-Based Approach

Expert teachers play the leading role when adopting the team-based approach to develop teaching competencies. A team is composited of all teachers in a particular program. Experienced and expert teachers guide novice teachers in different aspects such as teaching concepts, methods, skills, and career development, and help them improve their teaching competence. The teamwork mechanism created by expert teachers can help novice teachers become actively involved in the development and innovation of instructional teams. There are two sub-models of the teaching competency development model based on the academic team: the apprenticeship-based method and the teaching and research office-based method.

Improving Teaching Competencies Using Apprenticeship. Apprenticeship helps teaching and learning in a rich context. Apprenticeships emphasize that knowledge must be used to solve real-world problems, focusing on both expert processes and context learning (Sawyer, 2005). Traditional apprenticeships, however, must have a hands-on learning experience, evidenced by the craftsmanship produced. Collins et al. (1989) proposed the concept of cognitive apprenticeship. Cognitive apprenticeship emphasizes cognitive learning processes such as visualizing conceptual processing. In this approach, the teacher or other knowledgeable person interprets the reasoning process behind the teacher's actions, thereby teaching students through cognitive apprenticeship. Teachers then provide guidance and scaffolds to reduce teacher intervention that enables students to act without teacher support (Spector et al., 2007). In the apprenticeship-based teaching improvement model, expert teachers with rich teaching experience and strong teaching ability usually take the role of masters, while novice teachers are in the role of apprentices (Sawyer, 2005).

The most prominent features of the apprenticeship in improving teaching competence are observation, imitation, and repeated practice. Teachers find problems in practice, acquiring knowledge through reflection and questioning, and acquiring practical skills through re-observation and imitation. Expert teachers should not only demonstrate well, but also provide scaffolding for novice teachers including the evaluation and guidance of novice teacher teaching practice. The main steps of the apprenticeship-based method in improving teaching ability are observation, imitation, reflection, questioning, and practice. The process is shown in Fig. 4.3.

Fig. 4.3

Flowchart of improving teaching competence using apprenticeship

Observation. Observation is the first step of the apprenticeship-based model. Through observation, the apprentice intuitively understands the behavior learned. During the observation step, teachers observe expert teachers’ teaching process in the teaching site or watching a video of the teaching process. The content of observation can be the process of designing the lesson plan or demonstrating teaching practice. These two types of content are the process-oriented examples and product-oriented examples (Gog et al., 2004).

Product-oriented work examples describe the process of solving a problem by providing the learner with an initial state, a goal state, and a set of problem-solving steps (Gog et al., 2004). A product example only provides a solution to a problem. The learner learns from some problems with solutions before dealing with the requirements of the problem, and goes through three stages of self-explanation, schema construction, and automated practice in the learning process (Renkl, 2014). Through worked examples, the learner investigates the state of the problem, the goal state, and the expert's solution to the problem (Hoogveld et al., 2005). Then, learners gain knowledge of the problem state, operations, and knowledge elicited by the applied operations, which is then integrated into cognitive schemas that apply to subsequent problem solving. Through observation, novice teachers can obtain the main elements of good instructional design or practice and their relationships. In the observation process, teachers have a more comprehensive understanding of the expert teachers’ teaching structure, teaching process organization, teaching skills, language organization and expression, and teaching attitude.

Process-oriented worked examples explain how to solve a given problem and why these operations are used (Van Gog et al., 2004). It explains not only the “what” to the learner, but also the “why.” By observing the detailed process of designing and organizing teaching by expert teachers, novice teachers can further understand why the expert teachers design and organize teaching in this way, and the pedagogical theoretical foundation behind it. These fundamentals are essential factors in enabling transfer, and in theory, process-oriented worked examples can lead to more efficient transfer. Process information may initially impose an effective cognitive load on the learner and lead to greater efficiency. However, during training it may become redundant and impose an ineffective load, thus affecting efficiency (Van Gog et al., 2004, 2008). Observation is not a singular occurrence, and teachers usually observe multiple expert teachers or repeatedly observe the teaching process of one expert teacher. After each observation, teachers should sort out, summarize, and refine the observation content. Based on observation, novice teachers extract the observed core elements and the basic structure between the elements, incorporate them into their own cognitive schema, and form their own understanding through cognitive processing.

