Teacher Education

Writing is a very important part of our life. It serves as a means of communication as well as a medium to express one’s thoughts, feelings and opinions. Realizing the importance of writing, schools have begun to teach writing skills to students as early as elementary level or primary school. Various studies have also been conducted to the subject of writing, including composition and expository writing. Drawing on the framework of discourse community, this metasynthesis study investigated 51 empirical studies on English composition or English expository writing skills from 1997-2017. The study was guided by two research questions: What are the trends that have emerged from the current review on student writing research? What are the areas in student writing research that can be further looked into? Using metasynthesis method for qualitative research, the findings uncovered four claims: (1) A preference for more innovative strategies over the traditional way of writing because they allow for more flexibility and opportunities for exploration; (2) A focus on the writing strategy, or exploration of students’ use of strategies while largely overlooking students’ beliefs about writing; (3) An increasing recognition of the importance of ICT as a tool in supporting and enhancing students’ motivation to write; (4) An overemphasis on the core skills of the individual writer while placing less emphasis on the affective and circumstantial elements in students’ writing. Based on these claims, this study discussed its implications, both in the context of Singapore as well as the international context. The study offered some suggestions about the direction of future research, in particular in the areas of the affective domain and students’ beliefs in writing.

We live in an increasingly challenging world and good teaching plays a pivotal role in equipping students to cope with the uncertainties and complexities they face now, and will in the future. A key way of responding to this complexity and change, is to pay attention to the quality of teacher education. Over the years, many countries have been making attempts to improve the quality of teaching and learning (OECD, 2005). It is recognised that teachers are the main drivers for students’ achievements (Sacilotto-Vasylenco, 2013) and they are responsible for shaping the environment that leads to student learning (for example, Chong, 2014). Teachers are and will be operating in a dynamic, digital and mobile environment that requires different skills and capabilities to meet the diverse needs of students (Darling-Hammond and Adamson, 2010) Given the importance of teacher education, this paper focuses on the approach to preparing beginning teachers. The rationale and interest in this study is the belief that preservice preparation lays the foundation for achieving quality of teacher education.  Singapore was used as a case for exploration as it is well known and has a reputation for its high performing education system (Tan, et. al 2017; Ng, 2017; Low & Lee, 2012, Schwas & Michael, 2007) The research involved literature review and informal discussions with stakeholders, such as beginning and experienced teachers and principals. Preliminary findings identified several factors, such as a holistic approach of preparing teachers, clear understanding of vision and goals of education system, good understanding of theoretical and pedagogical perspectives of teaching, appreciation for quality education and attractive career development pathways. These success factors were unanimously attributed to the two guardians (Ministry of Education, National Institute of Education and Schools) for quality teacher education in Singapore. However, there were some concerns whether aspirations such as nurturing the joy of learning, caringness for students and pedagogical emphasis for special needs students were compatible with an exam-oriented system. The paper concludes by outlining the relevance of this research and its contribution, specifically to teacher education literature.

Schools, today need to prepare learners for rapid change and themselves transform into hubs of opportunities, so that they are able to foster abilities to construct knowledge creatively. Translation of this concept means that teachers need to become catalysts, key agents that can bring a new evolving society being. This mandate affects their role considerably while keeping them abreast of new strategies and technologies that are the hallmark of a true professional. Teachers need to be encouraged to teach to foster higher order thinking skills, employing constructivist approaches to learning, cooperative and collaborative learning strategies, while employing a wide range of assessment techniques as well as computer based and other information technology that enables learners to access information independently. Learning to teach in today's society is technically complex as it draws on a base of research and effective teaching that is always changing and expanding. Teacher's today need to be continually engaged in pursuing, upgrading and reviewing their professional learning, consulting and critically applying educational research so that their practice is always informed by it.
Teacher Education needs to be revisited so that feasibility of new teaching strategies can be explored and redrafted. It is imperative that space is created for reflection on the changing role of the teacher. The magnitude of the problem increases manifold when we think of developing teachers in countries that are reeling under the impact of years of economic and political neglect. In this paper the researcher attempts to study issues pertaining to to teacher education and its transaction in an emerging economy like India. There is an imperative need to analyse teacher education to understand how it can be metamorphosed to create teachers who can align to meet the contemporary needs and trends. The paper is descriptive and analytical in nature drawing on existing data.