Development of a Professional Training Course to Enhance PJBL Competencies of Teachers at a Technical University

Abstract

The research is aimed at designing a professional development course where special emphasis is laid upon teacher preparation for international project activities. A poll has been conducted to find out whether technical university teachers are inclined to using project-based learning (PJBL) in the classroom. It shows that in reality most of them don’t have a holistic view of the approach. They mention the lack of a methodological base, language skills and ICT practice to integrate innovative techniques into their teaching. It becomes obvious that there is a need to rethink the design of teacher preparation to cultivate educators who are able to demonstrate PJBL practices and be effective in preparing students for the project-based world. To better understand the ways of orienting teachers toward the project-based approach a set of teacher competencies has been specified. It comprises motivation, personal qualities and models of behavior that help an educator make the transition to new methods of teaching, methodological knowledge, XXI century skills (critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication, problem-solving, decision making), transnational communicative competencies (linguistic, rhetoric, cultural, media). These components serve as a basis for the professional development course content. As a result, it is proposed to include three major units for training: PJBL Methodology; Professional English and Intercultural Communication; Information and Communication Technologies.

A contextual semi assisted project-based learning (SA-PjBL) about ocean wave energy: Creative thinking of pre-service physics teachers

“…Besides that, they are able to analyze driving questions and project assignments to identify what needs to be known and review it from various points of view related to the topic of investigation. In line with what (Billah et al, 2019;Gradaleva & Polukhina, 2020) expressed that at the launching project stage in project-based learning students can be equipped with the ability to analyze and investigate various problems on the topics presented. At the stage of building knowledge, understanding and skills that the average score obtained by pre-service physics teachers with the satisfactory category.…”

Project-Based Learning in Online Speaking Class: Interesting or Boring?

“…Their teaching enthusiasm plays a significant and decisive role when students encounter obstacles and deadend. If a teacher reacts indifferently to results, the students will be unmotivated too [19]. Learning this fact, there are some considerations that the teachers should take into account such as the adaptation of PjBL implementation based on students' needs according to their grades [20].…”