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4.6 Singapore’s partnership model of teacher education
BOX 4.6
Like many of the world’s high-performing providers of teacher education, Singapore’s national institute of education (nie) has embraced a university-based model characterized by classroom-based courses and a school-based practicum. During the practicum, student teachers are mentored and guided by their School Coordinating Mentors, Cooperating Teachers, and nie Supervisors through systematic observations, assistance, and advice. They are given opportunities to actively participate in all aspects of the school’s activities. These experiences are designed to help them link theory and practice and to acquire the skills necessary for teaching effectively in a range of classroom situations. The school-based practicum is an example of the partnership that Singapore’s nie shares with Singapore’s Ministry of education (Moe), schools, and all stakeholders, working together to help student teachers make effective transitions from campus learning to classroom teaching. The robust partnership among Singapore’s nie, Moe, and schools is a key driver of the country’s internationally recognized teacher education programs.
To strengthen the relationship along the whole continuum and reinforce the theory–practice nexus, Singapore’s nie has adopted an enhanced Partnership Model. The model provides the necessary collaborative framework of shared values and goals in the interest of teacher learning and education research, while recognizing the need for mutual respect for each partner’s roles, beliefs, perspectives, experiences, expertise, and knowledge. The nie–schools partnership is particularly important to reinforcing the theory–practice nexus. The gap between theory and practice has been widely acknowledged as one of the main shortcomings of teacher education worldwide. in the enhanced Partnership Model, schools take on a bigger, more active role in the practicum, school attachments, and other in situ collaborative platforms that facilitate professional development and bridge the gap between theoretical learning and real classroom experience.
Source: Singapore National Institute of Education, https://nie.edu.sg/, accessed July 1, 2019.
2018). effective programs are ones in which trainers can observe teachers in the classroom, provide individual feedback and pedagogical support, and offer ongoing individual mentoring to teachers. in other words, to be effective, inservice teacher training must be individually targeted and repeated, with follow-up coaching around specific pedagogical techniques (World Bank 2018). Sri Lanka should evaluate its in-service teacher training to ensure it fulfills these guidelines, thereby improving not only teacher quality but ultimately student learning as well.
Developing platforms to foster professional collaboration can further strengthen continual professional development. in the recent past, Sri Lanka has made progress in improving its in-service teacher development programs, particularly with the introduction of school-based professional teacher development (SBPTD) across all schools (Aturupane, kellaghan, and Shojo 2013). However, SBPTD in Sri Lanka needs to be further improved, especially teacher collaboration for professional development. The research on teacher collaboration is unequivocal. A review of the empirical evidence suggests that well-developed teacher collaboration is positively linked to increased teacher effectiveness and has a positive impact on student achievement (vescio, Ross, and Adams 2008). However, fostering effective teacher collaboration requires proper planning and implementation. Sri Lanka will need to examine the
