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The purpose of this study is to explore educational policy directions in the Maldives to continue learning in public schools during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and identify policy changes that could improve the preparedness of the schools for future pandemics.

This qualitative study is descriptive in nature with an analytical methodology of document and interview data analysis. The purposively selected participants for the interviews included senior officials of the Ministry of Education, school leaders and teachers of public schools in the Maldives.

This study identified significant policy changes for public schools in the Maldives during the COVID-19 pandemic. These were early response and timely policy directions to continue education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Another finding was the effective change communication of the educational policies for its implementation. Following the policy changes, the teachers were trained for online teaching, hence increasing their competency in information and communications technology. As a result, this led to resilient teachers who were determined to provide education through the challenging times of the pandemic. Hence, it is evident that the school system of the Maldives will emerge stronger beyond COVID-19.

The education policy changes for public schools in the Maldives during the global COVID-19 pandemic have merits for education practices beyond the pandemic.

In digital education curricular initiatives, some teachers are taking on key roles when appointed as instructional coaches (ICs) and become crucial in the sustainability of the initiative by coaching teachers. This study aimed to find out the difficulties ICs are facing when mentoring teachers in the development of the digital skills and to identify the coaching activities the coaches offer.

Employing a mixed-methods research design focusing on a qualitative approach, the research team conducted 6 focus groups with 38 ICs from 12 primary schools in Switzerland. Quantitative descriptive data were collected through a survey submitted before and after the focus group.

The results indicate that (1) the professional development (PD) activities offered to teachers vary greatly depending on the instructional coach characteristics and the school to which the teachers belong, (2) the in-service training of ICs should include coaching and leadership skills and (3) distributed leadership to ICs could facilitate the adoption of technologies by teachers and support change in the school.

Some ICs offer activities with a low involvement of the teacher. ICs' training programs should provide strategies to better take advantage of PD activities. The authors suggest training ICs in PD activities, aligned with Gibbons and Cobb's (2017) such as analyzing classroom video or lesson study involving a group of teachers working together with an expert to improve a lesson. District and school leaders should provide ICs with explicit guidance and more resources to achieve systemic change. ICs should also be empowered by being involved in the development of the school's continuing education training plans.

This study presents a new perspective about understanding and applying in-service teacher PD in the context of a digital education curricular initiative.

A literature review of 28 data literacy, education articles from 2010 to 2018 was conducted to gain a better understanding of the current state of data literacy research.

A systematic literature review of ERIC, Education Source, and JSTOR was conducted. Articles were included in this literature review if they focused on “data literacy” for K-12 teachers or leaders.

Results demonstrated that the concept of data literacy has become more concrete, but there is still disagreement about the parameters of the construct. While data literacy was shown to be gaining in importance, training from schools of education were focused heavily on assessment literacy. Four recommendations are made as follows: (1) create skill-focused educator prep programs, (2) encourage opportunities for collaboration, (3) model data use from both quantitative and qualitative sources and (4) investigate the role of technology and big data on data literacy.

The scope of this literature review was very narrow and, as such, does not fully encapsulate data-driven decision-making in K-12 education overall.

Data literacy is important for both teachers and leaders, as educational environments strive to better understand individual learners and improve learning outcomes. This literature review looks to pull together the current status of data literacy research with hopes of inspiring more targeted research that influences training practices for both teachers and leaders.

This study aims to examine how lecturers in European higher education institutions perceive the service-learning approach as a teaching concept and feel prepared for its implementation after a short-term training. Service-learning connects theory and practice by allowing students to participate in a service that meets community needs, reflect on this experience and gain an enhanced sense of civic engagement.

The evaluation study drew on data from four focus group discussions with n = 21 lecturers from five European countries following a Winter School on service-learning in 2020. The qualitative data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis.

The findings indicate four themes of preparedness: (1) overall conceptions of service-learning, (2) continuum of preparedness for service-learning, (3) influential factors for preparedness and (d) transfer to home universities. The participants viewed themselves as multipliers for service-learning in their home universities; however, they were skeptical about being able to fully implement the service-learning approach after only one training and without a community of practice with lecturers with similar experiences in their home universities.

This study complements previous studies by adding a cross-national perspective of higher education lecturers. It underlines the importance of continuing training in didactics of university lecturers and a support network for the implementation of complex teaching concepts in higher education.

The purpose of this study was to examine the challenges experienced by in-service English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers in an open distance learning (ODL) institution of higher learning in Malaysia. Many in-service ESL teachers who do not have the necessary teaching qualifications are seeking to obtain their teaching qualifications via the ODL mode of studies as it allows them to work as teachers while obtaining their teaching qualifications at the same time. They face multiple challenges which lead to high attrition rates, a concern for ODL institutions of higher learning worldwide.

A qualitative research design using a case study approach was used in this study where in-depth interviews were conducted with four in-service ESL teachers who are currently enrolled in an undergraduate Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) programme conducted via ODL.

The research is exploratory in nature. Findings highlighted four major challenges by these in-service ESL teachers: (1) financial difficulties, (2) work commitments, (3) family sacrifices and (4) emotional stress. However, technological use was not considered a challenge as mentioned by literature.

Findings from the study may be useful to ODL institutions to provide relevant support to ODL students to improve student retention rates in ODL institutions.

This study may be considered as a baseline analysis on the challenges experienced by in-service ESL teachers in ODL institution of higher learning in Malaysia. Further in-depth studies are needed to understand how ODL institutions can better support their education programme students to complete their teacher education programmes.

