Teacher education


Teacher education or teacher training refers to programs, policies, procedures, and provision designed to equip teachers with the knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, approaches, methodologies and skills they require to perform their tasks effectively in the classroom, school, and wider community. The professionals who engage in training the prospective teachers are called teacher educators.
There is a longstanding and ongoing debate about the most appropriate term to describe these activities. The term 'teacher training' seems to be losing ground, at least in the U.S., to 'teacher education'. The two major components of teacher education are in-service teacher education and pre-service teacher education.

History

Teacher training

Although ideally teacher education should be conceived of, and organised as, a seamless continuum, teacher education is often divided into these stages:
  • Initial teacher training/education: A pre-service course before entering the classroom as a fully responsible teacher
  • Induction: The process of providing training and support during the first few years of teaching or the first year in a particular school
  • Teacher development or continuing professional development: An in-service process for practicing teachers.

    Initial

Organization

In many countries, Initial Teacher Education takes place largely or exclusively in institutions of higher education. In countries like Sri Lanka there are separate institutes called National colleges of Education to provide pre-service teacher training while Teacher Training Colleges provide in-service teacher education. Further institutes called Teacher Centers provide continuing professional development for teachers. It may be organized according to two basic models.
In the consecutive model, a teacher first obtains a qualification in one or more subjects, and then studies for a further period to gain an additional qualification in teaching.
In the alternative concurrent model, a student simultaneously studies both one or more academic subjects, and the ways of teaching that subject, leading to a combined bachelor's degree and teaching credential to qualify as a teacher of that subject.
Other pathways are also available. In some countries, it is possible for a person to receive training as a teacher by working in a school under the responsibility of an accredited experienced practitioner.
In the United Kingdom, there is a long tradition of partnerships between universities and schools in providing state supported teacher education. This tradition is not without tensions and controversies.
In the United States, approximately one-third of new teachers come through alternative routes to teacher certification, according to testimony given by Emily Feistritzer, the President of National Center for Alternative Certification and the National Center for Education Information, to a congressional subcommittee on May 17, 2007. However, many alternative pathways are affiliated with schools of education, where candidates still enroll in university-based coursework. A supplemental component of university-based coursework is community-based teacher education, where teacher candidates immerse themselves in communities that will allow them to apply teaching theory to practice. Community-based teacher education also challenges teacher candidates' assumptions about the issues of gender, race, and multicultural diversity. This assists to make an attitudinal change in the teacher trainees in order to eliminate segregation within the school community.

Curriculum

The question of what knowledge, attitudes, behaviours, approaches, methodologies and skills teachers should possess is the subject of much debate in many cultures. This is understandable, as teachers are entrusted with the transmission to learners of society's beliefs, attitudes and deontology, as well as of information, advice and wisdom, and with facilitating learners' acquisition of the key knowledge, attitudes and behaviours that they will need to be active in society and the economy.
Generally, Teacher Education curricula can be broken down into four major areas:
  • Domain knowledge in education-related aspects of philosophy of education, history of education, educational psychology, and sociology of education.
  • Skills in assessing student learning, supporting English Language learners, using technology to improve teaching and learning, and supporting students with special needs.
  • Content-area and methods knowledge and skills—often also including ways of teaching and assessing a specific subject, in which case this area may overlap with the first area. There is increasing debate about this aspect; because it is no longer possible to know in advance what kinds of knowledge and skill pupils will need when they enter adult life, it becomes harder to know what kinds of knowledge and skill teachers should have. Increasingly, emphasis is placed upon transversal or horizontal skills, which cut across traditional subject boundaries, and therefore call into question traditional ways of designing the Teacher Education curriculum.
  • Practice at classroom teaching or at some other form of educational practice—usually supervised and supported in some way, though not always. Practice can take the form of field observations, student teaching, or internship. This area also includes extracurricular competences such as dealing with conflicts and bullying among pupils.

    Rural

Those training to teach in rural and remote areas face different challenges from those who teach in urban centres. Therefore, a different approach to teacher education is needed for those who aspire to each in rural and remote areas. It has been proposed that rural and remote communities may have more success recruiting teachers who already live in these communities, rather than trying to recruit urbanites to move to rural communities once they have completed their teacher training. Online and blended teacher education programs are becoming more prevalent to help meet the needs of teacher shortages in rural and remote areas. In addition, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 aims to substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers by 2030 through international cooperation.

Supervised field experiences

Supervised field experiences may include:
  • Field observations: Include observation and limited participation within a classroom under the supervision of the classroom teacher.
  • Student teaching: Includes a number of weeks teaching in an assigned classroom under the supervision of the classroom teacher and a supervisor.
  • Internship: Teaching candidate is supervised within his or her own classroom.
These three areas reflect the organization of most teacher education programs in North America as well as Asian countries like Sri Lanka. Courses, modules, and other activities are often organized to belong to one of the three major areas of teacher education. The organization makes the programs more rational or logical in structure. The conventional organization has sometimes also been criticized, however, as artificial and unrepresentative of how teachers actually experience their work. Problems of practice frequently concern foundational issues, curriculum, and practical knowledge simultaneously, and separating them during teacher education may therefore not be helpful.
However, the question of necessary training components is highly debated as continuing increases in attrition rates by new teachers and struggling learners is evident. Additionally, with the increasing demands of the "teacher" research is beginning to suggest that teachers must not only be trained to increase learning experiences for their students, but how to also be a leader in an increasingly challenging field. The debate of how best to prepare teachers for teaching in today's demanding environments will continue to be an important focus of the United States, where the education of all children successfully is priority.

Induction of beginning teachers

Teaching involves the use of a wide body of knowledge about the subject being taught, and another set of knowledge about the most effective ways to teach that subject to different kinds of learner; it, therefore, requires teachers to undertake a complex set of tasks every minute. Many teachers experience their first years in the profession as stressful. The proportion of teachers who either do not enter the profession after completing initial training, or who leave the profession after their first teaching post, is high.
A distinction is sometimes made between inducting a teacher into a new school, and inducting a new teacher into the teaching profession.
A number of countries and states have put in place comprehensive systems of support to help beginning teachers during their first years in the profession. Elements of such a programme can include:
  • Mentoring: the allocation to each beginning teacher of an experienced teacher, specifically trained as a mentor; the mentor may provide emotional and professional support and guidance; in teacher training, induction is limited to the provision of a mentor, but research suggests that, in itself, it is not enough.
  • A peer network: for mutual support but also for peer learning.
  • Input from educational experts.
  • Support for the process of self-reflection that all teachers engage in.
Some research suggests that such programmes can: increase the retention of beginning teachers in the profession; improve teaching performance; promote the teachers' personal and professional well-being.
However, numerous authors suggest that current teacher education is highly flawed and primarily geared towards a western dominated curriculum. Hence, they suggest that teacher education should be inclusive and take into account multiple backgrounds and variables to allow teachers to be responsive to the requirements of their students. This falls into the area of culturally responsive teaching and requires teaching education and teachers to address issues of diversity education and disadvantage as a part of a teacher education curriculum. Jabbar & Hardaker argue that this is an essential process in helping students of ethnicity, colour and diversity achieve and attain.