Co-evolution between trust in teachers and higher education toward digitally-rich learning environments

Abstract

Based on a powerful notion that the quality of higher education is crucial for innovation in digital economy and that such quality is subject to a conception of trust in teachers to deliver good education and advancement of information and communication technology (ICT), the dynamism of co-evolution between them was analyzed.

Using a unique dataset representing the above system consisting of the rate of trust in teachers providing good education in the context of quality of education and their social status, of the level of higher education and the state of ICT advancement toward digitally-rich learning environments, an empirical numerical analysis of 20 countries was attempted. These countries were classified as advanced, semi-advanced and growing.

It was found that while ICT advanced countries have embarked on co-evolution of ICT, higher education and trust, ICT growing countries have not been successful in this due to a vicious cycle between ICT and trust. Finland's educational success can be attributed to co-evolution which corresponds to the emergence of un-captured GDP similarly to the leading edge of an ICT-driven disruptive business model. The paradox of education productivity in ICT growing countries can be attributed to disengagement.

It is suggested that steady ICT advancement fully utilizing external resources in digitally-rich learning environments may be essential to ICT growing countries in achieving higher education. On the other hand, continuing transcending innovation to transform learning environments into new digitally-rich learning environments should be maintained in ICT advanced countries.

A new approach for constructing the above-described co-evolution in a systematic way was thus explored.