Abstract
In recent years, education systems around the world have been keeping a keen eye on rankings of student achievement as measured by internationally benchmarked tests. This has led to considerable attention being paid to teasing out success factors that may account for countries that have emerged top of the ranks or those that have shown the most rapid improvement from one test period to the next. Singapore’s education system, which has consistently emerged as one of the higher ranking countries has garnered much international attention as a consequence. Even as other nations are learning more about Singapore, it is timely for Singapore to share our expertise and experience to benefit other systems. In this article, one such effort of internationalisation is focused on i.e., teacher education and professional development programmes. The underpinning philosophy of internationalisation is to serve the global educational community. Three models of internationalisation are expounded upon, namely; building the local capacity of our partner countries, training the trainers, and the offering of executive leadership training programmes to an international market. The past and future challenges of internationalisation are also discussed. The article ends with how it began, in terms of examining Singapore’s internationalisation of its teacher education and professional development programmes in the light of whether we are indeed, paving the Fourth Way as espoused by Hargreaves and Shirley (2009).
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Low, EL., Lee, SK. Bringing Singapore’s teacher education beyond its shores. Educ Res Policy Prac 11, 43–51 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10671-011-9116-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10671-011-9116-7