Imitation. The original meaning of learning is to imitate, and imitation is a necessary step for teachers to develop teaching competencies. Imitation is a modeling process, and the learner learns by modeling and using the model (Jonassen, 2006). Just looking at a model and imitating it is called indirect learning (Bandura, 1986). Yet, by building a model and manipulating it, learners can learn more (Jonassen, 2006). Modeling is one of the cognitive processes with the strongest conceptual engagement that requires learners to express causal reasoning explicitly while providing cognitive support. Modeling involves testing hypotheses, conjectures, reasoning, and other important cognitive skills. Modeling includes representing the real world, simulating the problem-solving process of experts, and visualizing strategies and details (Collins, 1989). During the modeling process, learners identify appropriate elements to present theory or reality, or both. The learning process resides in specific choices made by the modeling.

Project-based learning modeling includes domain knowledge modeling, problem modeling, and thinking modeling. Domain knowledge modeling is the modeling of domain knowledge and its structure. Problem modeling is constructing a mental space for a problem; that is, a mental model consisting of carefully selected problem elements and their interrelationships (Jonassen, 2006). Thinking modeling is when learners reflect on their own learning process. They then model the thinking used to solve a problem, make a decision, or complete a task (Jonassen, 2006). Mindtools help learners transcend their thinking limitations including memory, mindset, or problem-solving limitations (Pea, 1985).

Novice teachers form their own domain knowledge and knowledge on teaching methods through cognitive processing of the information obtained by observation. They express it through externalized instruction design plan or teaching practice. This process is called imitation. In the initial stage of imitation, it reflects the characteristics of “drawing a tiger according to the cat,” which means that the novice teachers mostly imitate the explicit behavior of the expert teachers. Through imitative behavior, novice teachers’ understanding of domain knowledge and knowledge of teaching methods are transformed into explicit teaching skills. The teaching behaviors of expert teachers imitated by novice teachers are usually typical and prominent. In general, a one-time imitation does not achieve the desired goal, and imitation is an iterative process intertwined with observation, reflection, and practice.

Reflection. Frequent feedback is critical for learners to gain insight into learning and understanding. Learners need to monitor their learning and actively assess their strategies and current level of understanding. Reflection forms knowledge construction, and the “acceptance” formed without reflection does not mean construction, but a mechanical accumulation or rote memorization of knowledge. The factor that triggers knowledge construction is the cognitive imbalance. The elimination of the cognitive imbalance manifests itself as a psychological operation of assimilation and adaptation at the micro-level, and as a reflection at the macro-level. Reflection is a way of thinking within a metacognitive process. In reflective activities, learners review and analyze their performance and compare their performance with others such as peers or experts (Collins, 1989). Speculation and testing in the process of reflection significantly promote the integration of domain-relevant knowledge (Bandura, 1986). The process also prompts learners to examine the process of cognitive activities and improve learning strategies.

Reflection in the process of teaching competency development mainly refers to teachers’ reflection on their own imitation behaviors. Imitation behavior is the externalization of teachers’ teaching competencies. Novice teachers reflect on their teaching behaviors to re-understand their understanding of teaching and find conflicts. Teachers revise their understanding based on feedback from peers. Their knowledge is internalized in interpersonal interactions and self-reflection.

Questioning. Questioning is the driving force for developing teaching competencies. First, questioning is the manifestation of the cognitive imbalance at the macro level. Asking questions is a learning process. The learner discovers cognitive conflicts when reflecting on the existing cognitive schema, and then generating learning needs. Second, questioning maintains the learner's attention, keeping the learners focused on the problem and other important issues (Barron et al., 1998). Cognitive imbalances caused by cognitive conflict drive learners into cognitive assimilation or adaptation activities. For example, retrieving information based on the relationship between existing knowledge and new information to help new knowledge “grow” based on the original experience forms a new cognitive schema.

Problem solving reflects the active process and results of learners’ thinking activities. On one hand, in applying knowledge to solve problems, learners may find a gap between the knowledge they simply accept, and the knowledge used and put into effect. This sense of gap further promotes and stimulates the learners to reconstruct and reflect on the knowledge concepts they have learned. This way, learners can strengthen their in-depth understanding and comprehension of knowledge, transform sluggish inert knowledge into internalized active knowledge, further understand new knowledge, and promote thinking development and improvement. To a certain extent, problems become the basis and approach for selecting knowledge, testing thinking, and developing abilities.

On the other hand, questioning promotes the synergistic development of learners’ knowledge and thinking ability. Problem-solving represents the completion of a complex intellectual activity consisting of various cognitive skills and actions. Novice teachers have doubts in reflection, find deficiencies when comparing their teaching behaviors with those of expert teachers, and form new learning needs.

