The report, “Teaching and Leadership for the 21^st Century,” summarizes the proceedings of the summit, which convened representatives of 23 countries and regions in New York City this past March to examine global successes and best practices in education and to encourage innovation and action to improve the teaching professions. Delegates from Singapore described that country’s preparation of teachers for “21st-century learning environments that produce… 21st-century skills,” as well as how Singapore’s National Institute of Education (NIE) set out to redesign teacher education within a “competency framework” of desired outcomes for the 21^st-century learner produced by the country’s Ministry of Education.

As part of that effort, NIE encourages international learning for its scholars, principals, and teachers, in part through its collaboration “with the Teachers College of Columbia University, and other universities in eight Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries, to examine ways to improve the quality of math and science teaching.” This work is aimed at preparing teachers with “the values, skills, and knowledge to not just keep abreast with the times but also be ahead of their time,” the report says.

 Last February, TC and the NIE established a joint Masters of Arts in Leadership and Education Change degree program with a dual focus on instructional and curriculum leadership. The program, delivered in Singapore, is in conjunction with a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by the U.S. and Singapore providing for cooperation between the two nations in the areas of teacher development and school leadership, and in education research and benchmarking. An MOU signed in 2002 focused primarily on mathematics and science.

Published Tuesday, Jul. 17, 2012