Professional learning with ICT in the southern African context: The UNISA-Cambridge collaboration on Advanced Diplomas in Education.

It is clear from the recent 2013 conference of the Distance Education Teachers’ Association hosted at the University of Nairobi that an increasing number of the developing countries of Africa are exploiting the potential of distance and school-based learning for the development of more and better teachers in pursuit of agendas informed by the EFA mandate and the MDGs. This requires access in turn to more and better resources that can help new teachers to conceptualise their emerging practice and also help existing teachers to think about how they might need to adapt their current practices to develop the knowledge and skills necessary for success in an increasingly information rich global knowledge society made possible through increasingly accessible and aff ordable ICT. This presentation off ers insights into how both distance teacher education and schooling itself can be revolutionised through exploiting powerful new technologies and harnessing the potential of OER. We report on the progress of a collaboration between UNISA and the Centre for Commonwealth Education (University of Cambridge, UK), on the new Advanced Diplomas in Education (ADEs). The ADE is a new qualifi cation in the South African national qualifi cations framework that was introduced as part of a comprehensive national review of minimum requirements for teacher education [3]; these place increased emphasis on the teacher’s role as a knowledge worker encompassing disciplinary, pedagogic, fundamental and contextual learning. The ADE is targeted at qualifi ed teachers who wish to deepen their understanding of the teaching of particular subjects in particular phases. Drawing on the resources, networks and expertise of UNISA, AIMSSEC and the OER4Schools project, we seek to develop new ADE qualifi cations for mathematics and science. Specifi c examples include modules on Shape and Space, the Earth and Beyond, and Biodiversity. The ADEs: • provide students with a deeper understanding of pedagogical subject knowledge for eff ective and inclusive teaching in diverse contexts, • concretely apply pedagogical theories and action research within their teaching, • demonstrate competence in subject teaching through problem solving, • develop the ability to teach subjects drawing on a coherent, deep conceptual understanding, of both subjects and subject pedagogy, • broaden teaching and learning horizons by using appropriate technology/ICT eff ectively, and • increase understanding of the role of the various subjects (such as science, mathematics, technology) in society