A National ICT Competency Framework for Student Teachers

As emerging technologies provide access to the new resources in society, teachers’ roles need to transform to cater to individual students’ learning preferences. As a result, adequate ICT training for student teachers should provide technology rich experiences throughout the whole program. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, and several other Dutch educational partners, have delineated an ICT Competency Framework for student teachers, which they would like to see each institution adopt as the pre-eminent agenda for improving student teachers’ ICT knowledge and skills. This National ICT Competency Framework was developed based on broad comparative research on current educational trends and practices in a global context by a workgroup and review group consisting of educational professionals and ICT experts. This paper addresses and discusses the National ICT Competency Framework consisting of four different domains (attitude, basic digital skills, digital media and information literacy, and pedagogical practice), and issues concerning its implementation.