Preparing tomorrow\u27s teachers today

This portfolio documents the learning journey of a preservice teacher educator in Western Australia. The problem investigated is how should we best to prepare preservice teachers for teaching in future contexts. This document has several sections, firstly the literature review discusses topics that have relevance for teacher educators preparing teachers of the future to work in a knowledge-based economy. Then four phases of research both quantitative and qualitative are presented interlinked by a personal narrative. The narrative describes how the studies and research impacted on the teaching practices of the researcher. The powerful findings of the research with teachers in phase 1 and preservice teachers in phase 2 precipitated the reconceptualisation of a number of courses for preservice teachers co-ordinated by the author. This lead to the transformation of the instructional model used and the incorporation of a range of flexible delivery modes to support student learning styles and needs and foster student engagement and retention. The portfolio also contains descriptions and results of a number of small research projects, five peer reviewed and published papers. Reference is made to a number of peer reviewed academic conference papers presented by the researcher linked to the theme of the portfolio. The portfolio culminates with two peer reviewed publications which describe the current state of preservice teacher education in Western Australia as well as presenting a future vision of how we could prepare our preservice teachers to work in a future digital world. The overriding conclusion reached in this portfolio is that preservice teacher educators need to experiment with flexible modes of delivery to meet the learning needs and styles of our students. In this way we will be modelling flexible modes of teaching to our students to prepare them to teach in future contexts