Practicing. Practicing (Xi) in ancient Chinese means a bird practicing flying repeatedly. Teaching is a highly practical activity, and practice is a necessary way to improve teaching ability. Practice is the explication of modeling results. Novice teachers refine their internal knowledge of what to teach and how they teach based on reflection, while practices externalize their internal modeling about teaching. In addition, through practice, expert teachers can observe the teaching behavior of novice teachers and discover their understanding of relevant knowledge and mastery of teaching skills. Therefore, practice makes teaching skills more proficient, while exposing the problems in teachers’ teaching. Practice intertwines with observation and imitation. Learning and practicing achieve unity in practice.

Coaching. Coaching is the guidance and help given by expert teachers based on evaluating the teaching skills of novice teachers. Coaching scaffolds for the improvement of teacher teaching ability. Coaching can appear in diverse ways such as prompting, feedback, hinting, demonstration, and guidance. Problem guidance is a commonly used scaffold strategy.

Teaching Competency Development in Teaching and Research Section. The teaching and research section is usually a unit within a department or college. Development of teaching competencies in the teaching and research section adopts the apprenticeship approach and the community of practice model. This development model emphasizes the role of masters/experts and peers in the learning community. Another prominent feature of this model is that the unit has a strict organizational system, evaluation process, and supervision mechanism.

The main process of the teaching competency development model in teaching and research section includes practice, peer review, revision, and re-practice, as shown in Fig. 4.4.

Fig. 4.4

Flowchart on improving teaching competence in the teaching and research section

Collective Lesson Preparations. The teaching and research office develops teaching plans by, and individual members formulate personalized teaching plans according to their own course learning goals. At this stage, each teacher should prepare lesson plans collectively and have a settled weekly plan for collective lesson preparations meetings such as meeting frequency, duration, and the content and agenda for each meeting. A teaching and research office usually organizes at least one instructional activity from time to time (e.g., every week). The activity depends on each unit's specific regulations and situation, and informal communication between unit members is not limited to this activity.

Peer Review and Reflection. The teaching and research office members review other members’ lesson plans and teaching practices to learn from each other, criticize the shortcomings, and suggest improvement. In this process, experienced teachers should guide other teachers and provide more scaffolding. Through the mentoring process, novice teachers are encouraged to promote their teaching competence through observations and teaching competitions.

Improvement. Teachers revise and improve lesson plans based on peers’ feedback and personal reflection. The revised lesson plan can go through the peer review process again. Teachers implement the revised and improved lesson plans in the classroom. The teaching and research office members conduct teaching peer review, including classroom observation and commendation, and offer recommendations for how to improve future classroom teaching practice. The unit could also organize specific training programs targeting common or prominent problems in teaching.

Monitoring and Evaluation. A person assigned to oversee the whole teaching and researching process ensures the effectiveness of the teaching and research office. This includes monitoring and evaluating progress.

4.5.4 Evidence-Based Approach

Evidence-based method refers to educational practices that emphasize empirical evidence. In the education field, experiments are the most typical empirical study. By conducting experiments, instructors could gather scientific evidence and draw findings on how to effectively improve their instructional design and improve students learning achievements. When discussing teaching effectiveness, the common final scientific evidence is whether students benefit from the improvement of instructors’ improved teaching. This evidence is embodied in improving students’ course satisfaction, academic performance, and increased interest in learning.

The teaching center works with instructors by offering consultations on improving teaching effectiveness based upon student feedback. The general steps of this kind of project are as follows in Table 4.6.

Table 4.6 Instruction assessment and improvement of project implementation steps

A data-driven approach to develop teaching competencies

This case is from the Teaching + Learning Commons (the Commons) at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD: https://commons.ucsd.edu/)

Combining equity-focused and evidence-based approaches in all services, the Commons at UCSD encourages all instructors to assess and reflect on whether their teaching practices contribute to equitable outcomes for all students. The Education Research and Assessment Hub (ERAH) under the Commons has access to campus institutional data and learning management system (LMS) data. ERAH gathers evidence of teaching effectiveness by collecting data from both students’ learning outcomes and survey feedback. For example, the hub supports instructors in designing experiments using empirical research methods, developing and administering surveys, sampling student artifacts, and supporting data analysis. Machine learning methods such as topical modeling and sentimental analysis are applied to understand the text data generated from student open-ended survey questions. For quantitative data analysis, student data are disaggregated by different student groups (e.g., first generations, under-represented students). This way, minority students’ feedback and learning outcomes are not ignored. Instructors also have to pay attention to whether teaching strategies are effective in helping all students become successful. The ERAH applies evidence-based and equity-focused principles throughout the project, including research design and data analysis.

