The Internet and teacher education: Traversing between the digitized world and schools

Abstract

In the face of rapid technological and economic developments globally, pre-service teacher education programs in the Asia-Pacific region are challenged to prepare teachers who are open to new ideas, new practices and information and communication technologies (ICT), to learn how to learn, unlearn and relearn, and to understand and accept the need for change. Extending Popper's (1978) framework of the three worlds — the physical world as World 1, the mental world as World 2, and the world of products of human ideas as World 3 — this paper examines how teachers may assume agency to mediate the tensions and opportunities between these worlds in order to chart possible developmental trajectories that may provide future directions for pre-service teacher education. With respect to the use of ICT for teaching and learning, pre-service teacher education programs are then expected to move pre-service teachers away from learning specific ICT application and towards learning how to learn, and more important, moving towards a commitment to constructivist-oriented teaching and learning practices.