Kristine Uzule

Foreign Language Teachers within the Digital Competences for Educators Framework: Programming at C1-C2 Levels

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Transport and Telecommunication Institute, Latvia

uzule.k@tsi.lv

ABSTRACT

Teaching in a remote mode has indicated the need to include more diverse materials into classroom teaching to satisfy personal needs of students, which is consistent with the approach of personalization of learning, which according to Zhang et al. (2020), is an objective of current educational systems. Foreign language teachers need to implement personalization of learning in response to the impoverished and occasionally inconsistent foreign language input in the classroom. Personalization of learning might be achieved through the development of teacher digital competences, which according to the Digital Competences of Educators (DCE) (Redecker & Punie, 2017), range from A1 to C2 levels. Rokenes and Krumsvik (2016) argue that foreign language teachers use digital skills in a limited manner for paperwork purposes and some work with materials. Such operations correspond to A1-B2 DCE levels. Teaching in such contexts call for two research questions: (1) Can A1-B2 DCE competences and C1-C2 DCE competences of foreign language teachers satisfy the current and future requirements of personalization of learning? (2) Should C1-C2 DCE competences for foreign language teachers include programming skills? The paper aims to prove that more productive personalization of learning can be attained by teachers with C1-C2 DCE competences, which should include some knowledge of a programming language, such as Python. The aim will be achieved considering Zhang et al. (2020) approach in accord with which personalization of learning depends on two factors – available technology and factors impacting the study context. The research methodology has included content and needs’ analysis methods.

Keywords

Digital competences, foreign language teachers, personalization of learning

References

1. Redecker, C. & Punie, Y. (2017). European Framework for the Digital Competences of Educators (DigCompEdu). JRS Science for Policy Report of the European Commission. Available at: https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/fcc33b68-d581- 11e7-a5b9-01aa75ed71a1/language-en. Accessed on [1 April 2021].

2. Rokenes, F. M. and Krumsvik, R. J. (2016). Prepared to teach ESL with ICT? A study of digital competence in Norwegian teacher education. Computers and Education, 97, 1-20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.02.014

3. Zhang, L., Basham, J. D. And Yang, S. (2020). Understanding the implementation of personalized learning: A research synthesis. Educational Research Review, 31, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2020.100339