4.6 Teaching Competency Development at Individual Level

The development of teaching competencies at an individual level includes four categories based on the dimensions of thinking and practice and explicit and implicit dimensions. These categories include reflective practitioners, metacognitive approaches, novice to expert, and action research (Pill, 2005). College teachers’ most desired training formats include on-site and online training. Akahori et al. (2001) found that online training support systems had considerably increased the knowledge and skills of participating teachers. Falcinelli et al. believed that integrating trainees’ online activities, small group activities, and training courses would result in a more successful teachers training format. This section introduces teachers’ self-regulated learning and teaching practice model based on open educational resources (OER), teaching practice exchange and reflection based on online community and learning community, teaching–learning model, and teacher development model based on adaptive learning systems.

4.6.1 Teacher Self-regulated Learning and Teaching Practice Model Based on OER

Self-regulated learning refers to how students can determine learning goals, formulate learning plans, and make specific learning preparations before learning activities. They can self-monitor, self-feedback and self-adjust learning progress and learning methods during learning activities. They can self-check, self-summarize, self-evaluate, and self-revise learning outcomes after learning activities (Pang, 2001).

Self-regulated learning is a learning process model in which each stage is connected in a cyclical format that includes cognition, emotion, and social situation. Each area supports teachers’ iterative reflection process and helps them see how they constructed their core knowledge. Therefore, the teacher self-regulated learning model supports teachers’ autonomous learning and offers professional development more completely and systematically (Burton, 2013). In the past 20–30 years, academia has conducted a lot of research on self-regulated learning and proposed a series of self-regulated learning models. Winne and Hadwin (1998) proposed a four-stage self-regulated learning model: (1) defining tasks, (2) setting goals and planning, (3) developing learning strategies, and (4) adapting metacognition for future learning. Starting from the college student’s self-regulated learning to improve performance, Zimmerman (1998) also proposed a four-step cyclical model of self-regulated learning: (1) self-evaluation and monitoring, (2) goal setting and strategic planning, (3) strategy implementation and monitoring, and (4) strategic outcomes monitoring. Winne and Hadwin's model are more inclined toward the preparatory stage of self-regulated learning, while Zimmerman’s model emphasizes the integrity of the process.

Later, Zimmerman et al. (2008) proposed a social cognitive model of self-regulated learning, which divides the learning process into a three-stage learning activity cycle. The cycle includes the pre-planning stage, the execution stage, and the self-reflection stage. The social cognitive model enriches the content of behavior, motivation, and cognition involved in each stage process, and regarded as a three-stage cycle formed by a series of events. The first stage is planning that includes two activities: task analysis and self-motivation belief. The task analysis activity sets goals and plans learning strategies according to the goals. Self-motivation beliefs include a series of self-motivation adjustments including self-efficacy, expectation of results, interest or value to the task and goals, and goal orientation. The second stage is execution and includes two adjustment processes: self-control and self-monitoring. Self-control consists of self-teaching, imagination, concentration, and organizing task strategies. The self-monitoring process includes metacognitive monitoring and self-recording. The third stage is self-reflection that involves self-judgment and self-reaction based on self-judgement. The self-judgment process includes self-evaluation and attribution of evaluation results. Self-reaction includes self-satisfaction and active adjustment or resistance to outcomes. Teacher self-regulated learning is a cycle including goal guidance, strategy activities (i.e., defining problems and expectations, setting goals, selection, adjustment, and creation of appropriate strategies), self-monitoring of results, and adjustment of goals and methods to achieve better desired results (Butler & Schnellert, 2012).

Individual self-regulated learning is achieved with OER, where learning environment and self-regulated learning strategies play an important role. A major challenge of using OER is how to apply OER in the teaching and learning process effectively. The resource-based learning environment provides a theoretical framework for self-regulated learning based on open educational resources. Yet, self-regulated learning strategies are the important self-regulated learning scaffolds. The scaffolds guide learners to set and plan learning tasks, formulate learning objectives, select and use appropriate learning resources, and self-monitoring and reflection on the learning process. Gagne (1965) pointed out in his nine events of instruction that effective learning did not mean just presenting teaching information. It needed more instruction and support such as maintaining learning motivation and completing learning tasks. Deimann et al. (2007) stated that simply providing learners with OER was meaningless because learners needed support and guidance to maintain learning. They believed that teachers needed to use educational design knowledge to promote the effective application of OER. They proposed some overall principles for integrating OER and instructional design including providing contextual information, scaffolds, and tools and learning modules to support the use of OER to achieve instructional objectives. The self-regulated learning process based on OERs includes (a) setting self-regulated learning objectives, (b) formulating learning plans, (c) selecting and organizing learning resources according to learning objectives, (d) performing metacognitive monitoring and process adjustment in the learning process, (e) learning reflection and self-evaluation, and (f) modifying and improving learning objectives and learning plans.

