Chua, Bee Leng

2022, Chye, Stefanie Yen Leng, Chua, Bee Leng, Satya Samhita Balanagu

Teacher education needs to be transformative in order to develop future-ready teachers equipped with the values, knowledge and skills to raise a new generation of 21st century learners. The National Institute of Education (NIE), Singapore has adopted a value-based Teacher Education Program which aims to prepare autonomous thinking teachers for the 21st century by building teachers with a strong sense of teacher identity, who assume ownership of learning, are reflective of their beliefs and practices and are able to inquire into their classroom practices. One of the defining elements in NIE’s initial teacher preparation program is the use of the digital portfolio as a tool to help student teachers to crystallise their teaching identity, provide the cognitive framework to help build their conceptual map of teaching and learning, create theory-practice links which make visible their inquiry processes, develop their competencies as a teacher and help them become lifelong learners.