Teacher Effectiveness: Capacity Building in a Complex Learning Era

The complex learning era of the 21st century, with the affordances of technology creating vast opportunities of new learning environments, calls into question, “what makes an effective teacher” for today and tomorrow. Concerns with student outcomes based primarily on a limited set of measures and attribution of student achievements to the quality of teachers, often obscure the essential perspective of long-haul vision of education. An inventive approach to evolve practices to prepare and develop teachers with design skills and a creative mindset is important in order to understand the ‘whole child’, and enable him/her to cope with the ever-changing learning context. “The teacher factor” is a key catalytic force for improving education by redefining teacher effectiveness. The perspectives presented in Teacher Effectiveness: Capacity Building in a Complex Learning Era aim at bridging the gaps for much needed resources on teacher education and teacher professional development. The importance of evidence-based approaches, planning for quality impact and contextualisation of relevant outcomes are illustrated.