The challenge of preparing quality teachers are key priorities in many countries. Research has consistently shown that teachers are a primary causal driver of student achievement gains (Darling-Hammond & Youngs, 2002, Bransford, Darling-Hammond, & LePage 2005), and that there are identifiable characteristics of teachers that are predictive of their success in the classroom (Darling-Hammond & Youngs, 2002; Wayne & Youngs, 2001). A 2007 report by international consulting group McKinsey and Company proclaimed that the “quality of and education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers.” Teacher education institutes have the ongoing challenge of assuring their programmes of study provide the necessary components to generate well prepared teacher candidates.  The programme outcomes, consequences and results of teacher education have become critical topics. Programme evaluation is important in determining how, and to what extent, assessment systems are effective in educational practices and outcomes. Standards against which teacher education programme outcomes will be assessed need to be established, and integrated into the evaluation system. The emphasis is on a higher level of accountability and quality for the performance of teacher graduates.

The purpose of this paper was to study the effectiveness of National Institute of Education (NIE), Singapore pre-service preparation programmes in preparing beginning teachers. The researchers framed the study around three areas: (a) values; (b) skills; and (c) knowledge. The programmes are conceptualised on an integrated values, skills and knowledge (VSK) framework.  The VSK framework articulated, in broad terms, the desired skills and knowledge components for beginning teachers, with the underlying core values permeating the programmes. The researchers utilized a program evaluation design as the research methodology. Programme evaluation is a "systematic operation of varying complexity involving data collection, observations and analyses, and culminating in a value judgment with regard to the quality of the program being evaluated, considered in its entirety, or through one or more of its components" (Mizikaci, 2006, p. 38). A programme evaluation approach uses methods of inquiry by: (a) establishing standards by which to judge programme quality, (b) providing the collection of relevant information, and (c) applying those standards to the programme in an effort to establish its effectiveness, quality, or value.

Understanding graduating student teachers’ perceptions of their levels of value, knowledge and skills provide a framework for a better facilitation of beginning teachers being able to teach more effectively and confidently. This study therefore seeks to answer the following:

1.       Are the variables selected to measure the values, skills and knowledge correlate and cluster under the three constructs?

2.       What are the student teachers’ perception of their levels of values, skills and knowledge at the construct level?

3.       What are the student teachers’ perception of their levels of values, skills and knowledge at the variable or item level?

4.       To what extent has the programme successfully implemented the VSK framework?

Bransford J., Darling-Hammond L., & LePage P., (2005). ‘Introduction’, in Bransford J and Darling-Hammond L (Eds), Preparing Teachers for a Changing World’, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco Darling-Hammond, Linda, & Youngs, Peter (2002). Defining “highly qualified teachers”: What does “scientifically-based research” actually tell us? Educational Researcher, 31 (9), 13-25. Michael Barber and Mona Mourshed, How the world’s best-performing school systems come out on top, September, 2007, McKinsey & Company. Mizikaci, F. (2006) ‘A systems approach to program evaluation model for quality in higher education’, Quality Assurance in Education, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp.37–53. Wayne, Andrew J., and Youngs, Peter (2003). Teacher characteristics and student achievement gains: A review. Review of Educational Research, 73(1), 89-122.