Trends for the Future of Education Programs for Professional Development

Abstract

Scientific and technological developments bring new requirements for university education and, particularly, the training of education professionals. There is a regular need to update curricula to integrate market trends and educational approaches. It is necessary to know future trends in education and teaching programs. Our research in a higher education institution in Ecuador focused on providing perspectives on the future of educational programs by analyzing trends in educational programs’ designs, students and professors’ needs for innovative education. We used the descriptive/exploratory case study method, employing quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews, focus groups and benchmarking as instruments. The surveys were applied to 337 current students, 384 potential students and 313 graduates of Educational Sciences. We conducted interviews with 20 experts from Mexico, Spain, Colombia and Ecuador. We held focus groups with 32 education professionals, including rectors, principals, educational specialists and primary, secondary and university teachers. Benchmarking was used in our analysis of ten universities. The results focused on five elements that were units of analysis (1) characteristics of education programs, (2) student requirements, (3) required educational modalities, (4) trends in education and (5) future of education programs. The data and results may be of interest to decision-makers, academicians, researchers, students and citizens interested in professional education and other disciplinary areas.

Feasibility Study on the Integration of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education and Occupational Therapy Training Mode for College Students Based on Big Data

“…In recent years, the attention of foreign scholars to blended learning has caused domestic scholars to discuss and conduct in-depth research on blended learning. At this stage, in the new historical context, blended learning manifests new meanings [ 4 ]. How to use educational technology to improve teaching quality and comprehensively improve the quality of talent cultivation has become an urgent need in China's educational practice.…”

Impact of Virtual Reality on Student Motivation in a High School Science Course

“…In this research chemistry teaching is supported with emerging technological resources, virtual reality, and a vivid experience in these environments. Considering that education trends show an increase in the use of new technologies and digitalization [31]. This study will be based on Bandura's [32] postulate, since we want to demonstrate that creating virtual environments that emulate the real functioning of the concepts observed in science subjects (similar to the real world) can improve students' motivation.…”

Effectiveness of English for Tourism E-Learning during the Covid-19 Pandemic

“…E-learning as any teaching and learning that used electronic circuits like the internet to deliver learning content, interaction, or guidance and e-learning was a type of teaching and learning that allows the delivery of teaching materials to students using the internet (Ahn & Edwin, 2018;Ahshan, 2021) or other computer network media and emphasizes that e-learning refers to the use of internet technology to deliver a series of solutions that could improve knowledge and skills along with technological developments and advances that had a major impact on the development of education, educators used it to facilitate the teaching and learning process and improve quality education (König et al, 2020;Ramírez-Montoya et al, 2021). The current pandemic situation makes educators had to work hard so that the teaching and learning process continued like a conventional learning process (Rahiem, 2020;Satyawan et al, 2021).The demand for mastery of technology and information absolutely must be carried out by both educators and students (Abdullah & Ward, 2016;Cattaneo et al, 2022).…”