Abstract:

It is an effective way to ensure the quality of teacher education by introducing policy instruments to hold the participants accountable and establishing corresponding accountability system.From the perspective of the common mechanism of policy operation, command, inducement, energy building, system change and idea are five common policy instruments, which differ in basic elements, expected results, costs and benefits.In recent years, in order to fully guarantee the quality of new teachers, the US federal government has established a multi-level teacher education accountability system through the use of various policy instruments which are funds inducement leading states to assume responsibility for ensuring the quality of teacher training, imperative bills constructing a four-levels teacher training responsibility system, target-oriented recommendations achieving limited energy construction, and alternative project development promoting healthy competition among institutions. In China’s building of its teacher education accountability system, learning from the US, we could construct an evidence-based reporting system which is about the quality of individual teacher education program. Through laying out entry standard for new programs and assisting in capacity building, a kind of internal and external quality assurance system based on shared understanding should be achieved.

Key words: teacher education, quality of education, quality assurance, quality accountability, policy instruments