Teachers’ Self-regulated Learning and Teaching Practices Steps. For teachers’ self-regulated learning and teaching practices based on OER, teachers should construct a resource-based learning environment, which generally includes four elements: context, resources, tools, and scaffolds (Hill & Jannafin, 2001).

According to Hill and Jannafin (2001), context referred to a learning environment that guided learners to a specific learning need or problem. Its main function is to provide learners with matching learning problems or learning environments for specific learning objectives and learning needs. There are three different types of contexts. First, the teacher and the external environment provide the externally directed context, which both correspond to the objectivist epistemology. Second, learner-generated context is based on learners’ unique environment and needs that corresponds to constructivist epistemology. Learners self-define their knowledge and skill needs, identify relevant resources, and establish meaningful associations between these resources and their needs. Finally, the negotiated context is a combination of the above two contexts. The externally directed context gives a relatively macro problem, and the learner generated context defines subproblems according to his/her internal needs.

Self-regulated learning must be based on sufficient learning resources. Hill and Hannafin (2001) defined resources as the foundation of a learning environment that consists of media, people, location, and perspectives to support the learning process. OERs provide self-regulated learners with a large number of open access courseware, open textbooks, open courses, teaching media materials, and personal and community resources. They are open to the society free of charge and provide a sufficient reserve of learning resources for self-regulated learning based on OERs.

According to Hill and Hannafin (2001), tools are used to assist students in learning with resources. Their main function is to help learners locate, access, operate, interpret, and evaluate the usefulness of resources. It helps learners organize and present their understanding in concrete ways. There are generally four types of tools to support a resource-based learning environment: searching tools, processing tools, manipulating tools, and communication tools.

Hill and Hannafin (2001) described scaffolds as all types of support that assist learners in participating in learning tasks. In a resource-based learning environment, the main function of scaffolds is to assist and support learners in the process of participating in and completing learning tasks. There are four types of scaffolds: procedural scaffolds, conceptual scaffolds, strategic scaffolds, and metacognitive scaffolds. Procedural scaffolds emphasize how to help learners use the existing resources. It enables learners to focus on resources during learning activities. Concept scaffolds guide learners to identify problem-related knowledge and establish connections among concepts to make them more explicit. Metacognitive scaffolds are often used in inquiry-based learning environments, prompting reflection, comparison, and revision based on self-evaluation and understanding. Strategy scaffolds primarily support learners in determining the methods of analysis, planning, and response such as identifying and selecting information and evaluating resources (Hannafin & Hill, 2007). These four scaffolds incorporate into the model of self-regulated learning.

Specifically, the self-regulated learning process based on OERs includes an array of activities. These tasks include: (a) setting self-regulated learning goals, (b) formulating study plans, (c) searching and organizing learning resources according to the learning goal, (d) performing metacognitive monitoring and processing adjustment in the learning process, (e) learning reflection and self-evaluation, and (f) revising and improving the learning goal and plans.

Setting Self-regulated Learning Goal. The goal of teachers’ self-regulated learning generally comes from the reflection on teaching practice. Teachers generally make basic judgments about their teaching ability and development through observation and reflection. However, they often do not have clear problems and specific development goals. Teachers can refer to the teaching ability framework, indicators, and standards of college teachers described in the previous chapter to evaluate their own teaching abilities. They can further understand their own teaching ability’s status through peer and student evaluation and feedback. Teachers can set appropriate and feasible developmental goals based on the stage of development and break them down into specific and continuous learning goals.

Formulating Study Plan. Teachers develop a learning plan based on the self-regulated learning goal. The plan includes learning tasks, learning content, learning paths, and time arrangements. When formulating a learning plan, teachers should decompose the learning tasks properly to make them operable. When formulating the learning path, teachers should set the type and sequence of learning activities according to the factors such as their own learning styles and self-regulated learning abilities. When selecting learning content, teachers should focus on subject matching, target specificity, and diversity of formats. When arranging the study time, teachers should consider the contradiction between work and study, family, and study, and maintain the continuity of learning.

Searching and Organizing Learning Resources. Teachers use certain search strategies to find learning resources such as resource type, knowledge content, question type, and the like. Once selecting the required learning resources, teachers sort out and compare the retrieved resources. For example, they learn about teaching methodology, observe excellent teaching cases of the same content, analyze the advantages and characteristics of teaching methods used in different cases, and refine their common features. They can understand the knowledge of pedagogy and transfer it to their own instructional design and practice.

