The desire to improve the quality of educational outcomes has gained much attention in many countries especially with the increased interest in international comparisons such as PISA, TIMSS, and TALIS, which aim to facilitate the dissemination of ideas on effective education systems and thereby, seek to drive up education standards everywhere based on cross-national empirical evidence (Watts, 2017). In this respect, Singapore and Hong Kong have been two countries that have attracted so much attention internationally as a result of their continuous success at PISA and TIMSS, encouraging other countries, including Turkey - among the lowest-performing OECD countries (ERG, 2017; Karip, 2017; OECD, 2018) - to explore and discuss the reasons behind their achievement.
At the heart of these discussions, defining teacher competencies has been highlighted as a key international priority (Korthagen, 2004; Zhu & Zeichner, 2013). The Council of the European Union calls for defining teacher competencies as a vital initiative (European Commission, 2013), supported with the argument that teachers are the most critical element and the backbone of the education systems (Darling-Hammond, 2006, 2007; Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005; Day, 2013; Commission of the European Communities, 2007; Zhu & Zeichner, 2013) not only to achieve high quality educational outcomes (Council of the European Union, 2009), but also to benchmark a nation’s educational achievements against other nations (Akiba & LeTendre, 2009; Darling-Hammond, 2006; Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005). Accordingly, it has been underlined that the expectations from teachers have been ever increasing in the 21st century based on the emerging needs of the current era, underpinned by a perspective that views teacher competencies as developing gradually throughout a continuum from initial teacher preparation to career-long professional development (European Commission, 2013).
Building on the discussions above, portraying the distinctive features of teacher competencies suggested in Singapore and Hong Kong can draw policymakers in the European Union (EU) member countries, including Turkey as a candidate country, into international exchanges that inspire them to develop productive policies and practices in identifying the competencies that are essential for teachers in the 21st century. While there is common ground across different cultures on the nature of teaching, defining teacher competencies is historically and culturally bound with specific constraints in different contexts, coupled with the argument that teaching is as a complex and multifaceted act that involves certain values and assumptions concerning education, teaching, learning, and society (European Commission, 2013).
Along with these, this study aims to compare general teacher competencies suggested in Singapore and Hong Kong with those suggested in Turkey. To this end, the study particularly addresses the following research question:
1. What are the similarities and differences among key general teacher competencies suggested in Turkey, Singapore, and Hong Kong?
The study contributes to the European Commission’s call for developing better teacher education policies as it highlights the key teacher competencies suggested in Singapore and Hong Kong - two high performing countries in international comparisons of student achievements. In so doing, this study addresses the issue of teacher competencies in a global context so that European societies can borrow ideas and learn from these countries to prepare highly qualified teachers towards their desire to improve the educational policies and practices in their countries, considering that each country has its unique traditions of teacher education that can offer insights to other countries (Gopinathan et al., 2008). Moreover, by highlighting key teacher competencies, this study sheds light on improving the current preservice and inservice teacher education policies in EU member states and candidate countries as the findings might offer a ground for admission, preparation, certification, appointment, and professional development policies along the whole continuum of teacher education.