July 16, 2006

THE rapid increase in scientific knowledge has created a sense of competition among professionals. This situation has led teachers to improve upon their classroom learning methods. It is universally recognised that an instructor’s education does not finish at the end of his/her initial training period. Those who teach must constantly seek opportunities that can help them acquire the knowledge and skills essential for tutelage. The changing environment in schools as well as colleges demonstrates an urgent need for continuing teacher education; for example, refresher courses, in-service training courses, and professional development for continuing teacher education programmes.

At present, a number of in-service teachers’ training courses are being conducted in the country, for which funds are allocated by the federal and provincial education departments. In fact, the federal and provincial bureaus of curriculum and provincial institutes of teacher education (PITEs) design, implement and evaluate these courses on a regular basis, arranging in-service courses for teachers, educational managers, supervisors, high school teachers and elementary school teachers.

While the intention here is noble, it is unfortunate that they are making little or no impact on teachers on the whole. There is virtually no change in the classroom practices of teachers, mainly because little research is conducted prior to the implementation of these programmes to gauge their results. Not only this, but also post-implementation is also unheard of when it comes to these courses.

Most of these courses consist of certain common features, based on the Planning Commission-I (PC-I) document. This document contains rationale for conducting training courses, objectives, the expected number of master trainers and teachers to be trained, expected teaching resources to be used and the required financial recourses for conducting the course. PC-I is developed keeping in view the available budget instead of keeping in mind the needs of the teachers who require training.

The present revolution in Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) has affected our classrooms, especially since a lot of teachers are not computer-savvy. Sadly, the current teacher training programmes hardly focus on the integration of ICT in classroom teaching practices. Thus, not surprisingly, teachers remain incapable of using computers or even using technology to create an interactive classroom environment. Teachers who attend these courses are unable to solve problems relating to teaching and learning in a systematic way. They are unable to reflect on their teaching. Teachers are unable to conduct action research. There is no doubt that action research is a way to improve classroom teaching through a cyclic process of planning, acting, reflecting and again replanning.

One must also point out that there is no follow-up of teachers who participate in such courses by institutions who impart training as well as by respective district education authorities. Even the institutions designing and implementing these courses lack coordination with the result that there are few impact studies available.

Whatever little research is available about teacher education in Pakistan are descriptive rather than analytic and reflective and the lack of a research journal on teacher education in the country only makes matters worse. Given that almost all public sector teacher education institutions are working in isolation without any link with institutes for education & research (IERs).

The need of the hour, it seems, is that authorities should design in-service courses, keeping in view the needs of subject teachers. In fact, a need assessment survey will easily be able to identify teacher needs. Not only this, but also the content of training programmes should be flexible enough to accommodate and deliberate on modern trends and issues along with the incorporation of various teacher theories, keeping in mind the local education scenario. The teachers can also greatly benefit from getting an opportunity to perceive the results of their teaching methods and for this purpose, classroom visits, where the teacher can be a part of the audience, would probably be a good idea.

It is important that the authorities concerned introduce action-oriented research in teachers’ training courses at all levels because it will only lead to a refinement in teaching practices. This can be done by establishing teacher education universities at all provincial head quarters which can, in turn, give rise to research journals.

In-service training courses are an important part of a teacher’s career, and they must be taken seriously. It is only by revising these programmes and bringing about coordination among all agencies who participate in their creation that these courses will actually achieve something meaningful.

The writer is a PhD research scholar and lecturer at the Faculty of Education and Learning Sciences, Iqra University, Karachi

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