Teacher preparation for the 21st century

Abstract

Teacher quality affects the quality of the education curriculum, its implementation, assessment and evaluation, making preparation of teachers a very important aspect of any education system in the world. However, most social systems do not treat teacher education as a serious endeavor and so do not improve conditions to make success a possibility. For example, the teacher education curriculum has remained more or less the same over the years. Again, besides the initial training, most teachers have minimal opportunities for any further professional development. As countries continue to experience education reforms in tune with the demands for the 21stcentury competitive workforce, social cohesion and individual growth, it is imperative to have a teacher education program well planned to fit in the rapidly changing world. Thus this paper, proposes a teacher education program suitable to meet the exigencies of the 21st century. The paper argues that teacher education preparation needs to have strong knowledge based pedagogy incorporating clinical schools and information communication technology (ICT). Through it, teachers’ practice will be informed and guided by reflective practice, research and professional development to ensure lifelong learning. Ultimately, the 21stcentury teacher is one who is going to be able to unlearn, learn and relearn in order to influence positive student outcome. As a result, active learning that is constructivist in nature will be encouraged in the classrooms, moving away from the commonly used transmission mode of education.