Key Skills Foundations for Instructional Coaches, Teachers, and Leaders

About Metiri’s Key Skills Foundations Facilitated Online Professional Learning.

What problem does our Key Skills Foundations solution solve? Many teachers, instructional coaches, and leaders do not have a deep knowledge about, nor skills in using key skills (e.g., critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration, technology competency, self-direction, and information literacy). As districts set expectations they will need foundational information about these skills, more advanced learning experiences for students, and a method for tracking the teachers’ progress in attaining such knowledge and skills.

The Metiri Solution for Key Skills Foundations: Metiri will provide cohorts of teachers, coaches, and administrators with facilitated, tiered, online, micro-credentialed professional learning that address key skills. As background, Metiri and ISTE have partnered to provide a series of online personalized professional learning for teachers, coaches, and administrators that address 21st Century skills and ISTE standards. Metiri will offer tiered, facilitated access to three online resources/courses focused on the ISTE standards for students. These courses address key skills listed.

The three online courses can be completed over time. The Empowered Learner online course addresses: self-direction and aspects of technology competency. The
Digital Citizen online course addresses: critical thinking and problem-solving, communication, collaboration, creativity, and aspects of technology competency The Knowledge Constructor online course addresses: critical thinking, creativity, and information literacy. These online resources enable participants to earn two types of micro-credentials; knowledge or performance.

  • Knowledge Micro-credential: Allows participants to demonstrate completion of the courses and the attainment of a deep knowledge level of the skills addressed in the course.
  • Performance Micro-credential: Allows participants to demonstrate completion of the course and the capacity to apply the concepts to learning environments in schools and classrooms. This would be earned by joining facilitated discussions on how to apply the skills to the classroom, and participants would be required to submit a performance task and meet expectations from an application rubric.

The two types of Micro-credentials for each of the 3 courses will enable districts to track progress in attaining background knowledge on key skills and monitor the capacity of the district to apply that knowledge to directly support student outcomes. Metiri will provide online accounts to the courses for the teachers and administrators that sign up. Metiri will facilitate discussions and, where appropriate, guide the performance tasks as participants work their way through the online courses.

Course Development and Design

Our online professional learning resources are facilitated by a field-expert, using our fully mobile ready Learning Revolution personalized professional learning platform. This platform was supported through funding from the National Science Foundation and used by the International Society for Technology in Education.

The development and design team followed a rigorous development process that involved multiple rounds of piloting, teacher and leader feedback, and fine tuning of content to meet the needs of today’s dynamic classrooms.