Supporting Complex Educational Transformation in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: A Digital Literacy PBL Case Study

This research investigated educators undergoing simultaneous changes to their disciplinary and pedagogical knowledge to explore supports for teachers undergoing complex transformations to education. This topic is relevant within the context of increasingly rapid educational change. The research fills a gap in the literature in providing detailed accounts of the transformation process, particularly within the context of mainland China. The primary objective was to investigate a job-embedded teacher training in which teachers used action research for the design, implementation and evaluation of a project-based digital literacy programme. The participating teachers did not have previous training in digital literacy and did not typically teach using a project-based approach. The research used a case study methodology. Data sources included researcher field notes, artefact analysis and post-programme semi-structured interviews. Analysis indicated that the teachers’ use of a modified action-research protocol with job-embedded training provided effective support in applying new pedagogical and content knowledge as well as team management and collaborative processes. Implementation of the target programme for students still faced constraints from systemic pressures, such as conflicting assessment and leadership priorities. The research findings offer insight into practical considerations when helping teachers transition from traditional pedagogy to Project-Based Learning (PBL) or from teaching traditional literacy to digital literacy. The research also generated theoretical implications such as the need for educational leaders to plan tailored support for complex teaching and technological innovations. For this purpose, the Training Support for Educational Transformation (TSET) action-research model is proposed.