Teacher education for effectiveness quality and relevance: A new paradigm for the new century

In an era of drastic transformation in the whole world, the policy, practice, and research on teacher education should be broadened to cover a wide range of change in teacher roles and teaching paradigms in such a complicated context. This paper aims to point out that teacher education and development as a field of inquiry and practice should include at least three key guiding elements: effectiveness, quality, and relevance. Parallel to the paradigm shift in education in the new century, the paper proposes a paradigm shift in teacher education. It suggests that the aims, content, process, methodology, context as well as the culture of teacher education should be changed towards a new paradigm of total lifelong teacher education driven by globalization, localisation, and individualisation with the support of information technology and networking. The paper will elaborate how this paradigm of teacher education can be closely linked with total teacher performance in effectiveness, quality, and relevance in such a rapidly changing environment.