Metacognitive Monitoring and Process Adjustment. In order to gain insight into learning and understanding, learners need frequent feedback. Learners need to monitor their own learning, and actively assess their strategies and current level of understanding (Bransford et al., 1999). They can adjust their learning process based on their reflection on learning cognition. Metacognitive monitoring runs through all aspects and processes of self-regulated learning and teaching practices. Learners adjust the learning process according to the monitoring results. Monitoring and strategy use are two of the most critical aspects of self-regulated learning (Winne & Hadwin, 1998; Winne, 2001).

Learning Reflection and Self-evaluation. Teachers’ self-regulated learning process integrates with teaching practices. Teachers should often reflect and evaluate the self-regulated learning process and teaching practices. In reflection activities, learners review and analyze their own performance, and compare theirs with others’ (peers or experts) performance (Collins, 1989). Speculation and testing in the process of reflection significantly promote the integration of domain knowledge (Bandura, 1986), and motivate learners to examine the process of cognitive activities and improve learning strategies. Specifically, teachers can apply what they have learned to teaching practice and test what they have learned through practice. For example, the learning results can improve the teaching plan. Teachers put the teaching plan into teaching practice. They can video-record the teaching process, watch the video of the teaching process repeatedly, sort out the steps that do not achieve the expectation, analyze the reasons, and propose solutions.

Revising and Improving the Learning Goal and Plans. The goals and plans of self-regulated learning are not static. Teachers should adjust the learning goals and plans appropriately according to the learning progress and problems in the learning process.

4.6.2 Teaching Practice Exchange and Reflection Model Based on Online Community and Learning Community

In the process of self-developing teaching competencies, teachers complete the learning process as adult learners. On one hand, a great feature of adult learners is that they have a wealth of work experience (Knowles et al., 2005), which becomes a resource for learning from each other. Teaching practice experience is the most valuable professional development resource for teachers. Teaching practice integrates with the content learned for teacher development. Through teaching observation, it is easier to form learning resources suitable for teachers’ development in the zone of proximal development. At the same time, interaction based on real problems in teaching practice helps teachers form interdependent partnerships, thus resulting in high-quality construction processes and results. Teachers’ professional knowledge develops in the process of communicating with their peers. On the other hand, communication among adults helps promote individual reflection on teaching. Two or more peer teachers work together to reflect on current teaching practices, improve and build new skills, teach each other, share experiences, participate in teaching research, and work on practical problems (Robbins, 1991). By observing peers’ teaching practices, teachers can easily compare and distinguish their own teaching experience, clarify the problems and deficiencies in teaching, and form new learning needs. Teachers should make full use of teaching experience to carry out teaching observation and evaluation, conduct professional reflection, regularly summarize, and exchange practical experience, and increase the feedback between teachers to improve teaching behavior. Teachers can promote learning development together in collaboration. Collaborative professional learning based on online communities or learning communities is part of teacher’s professional development. It is a way of reverting the teacher training process to an activity involving shared action. Its main idea is the recognition that teachers learn from their teaching practice. They learn to explore select, experiment, innovate, and ultimately learn to teach. Thus, collaborative professional learning combines a variety of strategies involving peer interaction such as learning new teaching methodologies, reflecting on classroom events, and developing and reviewing institutional educational programs. Collaborative processes include interaction, dialogue, and reflective analysis to change one's way of being and generate pedagogical knowledge in practice. Suggestions or constructive criticism of the teacher's presentation from mentors, colleagues, or observers, are most effective, especially before and after the teaching observation (Marcelo, 2008). Equally effective is group work between experienced and inexperienced teachers, mixed work groups based on majors, or mixed work groups involving teachers and administrators or teachers and students. Teaching competency development depends on practical reflection, which can make recommendations for the observed teachers through observing others, describing their own experiences, classroom observations, and communication (see Fig. 4.5).

Fig. 4.5

Flow chart of teaching practice communication and reflection model within an online community

Setting up a Virtual Community and Learning Communities. With the help of tools such as blogs, podcasts, Wikis, RSS, and Delicious, in-service teachers and education experts can set up a virtual teaching and research community. Teachers participate in constructing and improving practical knowledge in the virtual community. The virtual communities have different levels or types according to the scope of universities or subject categories covered such as national level, state level, district and county level, engineering education, medicine, and teacher education. Teachers in the virtual community form learning communities based on the subjects they teach.

