Current Issues of Teacher Education in the Era of Digital Transformation: A Theoretical Review
Aleksandr Grigorievich Bermus
Abstract
The review paper aims to identify the most significant issues in the field of digital transformation of teacher education, which are studied by modern scientists - teachers, psychologists, sociologists. The paper determines the relevant topics and traces the dynamics of changes in the content of teacher education caused by digital transformation processes, according to the analysis of Russian and foreign academic pedagogical publications over the past 5 years (2017-2021). An increase in Russian researchers’ publication activities in the field of the digital transformation of teacher education is noted. The work presents a theoretical and methodological review of authors’ positions and interpretations in solving basic issues and matters related to changes in teachers’ role and functions in the digital information educational environment. The advantages and potential risks of the process of global digitalisation of education are assessed. It is the first time that the consequences of the digital transformation of the teacher education system are being considered in the context of an interdisciplinary approach as a global modernisation process covering all areas of training and educational activities. The research is novel in that carrying out a contextual analysis of a target sample containing texts of psychological and pedagogical nature that shed light on the impact of digitalisation on various aspects of future teachers’ professional training, it identifies the key changes in the forms, methods and organisation of the educational process in undergraduate and graduate teacher training programmes that meet the global challenges of the information society. Those changes include actively introducing digital educational technologies aimed at stimulating students’ creative mental actions and cognitive abilities; updating teacher education management on a digital basis; developing principles of digital didactics; reassessing professional pedagogical values. As a result, clusters of significant practice-oriented topics, keywords, as well as the most cited publications on the topics under consideration have been formed; possible prospects for the reconstruction of teacher education taking into account modern digital realities have been described.