In-service Teacher Education: Meaning,
Objectives & Significance
Teacher Education = Teaching Skills + Pedagogical
theory + Professional skills.
Teaching skills would include providing training and
practice in the different techniques, approaches and strategies that would help
the teachers to plan and impart instruction, provide appropriate reinforcement
and conduct effective assessment. It includes effective classroom management
skills, preparation and use of instructional materials and communication
skills.
Theory Pedagogical includes
the philosophical, sociological and psychological considerations that would
enable the teachers to have a sound basis for practicing the teaching skills in
the classroom. The theory is stage specific and is based on the needs and
requirements that are characteristic of that stage.
Professional skills include the techniques, strategies
and approaches that would help teachers to grow in the profession and also work
towards the growth of the profession. It includes soft skills, counselling
skills, interpersonal skills, computer skills, information retrieving and
management skills and above all life long learning skills.
An amalgamation of teaching skills, pedagogical theory and professional
skills would serve to create the right knowledge, attitude and skills in
teachers, thus promoting holistic development.
Meaning of In-service Teacher
Education:
The term
'in-service teacher education programme' connotes any programme provided to
teachers already working in schools, with the explicit purpose of updating and
renewing their knowledge, technical skills, etc., for main-training and/or
enhancing their efficiency. In-service teacher education can be seen as a
continuation of pre-service teacher education. In fact, the relevance of
in-service education can be understood only when viewed in this context.
Even in the case of an effective pre-service programme, the impact on
recipients can wear out over time. Teaching, being creative and
individualistic, requires periodic rejuvenation of teachers' attributes and
upgrading of their technical know-how. Even a school teacher who has been
'an outstanding B.Ed. student', who begins his/her teaching career with great
enthusiasm, equipped with an initial amount of technical know-how and the
positive feedback received while 'under training', needs improvement.
Over the years, every batch of students that a teacher faces is a new batch
whose entry behaviour makes unforeseen demands on the same teacher, for which
he/she is obviously not prepared. Every teacher can perceive his/her own
diminishing 'impact' on students. This creates a psychological conflict
between one's perception of one's performance as a student teacher, and the
students' reactions, which are not always favourable. Most often,
teachers deal with such conflict by resorting to the use of 'authority' which
they assume they have over students. In-service education would
continually help effective teachers stay effective. Otherwise, for
constant up gradation of one's technical equipment, a teacher has to fall back
on the distant pre-service course undergone several years earlier.
Besides, in the case of 'mediocre' teachers, the effect of their initial
training wears off faster, and over the years they become increasingly
ineffective. Meaningful in-service education could be one way of
maintaining them at least at the minimum level of efficiency.
Seen thus, in-service education
is essentially a continuation of pre-service programmes. In other words,
the two types of teacher education programmes can be visualised as necessary
corollaries, although different in their purpose and substance. The
knowledge base has predominance over the practice component in a pre-service
teacher education programme. This is because an entrant teacher has to
gain a clear understanding not only of the pedagogic details but also the
manner in which they operate in the field, and then practise these for
confirming his/her own understanding and gaining the initial level of
skills. The entrant teacher, at best, manifests the potential he/she has
for becoming an effective teacher later on. In-service education programmes
must enhance a teacher's understanding and skills, enable him/her to get
'better equipped', and thereby improve the quality of his/her functioning in
the field. They must, therefore, deal with specific aspects, be more
technical and advanced in substance and have scope for 'on-field'
experience. They must, further, have the capability to cater to different
needs of teachers working under distinctly different conditions, facing
peculiar problems and with varying degrees of technical 'wearing out'.
This is what justifies the need for greater periodicity of in-service
education. The variety of programmes for in-service education, thus
ranging from substantive upgrading in different school subjects to enhancement
of pedagogic skills and to field-based problem-solving. These should be
undertaken in relation to the school dimension, in terms of the duration, venue
and training inputs.
Objectives of Teacher Education:
The teacher
needs orientation in various fields of education. This is necessary to enable
him the light of progress and new developments in the field of education. The
teacher-education achieves the follow objectives:
1.
Imparting
an adequate knowledge of the subject- matter:
The objective of teacher education is to
develop a good command of the subject matter of the assignment given to him in
the colleges.
2.
Equipping
the prospective teachers with necessary pedagogic skills:
The main objective of teacher education is
to develop a skill to stimulate experience in the taught, under an artificially
created environment, less with material resources and more by the creation of
an emotional atmosphere. The teacher should develop a capacity to do, observe,
infer and to generalize.
3.
Enabling
the teacher to acquire understanding of child psychology:
The objective is to understggand the child
psychology so that the teacher is able to appreciate the difficulties
experienced by children so as to bring about new modes and methods of achieving
the goals in consonance with the reactions of the children.
4.
Developing
proper attitudes towards teaching:
One of the major objectives of teacher
education is to develop proper altitudes towards teaching as a result of which
he will be able to maximize the achievements from both the material and human
resources. T here is also development of a proper perception of the problems of
universal enrolment, regular attendance, year-to-year promotion.
5.
Developing
self-confidence in the teachers:
The
objectives of teacher education are development of the ability to take care of
himself in terms of:
(a) Adjustment with the physical
conditions,
(b) Healthy adjustment with the social
environment
(c) Adjustment with himself to derive
emotional satisfaction with his life.
6. Enabling
teachers to understand the significance of individual differences of child and
to take appropriate steps for their optimum development:
The objective of teacher education is to
know the causes of individual differences as a result of which he will be able
to develop the ability to be a child with children, an adult with the adults, a
responsible citizen among the community.
7.
Development of the ability to give direct satisfaction of parents from the
achievement of children in terms of:
(a) Proper habits of taking care of the
body,
(b) Proper attitudes reflected in the behaviour
of the children at home, in the school, in the streets, at the farms and fields
etc.
(c) Progress in the class.
The duties of the teacher is very much
relevant in nursery, primary, middle, secondary, higher secondary schools.
Hence the scope of teacher education is very vast. The duties of the teacher in
different stages of education depend on the foundational general education of
the teacher. Emphasis is to be on the practical aspects rather than theory.
Significance of
in service Teacher Education :
1. Education
is a life-long process and no formal training in an institution can fully
prepare a person for professional services.
2. In
an area of teaching, new investigations are constantly revising our ideas of
how and what to teach.
3. All
individual have a tendency to repeat experiences and teachers especially have a
tendency to teach as they were taught.
4. In
many areas of India in villages and small towns, there is short supply of
books, research findings, demonstration of successful experiences and instructional
aids, which are needed by a teacher to keep himself up to date in profession.
5. A
teacher has to play different roles of which each require different kind of
knowledge, attitudes, skills etc.
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