Digital Literacy in Belgium (Flanders)

Karl Desloovere, advisor at the Ministry of Education
Annick Denys, advisor at the Ministry of Education
Dries Froyen, advisor at the Ministry of Education

To the yearbook

General description of the division Qualifications and Curriculum within AHOVOKS

This division consists of a multidisciplinary team of researchers and advisers. Next to their initial subject training, all members of the team are educational specialists. The division is engaged in the following curriculum aspects: contents of the basic and specialised curriculum, structures and qualifications, and evaluation at system level.

AUTHORS

Karl Desloovere

Advisor at the Ministry of Education in Flanders in the ‘Qualifications and Curriculum’ division. He is expert in (1) art and cultural education and (2) digital competences and develops curricula for compulsory education and curriculum for art for part-time art education. He was project leader for the curriculum reform of the part-time art education. Recently, he has been involved in commissions to define learning objectives for arts and culture and digital competences in primary and secondary education. He also guides the process in drawing up professional qualifications in the art sector.

Annick Denys

Advisor at the Ministry of Education in Flanders in the ‘Qualifications and Curriculum’ division. She is expert in learning competences and develops curricula for compulsory education for learning competences. Recently, she has been involved in commissions to define learning objectives for learning competences in primary and secondary education. She is project leader for the curriculum reform in primary education. She also guides the process in drawing up professional qualifications in the commercial and business sector.

Dries Froyen

Advisor at the Ministry of Education in Flanders in the ‘Qualifications and Curriculum’ division and CNC for Flanders. He has been involved in the recent curriculum reforms in secondary education, amongst others as a chairman in some commissions that define the learning objectives for languages, for art and cultural education and for citizenship. He was project leader of the learning objectives specifically preparing for higher education. Currently he is collaborating on the curriculum reforms for primary education. Furthermore he is involved in evaluation of the implementation of the new curricula, in EQF level 5 higher education and to a lesser extent in professional qualifications.

BELGIUM (FLANDERS)

Digital Literacy in Belgium (Flanders)

Karl Desloovere, advisor at the Ministry of Education
Annick Denys, advisor at the Ministry of Education
Dries Froyen, advisor at the Ministry of Education

Authors


Abstract


To the yearbook

General description of the division Qualifications and Curriculum within AHOVOKS

This division consists of a multidisciplinary team of researchers and advisers. Next to their initial subject training, all members of the team are educational specialists. The division is engaged in the following curriculum aspects: contents of the basic and specialised curriculum, structures and qualifications, and evaluation at system level.

AUTHORS

Karl Desloovere

Advisor at the Ministry of Education in Flanders in the ‘Qualifications and Curriculum’ division. He is expert in (1) art and cultural education and (2) digital competences and develops curricula for compulsory education and curriculum for art for part-time art education. He was project leader for the curriculum reform of the part-time art education. Recently, he has been involved in commissions to define learning objectives for arts and culture and digital competences in primary and secondary education. He also guides the process in drawing up professional qualifications in the art sector.

Annick Denys

Advisor at the Ministry of Education in Flanders in the ‘Qualifications and Curriculum’ division. She is expert in learning competences and develops curricula for compulsory education for learning competences. Recently, she has been involved in commissions to define learning objectives for learning competences in primary and secondary education. She is project leader for the curriculum reform in primary education. She also guides the process in drawing up professional qualifications in the commercial and business sector.

Dries Froyen

Advisor at the Ministry of Education in Flanders in the ‘Qualifications and Curriculum’ division and CNC for Flanders. He has been involved in the recent curriculum reforms in secondary education, amongst others as a chairman in some commissions that define the learning objectives for languages, for art and cultural education and for citizenship. He was project leader of the learning objectives specifically preparing for higher education. Currently he is collaborating on the curriculum reforms for primary education. Furthermore he is involved in evaluation of the implementation of the new curricula, in EQF level 5 higher education and to a lesser extent in professional qualifications.

ABSTRACT

Digital competences in the new curriculum for secondary education in Flanders

In Flanders there have been learning objectives for all schools since 1997. However, digital competences came much later, in 2007. Until recently, the digital competences were vague and uncomplete, focusing mainly on ICT competences and on media literacy. Since 2018 a big reform of compulsory education has been taking place, both on content (learning objectives) and structure (study programs). Recently the learning objectives for secondary education have been approved by the Flemish Parliament. In this paper we describe the process and evaluate the end result, specifically in relation to digital competences. An important success factor was the methodological and content related framework that was defined in legislation: 16 key-competences were defined amongst which ‘Digital competences’. Also the collaboration with academic experts and committed teachers proved crucial.

Together with the experts of the division Qualifications and curricula, the academic experts composed a reference framework and defined components per key-competence. For Digital competences there are three components: (1) ICT skills, (2) computational thinking and acting and (3) media literacy. These components were further concretized in learning objectives during commission meetings. The commissions consisted of teachers, representatives of school boards and academic experts. All of this led to thoroughly reformed learning objectives for digital competences in secondary education. In this paper, we evaluate the completed process and the end product. We consider the critical success factors and obstacles that have determined the process and the result.

EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

FIGURE 1 OVERVIEW OF THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN BELGIUM (FLANDERS)

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