Innovative Classroom Practices and the Teacher of the Future

The widespread support for the use of ICT to support teaching and learning across the curriculum has been on the grounds that there is a need to equip the younger generation with a new set of competencies required for life in the 21st century. There is also a heightening realization that this will also involve the development of new pedagogies alongside the use of ICT. It is in this context that the Second International Information Technology in Education Study introduced the concept of emerging pedagogical paradigm. The second phase of this study is an international comparative case study of ‘Innovative Pedagogical Practices Using Technology’ (SITES M2). Altogether 28 countries from around the world participated in this study, and a total of 174 case studies have been conducted and reported. Each of the innovative cases is by definition considered to be a relatively rare and valuable pedagogical development in its own national context and provides a lens for us to have a preview of the classrooms of the future. This paper explores the future roles of the teacher and the consequent demands on teacher professional development provisions based on an analysis of the variety of roles that teachers played in a sample of case studies collected in this study.