Call for Joint Implementation and Certification of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) Critical Thinking in Action: Sustainable Energy in the Science Classroom

Call for Joint Implementation and Certification of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) Critical Thinking in Action: Sustainable Energy in the Science Classroom

Inter-American Teacher Education Network (ITEN)

The Inter-American Teacher Education Network (ITEN) of the Department of Human Development, Education and Employment of the Organization of American States (OAS) provides free online tools to support teacher professional development, including a virtual community of practice for teachers, webinars, an online knowledge bank on teacher policies and practices relating to the teaching profession, and a toolkit to support teachers in the promotion of critical thinking in the classroom.

ITEN wished to support critical thinking inclusion in the curriculum and offers a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) that aims to support teacher professional development in OAS member states. The MOOC is free and offers teachers an opportunity to learn methodologies and tools that promote and develop critical thinking in students (12-18 years of age).

The content of this course was developed within the framework of the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA) of the Department of Sustainable Development of the OAS. ECPA supports initiatives that tackle the challenges of energy security and climate change in the region and thus, sustainable energy is a cross-cutting theme in the topics covered in this MOOC.

ITEN cordially invites the ministries of education of member states of the OAS to collaborate in the dissemination, teacher selection process, implementation and co-certification of the participating teachers in the MOOC: Critical Thinking in Action: Sustainable Energy in the Science Classroom.

The role of the ministries will include:

• Support ITEN in the dissemination of the course announcement,
• Support ITEN with the monitoring and evaluation strategy for this actitivity
• Recommend teachers (target population: middle school, high school or secondary level, etc.) and invite those teachers to register,
• Follow-up with teachers during the implementation of the lesson plans created during their participation in the MOOC, and
• Award joint certification with OAS/ITEN to those teachers who complete ITEN MOOC.

Participation in this professional development opportunity is entirely free and the content will be fully available to ministries of education to assess before comitting to implement the ITEN MOOC in their countries.

1. Purpose of the Online Course and Audience

This course is designed especially for teachers who work with students between 12 and 18 years old, to learn about critical thinking and how to promote it in the classroom. Some sessions in this course are dedicated to developing specific knowledge on critical thinking and other abilities and strategies to design teaching-learning processes. In this course, examples in the areas of literacy, mathematics, sciences and citizenship education are presented; and sustainable energy is the cross-cutting theme in these areas.

A key feature of this online course is its social and collaborative learning. Throughout the course, participants will have the opportunity to interact with colleagues while reflecting about challenges in their practice. As participants progress through the course, they will receive “badges” to reward their commitment to the course and towards their peers. Another valuable element of the massive course is the peer-to-peer review activity, which allows participants to assess and be assessed by other participants on the creation of a task according to predetermined criteria.

2. ITEN MOOC Description

The course has a duration of six weeks. The weekly time required from participants is 3 hours minimum.

During these six weeks, teachers will be able to:

• Recognize critical thinking as a key skill to be integrated in their teaching effectively and proactively.
• Design student-centered lesson plans, incorporating diverse and existing tools in an effective sequence.
• Critically analyze their practice and intervene to improve it.

Language: English

See modules and topics, here.

3. Methodology

Each week begins with the exploration of what participants already know and continue with the revision of resources–videos and/or readings)–on the main themes. Subsequently, the participant will complete practical and self-managed exercises on the theme and complete a self-assessment on the topic.

Throughout the six weeks, participants are encouraged to reflect about their own practice and create a lesson plan to promote critical thinking based on the subjects they teach. During this process, participants assess their own learning process using different strategies and instruments (assessment and self-assessment products using rubrics, peer-to-peer evaluation).

4. Contact Information

ITEN hopes to collaborate with ministries of education interested in supporting the professional development of their teachers. If your ministry is interested in participating in this free opportunity and co-certifying this MOOC, please complete the attached expression of interest form and send it to: Ms. Valentina Pernett, at dpernett@oas.org, with copy to Ms. María José de León at mdeleon@oas.org, no later than November 20th, 2017.

For any questions on partnership development with OAS-ITEN please contact María José de León at mdeleon@oas.org.

For more information visit: www.oas.org/en/iten/moocs.asp