This paper looks at the programmes in Teacher Education, highlighting the efforts of the colleges to revise their curricula to remain relevant to the demands of the National Curricula of the Jamaican schools while providing a holistic training that focuses on the personal and leadership development of the teacher.

The paper speaks to student selection and the preparation for teaching as a career; the changing methodologies and curricula, the need to rethink the Philosophy of Education and that of Teacher Education within it, the culture and the values of society and how they impact teacher training and development; the provision of resources for the Colleges and the urgent need to create partnerships that will strengthen the Professional Development of teachers from training to retirement.

The paper reviews one particular approach in integration and modeling to support the view that the learner centred classroom calls for interaction on a variety of activities that encourage problem solving and cooperative learning in a multicultural environment. Quality schooling does not take place within the walls of a building alone…..

It makes a case for supporting on-going Teacher training programmes that lead, in the first instance, to a first degree and that will balance the strengthening of content and pedagogical skills with the development of the person to whom falls the responsibility for the early years of growth of the young child, the Jamaican citizen.