Competences for 21st Century Schools Course Competences for 21st Century Schools Course

In November 2014 the online course Competences for 21st Century Schools, developed on the basis of the work produced by KeyCoNet, was launched on the EUN Academy platform. This course was targeted at teachers and other educational professionals interested in competence-based education.

The aim was to provide participants with a thorough introduction to the topic, as well as make them aware of the issues and challenges related to making competence-based education a reality in the classroom. Furthermore, teachers were given concrete tips on how to implement project-based learning, a particularly suitable method for delivering competence-based education, as well as on how to assess this type of collaborative learning.

The total number of users who enrolled in the course was 1553, out of which 1097 started the course. Approximately 45% of the participants who started the course completed it successfully.

 

According to the evaluation survey that participants took at the end of the course, the majority of course participants (65.77%) were secondary school teachers, followed by primary school teachers (17.63%). An impressive 58% of all participants who took the course have had 16-20+ years of experience working in the educational field. Around 50% of participants claimed they were familiar with competence-based learning before taking the course, while around 35% stated they were new to this topic and were eager to learn more.

 

When asked to rate the overall value of the course, the vast majority of the participants rated it as very good (69.19%) or good (29.38%). To give some indicative participant views on the course, 99.05% of the survey respondents strongly agreed or agreed that the course met their expectations, 98.58% that the course objectives were clearly communicated and 98.11% would recommend this course to a colleague or friend.

 

Some testimonies from course participants:

  • “I have gained practical ideas of how I can improve my professional practice.”
  • “There were wonderful examples of great work of teachers across Europe. It is so optimistic to see so much enthusiasm among colleagues”.
  • “I liked the approach of the course. I have participated in other online courses in my country which unlike this course did not require evaluating the work of other colleagues. It was interesting”.
  • “The aims and objectives are clearly explained. The video talks were informative and interesting. The course challenged my assumptions on assessment of competences”.
  • “I most enjoyed the experience and the course organisation. Also the experience of other teachers gives me new directions in applying new assessment methods. Also I have noticed the importance of developing key competences in today’s learning programmes”.