New education and new teacher education: A paradigm shift for the future

In facing up the numerous global and indigenous challenges from the rapid and drastic transformations in the new century, school education and teacher education have to change in a fundamental way, reflecting the emerge of a new paradigm. This article is to propose a paradigm shift for reforming school education and teacher education in the new century. To substantiate the proposal, a general theory of education in the new millennium, resting on the premises of three key elements drawn from the wisdom of ancient Chinese civilization, on the premises of contextualized multiple intelligences (CMI), and on the premises of triplization, is developed. This theory furnishes a basis for explaining why a paradigm shift is necessary and for prescribing the properties of the new paradigm and in turn the appropriate approaches to and measures for enhancing rationalized education reform. More specifically, the article will illustrates how triplization can contribute substantially to the development of CMI of not only students but also teachers. In the latter paper of the article, a paradigm shift for redesigning teacher education for the new millennium is proposed. It is hoped that the new school education and new teacher education can support students to become CMI citizens who will engage in life long learning and will contribute creatively to building up a CMI society and a CMI global village. Copyright © 2000 Hong Kong Institute of Education.