{"id":35100,"date":"2021-03-11T16:26:53","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T16:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rafonline.org\/?post_type=program&#038;p=35100"},"modified":"2026-03-24T08:47:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T08:47:13","slug":"teaching-the-future","status":"publish","type":"program","link":"https:\/\/rafonline.org\/en\/program\/teaching-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"middle\">\n<div class=\"text-sus\">\n<div><strong>Middle school students in Romania need fundamental critical, creative, and computational thinking skills (CCC) to increase their ability to participate meaningfully in the digital society and economy. These skills must be developed early and equitably, regardless of students\u2019 socioeconomic background or geographic location.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3>\u00a0<\/h3>\n<h3>CONTEXT<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"context\">\n<div>According to the International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) 2023, only 29% of Romanian 8th\u2011grade students reached at least a functional level of computer and information literacy (CIL), placing Romania well below the international average of 51%.<br \/>\nICILS 2023 found that Romanian students had limited exposure to teaching practices focused on the active use of ICT\u2014such as data analysis or problem-solving using software. Only 21% of Romanian ICT teachers regularly engaged students in collaborative ICT projects, compared to an international average of 47%.<br \/>\nFurthermore, only 12% of students demonstrated independent and effective use of technology, compared to 25% internationally.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3 class=\"foto-gallery-rep\"><strong>STRATEGY<\/strong><\/h3>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<div class=\"middle\">\n<div>\n<p>International research shows that Scratch is an appropriate coding program to support computer science learning starting at young ages.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cTeaching the Future\u201d program is structured around five strategic pillars:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pillar 1: Learning \u2013 content and pedagogical knowledge<\/strong><br \/>\nContent and pedagogy will be delivered through the online \u201cPredau Viitor\u201d platform in a hybrid format combining asynchronous materials with live and interactive sessions. Learning focuses on Scratch, Scratch Jr., and unplugged computational thinking activities (activities that can be conducted without technology).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pillar 2: Connection \u2013 building communities of practice<\/strong><br \/>\nPilot teaching communities will be developed both online and face\u2011to\u2011face as peer\u2011to\u2011peer learning environments.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pillar 3: Practice \u2013 curricular and extracurricular implementation<\/strong><br \/>\nTeachers will have opportunities to practice both in curricular contexts (through lesson sets aligned with the current curriculum) and extracurricular activities.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pillar 4: Modeling \u2013 cultivating leadership<\/strong><br \/>\nThe project supports the development of a new generation of teacher\u2011leaders in middle\u2011school computer science, including large\u2011scale online events that expose teachers to innovative approaches.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pillar 5: Assessment \u2013 generating learning that supports change<\/strong><br \/>\nThe main evaluation goal is to test and improve lesson sets designed to support teaching in rural areas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<h3><strong>EXPECTED RESULTS\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: square;\">\n<li>400 ICT teachers trained in computer science pedagogy and Scratch\u2011based programming<\/li>\n<li>100 teachers implementing Scratch Day lesson sets in class<\/li>\n<li>9 teachers becoming exemplary practitioners of CCC\u2011focused informatics instruction and facilitators of professional community meetings<\/li>\n<li>2,500 students improving their knowledge and skills in informatics<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":35102,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"categorie-program":[],"tax_categories":[87],"class_list":["post-35100","program","type-program","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tax_categories-stem-education"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program\/35100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/program"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"categorie-program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categorie-program?post=35100"},{"taxonomy":"tax_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_categories?post=35100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}