Pre-service teacher education in Asia: attract and retain the best teachers

Abstract

In last decades, many studies have been focused on teachers as an essential element to im- prove the quality of education. Therefore, pre-service training, and accompanying elements, is the most im- portant first moment in the career of teachers. Furthermore, recent international assessments highlight a clear development in the performance of student from certain Asian countries. If we consider these two facts and the reforms made in the educational politics in our national context, it would seems significant to study what are the most important factors in select Asian countries, or economic regions, whose educational systems get the best results in the latest OECD PISA report. The reality of these countries invites us to reflect about our current system of pre-service teacher education. All these ideas aim to collaborate in a pro- gressive improvement of our system and in the achievement of our students.