SEAMEO-University of Tsukuba Symposium VII
Reform and Development in Teacher Education for the Digital Economy

Teacher Education in the Age of Digital Economy
SEAMEO RIHED’s Initiatives to Foster Key Skills for Teachers of Today and the Future
By Dr. Chantavit Sujatanond
Centre Director, SEAMEO RIHED

1. The Digital Economy
Digital technologies and innovations have brought about a profound impact on economic and social
activities. They continue to transform the ways in which a society interacts and have resulted inintensified connectivity among people, information and processes. The digital transformation isaccelerating and its effects penetrate across all sectors, from retail to communication andtransportation to health and education, heightening the relevance and significance of digital skills forevery individual1.
In the context of Southeast Asia, while the region presents a promising potential to play an active rolein the digital transformation of the global economy, challenges such as the digital divide in terms ofaccess to and affordability of internet connections both among and within countries in the region
continues to widen2.

2. Innovation and Education
Education is often perceived as a sector resistant to changes and innovations. At the same time, it isalso a sector that is currently and will be experiencing critical changes posed by the wave of digitaltransformations and integration of technologies into learning processes.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recently conducted research toinvestigate the perceived level of innovation by sector in reference to three types of innovation:
products of services (e.g. educational materials); technologies, tools or instruments utilized (e.g. useof ICT in delivering learning contents); and knowledge or methods (e.g. new pedagogies, use of ICT forcommunication)3. The result revealed that in comparison to other sectors, education is at or below
the average in terms of the speed of adoption of innovation.

1OECD (2016), Innovating Education and Educating for Innovation: The Power of Digital Technologies andSkills, OECD Publishing, Paris.
2
IMF (2018), ‘Chart of the Week: The Digital Divide in Asia’, last accessed on 7 February 2018.
< https://blogs.imf.org/2018/09/25/chart-of-the-week-the-digital-divide-in-asia-2/>
3
OCED (2016), ibid1

The research also examined
the perceived level ofinnovation in the education
sectoracrossdifferentlevels. It found that 80
percentofeducation
professionals employed inhigher education considered
their workplaces to be highly
innovative compared withthe rate in other levels ofeducation (65 percent inprimary level and 63 percent
in secondary level) 4 . It ishighlighted that higher Figure 1 Data drawn from OECD (2016), Innovating Education and Educating forInnovation: The Power of Digital Technologies and Skills, OECD Publishing, Paris.
education stands out in the
speed of adopting innovation.
Digital technologies possess a great potential to transform the ways teaching and learning is practiced
in schools and universities and ways teachers and learners interact. Technologies can be integrated
into teaching and learning settings in various ways. For example, teachers can adopt innovative
pedagogic models based around online laboratories, real-time assessment that aim to enhance
students’ creativity as well as skills for imagination and problem-solving. Technologies also brings
about the extensive international collaboration opportunities by overcoming geographical and timebarriers, which may provide students with insight into diverse cultures and multiculturalcommunication strategies that are necessary to establish a collaborative partnership in today’s
interconnected world. In addition, E-learning, open education resources (OER) and massive open
online courses (MOOCs) are other primary examples of how digital technologies can change the ways
educational contents are delivered to learners while addressing the critical issue of educational accessand equality across all education levels.

3. What Skills Are Needed for Teachers Today?
The emergence of digital economy have redefined what skills and competencies are required forteachers to possess. Besides technical teaching skills such as the understanding of subject matters,
pedagogical approaches, classroom management and organisation, some of the non-cognitive or 21stcentury skills that are considered critical for teaching professionals today include:4Adaptability: New ideas and technologies emerge every day, which are changing the ways inwhich students and teachers interact and the process of learning takes place. Depending onlearning pace and the needs of students, teachers need to adjust their learning activities andstrategies to better achieve learning outcomes.

Communication: Communication skills are necessary for teachers not only in terms of verbal
and written forms but also adapting different communication styles to the needs of students
with diverse backgrounds including their age, culture and personality.

Ibid2Collaboration: Teachers should consider technology as a means to increase collaborativelearning. Collaboration through technology can enhance and diversify students’ learning
experiences and collaboration especially with international partners can help to increase
students’ awareness of global affairs and understanding of different cultures.

Digital Skill: As technology is increasingly integrated into teaching and learning and it plays anessential role in shaping pedagogical practices and strategies, teachers need to be equippedwith digital skills and literacy. It also implies the skill to blend effective digital tools in learning
process to create more interactive and student-centred learning environment.

4. SEAMEO RIHED’s Effort to Nurture the 21st Century Skills for Students through Academic
Mobility: The Case of AIMS Programme
SEAMEO RIHED

As the SEAMEO Regional Centre specialising in higher education development, SEAMEO RIHED aspires
to advance cooperation, alignment and the development of higher education systems in the region bycreating policy platforms, engaging in policy-driven research and broadening space for information
dissemination. It is committed to taking lead in the advancement of SEAMEO Priority Area No 6:
Promoting Harmonisation in Higher Education and Research. With its key strategic pillars, which are1) Alignment and Development; 2) Cooperation and Synergy; 3) Research; and 4) Information Portal,
SEAMEO RIHED continues to engage in the region to address new challenges brought forward in theharmonisation and development of higher education in Southeast Asia.

