Teacher education

Teacher education refers to the policies and procedures designed to equip teachers with the knowledge, attitudes, behaviours and skills they require to perform their tasks effectively in the school and classroom. In early times, teachers were often scholars or clergymen who had no formal training in how to teach the subjects of their expertise. In fact, many believed that "teachers were born, not made." It was not until the emergence of pedagogy, the "art and science of teaching," as an accepted discipline that the training of teachers was considered important.

Although there has been continued debate about whether teaching is a "science" that can be taught or whether one is "born" to be a teacher, it has generally been agreed, at least since the nineteenth century, that certain characteristics are needed to qualify a person as a teacher: knowledge of the subject matter to be taught, knowledge of teaching methods, and practical experience in applying both. Most educational programs for teacher's today focus upon these points.

Overview

A primary school teacher in northern Laos

In education, teachers facilitate student learning. The objective is typically accomplished through either an informal or formal approach to learning, including a course of study and lesson plan that teaches skills, knowledge and/or thinking skills. When deciding what teaching method to use teachers consider students' background knowledge, environment, and their learning goals as well as standardized curricula as determined by the relevant authority. A teacher may interact with students of different ages, from infants to adults, students with different abilities and students with learning disabilities. Hence, teaching is a complexly important job, which is why prospective educators are mandated to have degrees in general education, subject specific education and/or specialized education; many countries also require teachers to be licensed. Beyond legislative dictum, many scholars and academics for over one hundred years have believed that a person must be rigorously trained and educated in methods and skills that eventually make him or her an effective teacher.

History

Educating teacher's did not become a formalized movement until 1684, when Saint John-Baptiste de la Salle, founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools and a great educational reformer, established what is generally considered the first normal school in Reims, France. This was an institution in which young men were trained in the principles and practices of a new method of teaching, adaptable to the youth in every country. The French concept of an "école normale" was to provide a model school with model classrooms to teach standard teaching practices to its student teachers. The children, the teachers of the children, the student teachers, and the teachers of the students were all housed together in the same building.

Normal schools spread throughout Europe. In the early 1700s August Hermann Francke organized a teachers' class at Halle to train the teachers for his orphans who received education in what came to be known as the Franckesche Stiftungen. A student of Francke, Johann Julius Hecker, opened the first school for the training of teachers in Berlin in 1748.

Teacher's Colleges and Programs

In nearly every part of the world higher educational institutions have taken over the role of educating and licensing teachers, or have set in motion plans to do so. For example, in Senegal, the former Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS), Dakar's elite teacher training college, was transformed into the Faculté des sciences et techniques de l'éducation et de la formation (Fastef) in 2008. This move, as with those in other countries, was intended to "allow a greater number of students to enter teacher training, and provide the educational system with an official, quality-controlled workforce."[8]

In the Western world teacher training institutions are commonly colleges or departments of larger universities. In the United States, most states require an Bachelor's and Master's degree along with certification in order to be qualified as a public school teacher, with less strict requirements for private schools. Thus, an undergraduate degree is only one step in many to becoming a teacher. Teachers College, Columbia University is a top ranked graduate school of education in the United States. It was founded in 1887 by the philanthropist Grace Hoadley Dodge and philosopher Nicholas Murray Butler to provide a new kind of schooling for the teachers of the poor children of New York City, one that combined a humanitarian concern to help others with a scientific approach to human development. From its modest beginnings as a school to prepare home economists and manual art teachers for the children of the poor, the college affiliated with Columbia University in 1898, and went on to become the leading intellectual influence on the development of the American teaching profession. Nowadays all teachers in France are educated in instituts universitaires de formation des maîtres. Both primary and secondary education teachers are required to either have a license or an undergraduate level degree in order to sit for the teacher's examination, which determines who is allowed to enter an education program. These exams are competitive in nature, and for those that score the most, a one year training program is required before they are allowed to teach.[9] Those who wish to become teachers in the United Kingdom must possess either a Bachelor's degree in education along with a postgraduate education certificate, or have a bachelor's degree in any academic field with a postgraduate education certificate.[10]

In China and Taiwan, normal schools still exist as separate institutions controlled by the national or provincial government, while other state run colleges also provide teacher programs.

Educational Methods and Structure

Teachers are entrusted with the transmission to children of society's beliefs, attitudes and deontology, as well as of information, advice and wisdom. Therefore, most countries legislate and oversee the education of future teachers.

Depending on numerous sociological factors, every country has different standards by which teachers are educated; yet, despite regional differences, most countries breakdown a teacher's career path into a tiered structure that can be summed up as:

• 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 (CPD) (an in-service process for practicing teachers).

Most countries require prospective teachers to first obtain a qualification (often a first university degree), and then study for a further period to gain an additional qualification in teaching; (in some systems this takes the form of a post-graduate degree, possibly even a Masters). This often means that education curricula in higher education most meet legislated goals. The question of what knowledge, attitudes, behaviours and skills teachers should possess is the subject of much debate in many cultures.

Curricula

Generally, Teacher Education curricula can be broken down into these blocks:

• foundational knowledge and skills—usually this area is about education-related aspects of philosophy of education, history of education, educational psychology, and sociology of education

• content-area and methods knowledge—often also including ways of teaching and assessing a specific subject, in which case this area may overlap with the first ("foundational") 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 (such as 'learning to learn' or 'social competences', which cut across traditional subject boundaries, and therefore call into question traditional ways of designing the Teacher Education curriculum (and traditional ways of working in the classroom).

• 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 (See Supervised Field Experiences below.)

Supervised Field Experiences

• 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 (e.g. from the university)
• 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 (though not necessarily elsewhere in the world)—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 (perhaps usually) concern foundational issues, curriculum, and practical knowledge simultaneously, and separating them during teacher education may therefore not be helpful.

External links

• Research on Teacher Education in the Developing World
• Teacher leadership in developing countries
• Teaching Educational Psychology
• Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy
• MOFET ITEC - International Portal of Teacher Education

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