Online Observing and Discussing Teaching Practice Cases. Best practices can be learned through observing teaching practice videos or reviewing each other’s instructional plans. On one hand, best teaching practices provide teaching models for other teachers to imitate. By analyzing and discussing the advantages of various teaching strategies, teaching methods, and imperfections, teachers form their own teaching templates. Discussion is an expressive process that transforms specific situational knowledge into generalized knowledge by expressing tacit knowledge to be explicit. On the other hand, observed teachers find benefits in receiving peer feedback that represent the same point of view and common difficulties (Collins, 1989). Webb (1982, 1989) found that learning enhanced when learners gave explanations and questions to each other. During the interpretation process, learners can clarify concepts, restructure thinking, and reconceptualize material. Peer questioning engages learners in problem-solving, knowledge-building interpretation, and reasoning (King, 1991, 1993). Based on the exchange of teaching practices in online communities and learning communities, teachers discover the differences between their knowledge of teaching practice and their peers’ knowledge of teaching practice through online sharing and comparison. They ask questions, discuss, negotiate the differences, and reach a consensus in the collision of opinions. They then form more recognized knowledge in the community and realize the co-construction and development of teaching skills and knowledge.

Teaching Reflection and Improvement. Teaching observation helps promote teaching reflection. The speculation and inspection in the process of reflection significantly promote the integration of domain knowledge (Bandura, 1986). They also prompt teachers to examine the process of cognitive activities and improve teaching strategies. Teachers often need to reflect on teaching practices and underlying assumptions. They also need to identify basic teaching principles, formulate principles-compliant plans for teaching activities and practices, monitor results, and critically reflect on their efforts and activities. Reflection embodies two aspects in the exchange of teaching practice based on the online and learning communities. One is the reflective behavior generated in the process of comparing with peers’ teaching. Different perspectives on teaching form a source of cognitive conflict. In comparing their teaching behaviors with others, teachers make comparisons, identify, and decide whether to adjust their own teaching behaviors and test them in teaching practice. The second is to reflect on one's teaching behavior such as noting down or recording one's teaching process, viewing the notes, or watching videos afterwards, or recall the process to analyze, judge, and adjust the teaching process. Through reflection, teachers apply the constructed knowledge to the improvement of teaching plan and teaching practice. In general, the learning environment of an online community can support teachers’ self-regulated learning in adapting and reflective teaching. Even without collaborative support, teachers can improve their teaching practice through systematic, planned, and reflective self-regulated learning (Butler et al., 2004).

Evaluation and Guidance. Teachers post the teaching plan or teaching process video to the online learning community. Community members analyze the teaching plan or teaching video to point out deficiencies and make suggestions for improvement. In the process, several teachers discuss the same teaching plan or video. The discussion serves as scaffolds for other teachers’ development in this conversation. They pay attention to problematic strategies that can arouse peers’ thinking, demonstrate peers’ understanding of the problem through brainstorming, and form a common problem solution. In this process, expert teachers with teaching experience should give full play to their leading role and guide the direction of discussion.

Teaching practice exchange and reflection cases based on online community and learning community

• 1. National Teacher Training Network of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

  Teachers use telematics and information technology to exchange experiences and communicate online (i.e., forums, chat rooms, and videoconferencing), as well as share individual and group work disseminated in educational settings anywhere in the country (https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000232822)

• 2. Virtual Community of Practice Thematic Network

  Argentina's professional development plan for teachers includes the use of emerging technologies such as e-mail, e-groups, and virtual platforms to create a tool that allows for communication and collaboration beyond physical distances. In some provinces, these are employed in induction processes (Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, National Teacher Training Institute 2007)

• 3. Brazil Web Conference

  The working group meets regularly online. This activity increases communication and enables teachers to share their work. The coordinator is a qualified teacher selected to oversee the program. The role of the coordinator is to plan, implement, support, and evaluate the work of teachers involved in professional development groups (https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000232822).

4.6.3 Teaching–Learning Model

Teaching is a collective effort. Student learning is the result of intervention by a group of teachers who collaborate with and intervene with students chronologically or synchronously (UNESCO, 2015). At the same time, teachers realize their own development in the process of teaching. Xue Ji or The Note of Learning is one of the articles in Li Ji written in classical Chinese. Xue Ji is the first Chinese theoretical works to systematically discuss the issues of education and teaching written between fourth–third century BC. Xue Ji stated,

Although there is delicious food, you do not know its deliciousness without tasting it. Although there are profound and perfect truths, you will not know its benefits if you do not study it. Only after teaching others will you realize that there is something you do not understand well. Only when you know your academic deficiencies can you be strict with yourself. Only when you know what you do not understand can you study tirelessly. Therefore, teaching and learning promote each other. Teaching others can also increase their own knowledge. Duiming says, ‘Teaching is half of learning.’ That is what it means.