Formal structured leadership training is increasingly incorporated as a regular fixture in developed nations to produce competent leaders to ensure the provision of quality patient care. However, most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) rely on one-off external training opportunities for selected individuals as they lack the necessary resources to implement long-term training for a wider pool of potential health care leaders. This case study shares the establishment process of the Talent Grooming Programme for technical health care professionals (TGP), a three-year in-house leadership training programme specially targeted at potential health care leaders in Malaysia.

This case study aims to share a comprehensive overview of the ideation, conceptualisation and implementation of TGP. The authors also outlined its impact from the individual and organisational perspectives, besides highlighting the lessons learned and recommendations for the way forward.

TGP set out to deliver experiential learning focusing on formal training, workplace experiences, practical reflection and mentoring by supervisors and other esteemed leaders to fulfil the five competency domains of leadership, organisational governance, communication and relationship, professional values and personal values. The successes and challenges in TGP programme delivery, post-training assessment, outcome evaluation and programme sustainability were outlined.

The authors’ experience in setting up TGP provided valuable learning points for other leadership development programme providers. As for any development programme, a continuous evaluation is vital to ensure its relevance and sustainability.

Certain aspects of TGP establishment can be referenced and modified to adapt to country-specific settings for others to develop similar leadership programme, especially those in LMICs.

Collaborative professional development for inclusive teaching is a limited area of research, although there is an extensive need for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) teachers. Research findings of how teachers’ professional development can contribute to support the development of powerful learning situations for all students are presented in this special issue. The aim is to contribute to the knowledge of how the use of lesson study can develop teachers’ capabilities to offer high-quality education for students with SEND.

The guest editor presents each of the papers and introduces key themes and concepts.

The collection of papers is divided into two themes; the first has a focus on lesson study used by teacher educators during SEND in-service training. In this theme, the teachers are the students who are studying different fields of SEND, supported by teacher educators. The second theme studies different forms of lesson studies carried out by researchers and teachers in the collaboration focused aspects of content that are of importance for students in SEND.

The papers focus on areas of education with a limited research tradition, and as a result, the studies may be seen as starting points for further research. The results so far lack generalisability. Therefore, the researchers have to test the findings further under different conditions and with wider groups of teachers and students.

The results of the papers can be used to develop both SEND teacher education, and collaborative professional development for in-service SEND teachers. This issue will, therefore, be of interest to school and system leaders.

The papers contribute initial findings from an under-researched area and also combine lesson study with methods and designs not previously explored.

The Covid-19 period has led to defining changes in the teaching process. Therefore, it is essential to explore how teachers have approached these changes, what experiences they have gained and what they have tried to change. This study aims to elucidate how innovative practices were applied in teaching – which was influenced by emergency remote teaching (ERT) – and better understand teachers' experiences related to these practices.

The phenomenology design, a qualitative research model, was executed in the current study. Phenomenological inquiry aims to interpret people's experiences about a specific concept designated as a phenomenon. Creswell (2020) classified two types of phenomenology: interpretive and descriptive. Interpretive phenomenology was employed in the current study as researchers collected data from individuals experiencing the phenomenon, collected and interpreted the data via excluding their own experiences.

As a result of the data interpretation, four themes related to experiences of innovative teaching practices during ERT were discovered: interpretation of innovative teaching, innovative teaching practices, needs related to innovative teaching and challenges to innovative teaching. The categories related to the interpretation of innovative teaching include positive and negative interpretation. The categories related to the second theme, innovative teaching practices, consist of characteristics of innovative teachers and innovative teaching practices employed. The categories related to the third theme, needs related to innovative teaching, are the need for guidance, training and technological infrastructure. The categories related to the fourth and final theme, challenges to innovative teaching, are barriers related to the teacher, barriers related to the learner and those related to the environment.

This study discovered that for teachers to practice innovative teaching, they must develop themselves, keep up-to-date and develop lifelong learning skills. Hung and Li (2017) reached a similar conclusion to the findings of this study: teachers' professional development is positively related to innovative teaching skills at a high level. The participating teachers stated that they had to rapidly improve their technological competency. It is thought that teachers developing their technological competencies will contribute to both ERT and face-to-face education at the end of the Pandemic.

The twenty-first century education system seeks to meet the societal demands of economic effectiveness and the unique professional development needs of individuals. This paper aims to discuss the qualities of competence-oriented educational processes and the recent movement towards competence-based curricula in higher education.

This study follows a systematic literature review (SLR) methodology to explore the concept of competence within the context of educational science. The subsequent thematic synthesis analyses the findings of reviewed publications regarding graduate attributes in competence-oriented higher education and their perspectives and working-life expectations on exit profiles.

Interest in competence-oriented education, training and learning has grown in recent years, resulting in numerous theoretical and technical pedagogical applications in higher education. Nonetheless, ambiguous terminology presents a significant challenge, which is demonstrated by the inconsistent language of the study's results. Moreover, there is an obvious need for teachers' in-service training. The qualitative synthesis of this article will be useful for both educational and working life sectors to inform and promote different perspectives on competence-oriented educational processes. A clear articulation of competences is crucial for reforming higher education to meet students' interests and recognise their work-life needs.

The concept of competence has been under-investigated in higher education research and practices. This study offers novel insights and practical implications for competence-oriented learning concerning the paradigmatic change across higher education.