Core Skills Training in a Teacher Training Programme

Abstract

Fullan and Langworthy (2013) identified eight Deep Learning Skills in 2013. Michael Fullan later focuses on Key Future Skills or the 6 C's, which students need to know in order to live in the modern times. Public schools, worldwide, are gradually adding Deep Learning Tasks to their curriculum in order to prepare their students for a modern life. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of adding an online Learning Management System to a teacher training programme for language teachers who are not digitally as literate as their students to prepare these teachers to develop their students⿿ Key Future Skills. This study was conducted over a period of 9 months with 50 primary and secondary school English language teachers in a rural school in Malaysia during a project by the British Council for the Ministry of Education. The teachers⿿ online behaviour was monitored and documented during this period. Data were collected through questionnaires (10 questions) at the end of the project and through interviews 6 months after the end of the project. The results show that the teachers became more vigilant towards Deep Learning Skills and their significance for life in the 21st century and the application of technology in their own teaching context. On a positive note, their active online presence and collaboration with each other on the selected platform also helped them feel more confident in preparing their own students to develop their 6 C's independently.