That is to say teachers are half-teaching and half-learning in the process of teaching and teaching and learning go hand-in-hand with each other.

In the teaching process, teachers present their own understanding of the domain knowledge they teach through teaching design and implementation, and at the same time present their domain knowledge and teaching ability. This process is more of a process of extracting concepts. Student feedback is a very important source of information to distinguish concepts and increase concepts and knowledge integration in this process.

In-service teachers’ professional learning and development activities should integrate with their existing teaching experience and learning needs. Teachers’ own view of students and their teaching methods to meet students’ needs are more significant for students to obtain a positive learning experience. Meeting the needs of students requires cultivating students’ knowledge, skills, emotional attitudes, and values based on disciplines and courses. At the same time, it requires teachers to meet their developmental needs in a way that suits students’ psychological and emotional characteristics. Paying attention to the interaction between teachers and students can improve subject teaching and promote the development of teachers’ professional ability (Zhang, 2015). Its effectiveness reflects in the cognitive development of students. Communication with students enables students to provide feedback on teaching. Teachers improve teaching by reflecting on teaching based on student feedback (see Fig. 4.6).

Fig. 4.6

Teaching–learning model flowchart

Designing Instruction. Teachers design instruction and form instruction plans based on the subject's teaching objectives and the students’ overall learning needs.

Delivering Instruction. Teachers deliver instruction according to the teaching plan. They fully interact with students during the teaching process, and obtain more real student needs through interaction, including practical feedback on the domain knowledge reflected in the teaching content and teaching methods.

Reflecting on Instruction. According to the teacher-student activities in teaching and the feedback from students, teachers think about the problems existing in teaching and the confusion generated in teaching. This forms the driving force of learning development as teachers modify and improve the teaching plan and apply it to teaching practice.

4.6.4 Teacher Development Model Based on Adaptive Learning Systems

The development of artificial intelligence and data mining technology provides technical support for teachers to deliver adaptive learning. The adaptive learning system not only provides functional support for teachers’ development, but also diagnose teachers’ online learning in real time and provide dynamic scaffolds.

Teachers, as learners, have different prior knowledge and learning styles (e.g., field-dependent and field-independent). They also have varying levels of self-regulated learning abilities such as super-self-regulators, competent self-regulators, forethought-endorsing self-regulators, performance/reflection self-regulators, and non or minimal self-regulator (Lucy et al., 2010). In the teachers’ online learning process, the adaptive learning system usually has a learning analysis function that monitors and tracks the learning process according to the teacher's learning trajectory. It analyzes the teacher's learning style characteristics, cognitive preferences, and self-adjusted learning level. Interventions such as providing resources in line with their cognitive characteristics and levels, giving learning feedback and suggestions, and recommending learning paths and other learning scaffolds are given. Scaffolds are implicit and explicit (Winne, 2001), conceptual, metacognitive, procedural and strategic (Hannafin et al., 1999; White et al., 2000; Vye et al., 1998), and fixed and adaptive (Azevedo et al., 2004). Ideally, the system would also be able to model effective strategies while monitoring and tracking ineffective strategies’ use (or lack thereof). Monitoring would include warnings and feedback to encourage effective strategies and discourage the use of ineffective strategies (Lucy et al., 2010).

The teacher development model based on the adaptive learning system is mainly used for teachers’ self-regulated learning. Developing the system requires a lot of work consisting of learner analysis, learning behavior analysis, learning strategy generation rules, and so on. Technology is an important element in the system development process. The quality of the system determines the theory on which technical analysis is based \. For the analysis of learning styles, learning styles from different dimensions are analyzed such as field-independent and field-dependent, visual, and auditory, sequential and holistic, and so on. For different learning styles, we should consider what types and forms of learning resources are provided, what learning paths are recommended, and what learning strategies are provided. For the judgment of the teacher's cognitive level, we should judge the learning stage of the cognitive level in combination with the learning objectives and recommend learning tasks suitable for their cognitive proximal development zone. For the judgment of teachers’ self-regulated learning level, we should set judgment standards and indicators, analyze the learning strategies of teachers at different levels, and provide corresponding monitoring and adjustment strategies. The degree of adaptation of the learning system varies due to the maturity of the technology and the richness of teachers’ online learning data. The intelligence of the system reflects in the learning analysis and intervention with weak rules. In specific applications, we should consider the degree of intelligence of the system we have, and appropriately supplement the intervention of human tutors.