How Teachers Around the World Learn

Schools around the world face urgent demands to prepare students for changing social and economic environments—for jobs not yet created and technologies not yet invented, and for citizenship in diverse and interconnected societies. To meet these challenges, many governments are setting ambitious goals for their education systems.

We hear a lot about demands on teachers in U.S. schools, but the bar is being raised for teacher performance in other countries as well. Teachers are now expected, for example, to have a broader, more specialized knowledge of their discipline; engage students and facilitate the development of their cognitive and noncognitive skills; employ digital technologies; and respond to the individual needs of students from different backgrounds while helping all achieve high standards.

A New Focus on Teacher Learning