SEAMEO RIHED’s AIMS Programme

Project Summary
Initiated and facilitated by SEAMEO RIHED, the Asian International Mobility for Students (AIMS)
Programme is a collaborative and multilateral student exchange programme that involves bothgovernments and HEIs with the goal of enhancing student mobility in the region and beyond.
In Southeast Asia, past efforts to promote student mobility have concentrated on bilateral agreements
between HEIs in the region. Benefits, therefore, have only been limited to HEIs with these agreements.
AIMS overcomes this limitation by working with both Governments and HEIs to develop a truly
regional Programme.
By November 2018, AIMS has offered a single semester exchange to over 4100 undergraduate
students from 8 participating Member Countries, 69 HEIs, and among 10 study fields. AIMS Member
Countries are: Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam, the Philippines, Japan, andthe Republic of Korea. Singapore will officially join the Programme as the 9th Member Country.
The objectives of AIMS Programme is to create a vibrant platform for all citizens of SEAMEO Member
Countries and beyond, promoting the mobility of students in order to cultivate globalised humanresources for the region, create and nurture an ASEAN identity in the minds of young people of the3region, contribute to the internationalisation of higher education in the region, and build towards theformulation of an ASEAN Community and a regional higher education common space.
Programme Principles and Operational Mechanism
One of the key features that make AIMS
different from other mobility initiatives is theautonomy that it offers to Member Countries,
whilst providing a structure for collaboration
through underlying key principles that guideits implementation. The first principle is theself-sufficiency and sustainability whereby
each Member Country supports its own
participation in the Programme, and where
new members are encouraged to join basedon their own readiness to participate. Thebalanced mobility and reciprocity is anothercore principle whereby national authorities
Figure 2 Operational Mechanism of AIMS Programme
responsible for higher education nominate
HEIs to participate in study fields, and where the number of exchange students is mutually agreed
upon and reciprocated in each study field. In addition, the operation of the Programme issupplemented by regional mechanisms whereby regional coordination is undertaken by SEAMEORIHED to support the programme implementation and give stakeholders key opportunities tofeedback, address challenges and propose further developments to the Programme. There are 2
regional mechanisms that support the programme - the AIMS Annual Review Meeting and AIMS
Steering Committee Meeting.
What AIMS Programme Offers to Students – Nurturing the 21st Century Skills
The AIMS Programme is a multilateral platform that involves diverse stakeholders of higher education
including students, alumni, governments and HEIs in the region, offering unique learning experiences
and collaborative opportunities. The Programme currently facilitates the academic exchange in thefollowing 10 study fields.
Hospitality and Tourism
Agriculture
Language and Culture

Economics
Engineering
Environmental Management andScience
Biodiversity
Marine ScienceInternational Business
Food Science and Technology

The essence of academic exchange the Programme provides for students is not limited to theacquisition of new academic knowledge in host institutions, but also includes the opportunity forstudents to develop and strengthen a set of non-cognitive skills, which are commonly referred to astransversal competencies, soft skills or 21st century skills. Whilst cognitive skills involve the ability tounderstand complex ideas and to engage in various forms of reasoning and are associated withreading, writing and numeric comprehension, non-cognitive skills are defined as “patterns of thought,
feelings and behaviours” comprised of personal traits, attitudes and values5. Through establishing the5Paper commissioned for the Global Education Monitoring Report 2016, Education for people and planet:
Creating sustainable futures for all”

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academic collaboration and close engagement with students, HEIs and governments in the region, theAIMS Programme has enabled students to gain exposure to diverse cultural contexts and international
environments, to cultivate skills necessary to become a well-rounded, responsible global citizen andto build friendships and community ties both regionally and internationally.
In collaboration with Ministry of Education, Republic of Korea, Korean Council for University Education(KCUE) and AIMS Member Countries, a research project has been conducted to better understand theexperiences of students participating in the AIMS Programme and programme’s outcomes. The survey
targeted over 500 people from 8 countries who had previously participated in the Programme and theresult highlighted the strong impact of the programme experience on the participating students interms of the acquisition of intercultural competences and the ability to establish collaborations withpeople from diverse backgrounds, which are among the core values of AIMS Programme.
While the Programme currently focuses on students as the primary target of mobility, however, it isimportant to note that the abovementioned unique structure of the Programme operation has
enabled faculty and administrative staff from member HEIs to be exposed to internationalisation
process, for which cross-border collaboration, intercultural communication and problem-solving skills
are among the key elements to move forward.
The AIMS Programme does not currently address teacher education directly in its mobility scheme.
The above 10 study fields have been refined and selected through ongoing discussion and mutual
agreement between stakeholders in the Programme, as either common areas of focus for Member
Countries, participating HEIs, or as strategic priority areas for developing expertise in the Southeast
Asian region. Nevertheless, discussions have been held to add more study fields in order to explore
further opportunities for partnership and the Programme aspires to be a platform to promote a
broader academic mobility, including teaching and administrative staff of member HEIs in the region.
The mobility experience demonstratively provides learners with opportunities to strengthen key skills
required for teaching professionals in the digital economy, such as skills associated with effective
communications, collaboration and adaptability. In addition, with the transformation brought bydigitalisation and its impact on a mode and way teaching and learning takes place, anyone who has
expertise in subject areas has a potential to be an educator. Therefore, it is imperative for the region
to foster cross-border collaborations in promoting the mobility flow of general students and both preservice and in-service teachers who play a crucial role in shaping well-prepared global citizens in theregion.

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