In-Service Teacher Education: Some Suggestions for Improvement

Abstract

A new school curriculum was introduced in South Africa in 1994. The successful implementation and sustaining of any new school curriculum depends to a large extent on how readily and rapidly teachers accept and adapt to it. To do this, teachers have to be retrained in both thinking and doing, or in the epistemology and methodology of the new curriculum. This paper therefore examines teacher education, especially in-service teacher education and how it has been practised elsewhere. It is hoped that education policy makers will take note of some of the issues raised in this paper as the one day workshop which has hitherto been the most used strategy of in-service teacher education has been found to be totally inadequate and wanting. Suggestions are also given about what steps
should be taken to have an efficient and effective in-service teacher education programme.

Keywords: Teacher Education; Teacher Training; In-service Teacher Education

International Journal of Educational Research Vol. 4 (1) 2008: pp. 121-126