Dear Rozi

That is a very general question. I will try to answer it for Germany in the area of media education and digital learning. Some systemic characteristics of the German education system are also becoming obvious.

The Federal Republic of Germany has a federal system, which is also and especially relevant for education. This means that each federal state is ultimately responsible for its own area of application in terms of teaching and learning. From this perspective, the education ministers of all 16 federal states must agree on conceptual and programmatic milestones in the education system if they are to be valid throughout Germany.

The 2016/2017 strategy of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs "Education in the digital world" (https://www.kmk.org/fileadmin/pdf/PresseUndAktuelles/2018/Digitalstrategie_2017_mit_Weiterbildung.pdf) states that

"If, in the 'digital world', the demands on schools and therefore on all teachers change permanently, then in the future media education will be an integral part of all subjects and no longer just a cross-cutting task for schools. All teachers themselves must have general media skills and at the same time become 'media experts' in their specialist areas of responsibility."

And further:

"With increasing digitalization, the role of teachers is also evolving. Teachers' learning support functions are gaining in importance. The increasing heterogeneity of learning groups in particular, also with regard to inclusive education, makes it necessary to develop individualized learning arrangements and make them available. Digital learning environments can create the necessary freedom here; however, previous teaching concepts need to be realigned in order to leverage the potential of digital learning environments."

With this in mind, the Conference of Education Ministers' strategy "Education in the digital world" defines a competence framework with six constitutive areas for each school subject:

1. searching, processing and storing

2. communicating and cooperating

3. producing and presenting

4. protecting and acting safely

5. problem solving and acting and

6. understanding and reflecting on media in the digital world

In many places in the German federal states, however, structurally conservative models of knowledge transfer and acquisition or habitualized forms of pedagogical-didactic teaching in the spirit of tradition still prevail. The use of digital tools in school teaching and learning often barely goes beyond a basic instrumental-instructional understanding, instead of striving for education in the digital medium on the basis of new cultural techniques and organizational principles.

The inadequate implementation of digitalization in school education is essentially due to the fact that digitalization in teaching/learning processes is primarily understood as a technical problem and not as a social innovation. Acceptance and adaptation of digital media are first and foremost dependent on school-specific and disciplinary cultural practices, meaning that before any implementation of digital teaching/ learning scenarios, the (implicit) premises under which school practice functions must be carefully examined. Only a sound understanding of the mechanisms of action of socio-technological arrangements allows innovative digital teaching/learning settings to be structurally and culturally anchored in the long term. Under pedagogically and didactically reflected conditions of use, personalized-adaptive learning can be meaningfully supported by means of digital knowledge media and cultural techniques.

I am very interested to get to know the educational perspectives from other countries.

Dear Christian

Thank you for sharing so generously about the German education system. There are many common patterns, such as the focus on digital literacy, and everyone plays a critical role in supporting students to navigate ethically in the digitised world. I also notice the focus on addressing the ‘superdiversity’ and making schools a more inclusive learning environment. In aligning our pedagogical practice to the digital learning environments, there are also challenges, such as the creation of a digital divide, digital fatigue, information overload, lack of personal interaction and new emerging equity issues.

The competence framework is clear, and these can be transferred across any subject. These are lifelong skills that are crucial to be proficient in. I am for a balanced pedagogical and assessment practice. There is time and space for didactic teaching and other innovative pedagogy depending on the needs of the students.

When talking about using technology – it goes to the definition of digitise or digitalisation. I agree with you about using social innovation as an aspect to look at quality learning and teaching.

In Singapore, technological integration into teaching and learning is important to enhance the learning experience. The latest EdTEch Masterplan 2030 is worth a read, with the vision ‘Technology-transformed learning, to prepare students for a technology-transformed world’ https://www.moe.gov.sg/education-in-sg/educational-technology-journey. I can see similarities, e.g. customising/ personalising students’ learning. There is a strong link to developing students’ 21st century competencies.

The Ministry of Education focuses on social-emotional and emerging 21st-century competencies. My personal view is that the 21stcentury competencies are no longer emerging but ‘are given’ to survive in this rather complicated world. These are from https://www.moe.gov.sg/education-in-sg/21st-century-competencies

Social-Emotional Competencies

These are competencies necessary for children to develop healthy identities, recognise and manage their emotions, develop a sense of responsibility, care and concern for others, relate to others and develop positive relationships, handle challenges, make responsible decisions, and act for the good of self, others and the society. Students will learn skills from these 5 interconnected Social-Emotional Competencies:

· Self-Awareness

· Self-Management

· Responsible Decision-Making

· Social Awareness

· Relationship Management

Emerging 21st Century Competencies

Building on a sound character foundation, the following Emerging 21st Century Competencies enable students to thrive in and beyond school while living, learning and working in rapidly changing, highly digitalised, and interconnected environments:

· Critical, Adaptive and Inventive Thinking

· Communication, Collaboration and Information Skills

· Civic, Global and Cross-Cultural Literacy

What is the impact of these? I am not sure, even after almost a quarter into the century. If PISA, TIMMS, and PIRLS are used, then it has a positive impact, but if we use other forms of benchmark, e.g. to assess soft skills, I am not sure.

I am interested in learning from others and experiences from your country – What are the approaches taken in your country in relation to learning designs, what are the policies to support these learning designs, and what are the impacts?

Education policies differ between countries of the world according to their level of cultural, technological and human development

Dina would you want to share the learning design policies from your country?