It is universally acknowledged that education is an effective means for social
reconstruction and to a great extent it offers solutions to the problems a society is
faced with. These problems may be economic, social, cultural, political, moral,
ecological and educational. Since the teachers play a major role in education of
children, their own education becomes a matter of vital concern. Teacher education
must, therefore, create necessary awareness among teachers about their new roles and
responsibilities (Rajput et al, 2005).
Policy-makers are paying increasing attention to educational, social and
economic factors that contribute to improved education and learning and enhanced
returns to investment in education. The process of teaching is at the heart of education
and the expertise, pedagogical know-how and organizational and technical
competence of teachers are widely considered to be central to educational
improvement (Sarita and Tomar, 2004).
The progress of a country depends upon the quality of teachers and for this
reason teaching is the noblest among all professions. The irony of fate, however, is
that teaching is, often, the most unattractive profession and teacher no longer occupies
an honorable position in the society. If teaching is to regain something of its earlier
noble status, then the quality of teacher-education needs to be improved in Pakistan.
Of course, remuneration will need reviewed extensively as well. However, the whole
process of teacher education requires that there are high standards of entry to courses,
high standards expected of all the learning experiences, and high standards expected of
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those students who will be given a pass. In the absence of other influences, a teacher
tries to teach in the way in which he himself was taught by his favourite teacher and
this tends to perpetuate the traditional methods of teaching. Such an attitude can
become a major obstacle in enabling potential teachers to change their approaches to
those which have been found to be more effective (Rao and Rao, 2005).
Effective professional education can introduce the trainee teacher to these new
approaches but it also absolutely essential that there is consistency in the approach.
Thus, those leading the courses in teacher training need to carry out their own teaching
using the best approaches, based on researched evidence while school practice cannot
be allowed to undermine this by encouraging the trainee teacher to revert to former
practices. This is incredibly difficult to achieve as Carroll (2006) discovered when he
found that even those taught well in courses and who were totally committed to better
ways tended every time to revert back to repeating the teaching approaches they
remembered from their own school days (Carroll, 2006).
The qualifications required for entry in the teaching profession are often used
as a proxy for the quality of educational inputs. Qualification requirements are also a
key policy lever for governments to influence the quality of instructional delivery. In
general, it is important to distinguish between academic training (i.e. subject-matter
instruction) and professional training (i.e. pedagogical instruction), which is often
combined with periods of work experience. There has been a worldwide trend towards
the generalization of pre-service teacher training at the level of tertiary education,
either in university or non-university equivalent level institutions. This trend has been
reflected in international recommendations on appropriate levels of training and
professional development, which advocate as a minimum a first-level university
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degree or its equivalent. However, there are still differences among countries as to
their position in respect to this trend, depending on their stage of development and of
that of their education system (Sarita and Tomar, 2004).
The education of trainee teachers must be based on the development of
professional skills. The profession generally refers to an occupation, vocation or highstatus
career, usually involving prolonged academic training, formal qualifications and
membership of a professional or regulatory body. The person applies specilised
knowledge of a subject. Professional activity has to involve systematic knowledge and
proficiency. There are usually regulatory agencies controlling professions to ensure
standards and ethical behaviuor. Some of these characteristics are true of teaching.
They all should be true. Training can ensure that the trainees have mastered the
specialist knowledge (subject matter and pedagogy) and can apply it effectively in the
classroom. They should be aware of the standards required of them and their
responsibilities to the young people they are teaching (Rajput et al, 2005).
Teachers need to feel valued, to be adequately remunerated for the demanding
task they do and to see opportunities for development and increased opportunities.
Teacher training at the outset of a career cannot solve all these problems on its own.
What teacher training can do is to ensure that the key subject knowledge is in place
and is understood. It can develop the basic teaching skills so that the new teacher can
function effectively in the classroom. It can set standards, lay out the research
evidence which underpins the most effective teaching approaches and allow trainee
teachers to practice the skills which will enable them to cope at the outset of their
careers. Developing attitudes and ideals and establishing the moral and ethical
responsibility for young people’s learning is much more difficult to achieve. This
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requires on-going support and encouragement when in post as a teacher. The key to
this is affirmation and support without which little will be achieved. In recent times,
Singh and Sudershan (2005) have noted a move away from an emphasis on ‘teaching’
to place the emphasis on ‘learning’. This is welcome in that it places the students at
the centre of the process of learning. However, while learning can take place without
any teacher, it will not happen spontaneously much with young people of school age.
The role of the teacher is critical to enable learning to take place and the place of
initial teacher education is of vital importance so that this may happen (Singh and
Sudershan (2005).
In education, the practices and policies are governed by the philosophy we
hold. Here for the philosophy of education, teacher education is the theory of doing it,
in its value or basis. Fig Teacher education Philosophy
Motivation and
Commitment to be
demonstrated
Relationships skills
to be demonstrated
Attitudes which
are desirable
Possible Aims
of Teacher
Education
Observable
achievements of
Teachers
Knowledge and
Understanding of
Subject
Knowledge of how
learning occurs
Classroom skills to
be demonstrated
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An important function of philosophy, in the present context, is to figure out
and create the desired image of the teacher and the type of the teacher which the
society seeks to have, is to be determined by the process of teacher education. The
desired image had to be built up very cautiously, keeping in view its the intellectual
aspect, professional aspect, social aspect and personal aspect (Kohil, 1992).
Professional function means that the teacher has developed necessary skills
and abilities to evolve suitable methods of teaching the children, handle problem
children and tackle numerous classroom situations. He should have:
a. Acquire ability to evolve and adapt methods and techniques suited to different
situations and to evaluate their effectiveness.
b. Acquire ability to improvise and use audio-visual aids suited to different
classroom situations.
c. Develop positive attitudes towards teaching as a profession and create selfconfidence
as a teacher.
d. Understand the developmental needs of children at various stages of their
growth.
e. Acquire appropriate professional behavior.
f. Acquire knowledge about the existing education system and the latest
education policy of the country.
The social functions of a teacher imply that he is sensitive to social needs and
aspirations, since the system of education is always tailored according to the social
needs and values.
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We can therefore easily conclude that any teacher education program should be
designed and developed to include all the above functions of the teachers (Kohil,
1992).
Teaching is a creative, intellectually demanding and rewarding job, so the
standards for joining the profession must be high too. Skilled practitioners can make
teaching look easy but they have learned their skills and improved them through
training, practice and evaluation. Initial training lays the foundation for subsequent
professional and career development (Sarita and Tomar, 2004).
Teacher education is said to be a very significant investment for bringing
qualitative improvement in education. If a revolution in education has to be initiated, it
is the teacher education which can be taken as the starting point. Any programme of
qualitative change in education pre-requisites the improvement of teachers. The
teacher has the crucial role in the development of a country. Indeed, there is a strong
tendency for schools to be expected to address and solve all kinds of societal
problems, placing more demands on the teaching profession. In the field of teachereducation,
many new trends and innovations have emerged. These are new practices,
procedures and policies in the area of teacher-education (Rao and Rao, 2005).
Teacher education has an essential and inalienable component of practical
work including student teaching, internship, fieldwork, working with the community,
work education, etc. The country needs teachers with different orientations and
specializations to manage educational programmes. Increasingly, the curriculum for
teacher preparation has to encompass the broader canvas which is consistently
emerging before the teachers and shall continue to change at a much faster pace in
times ahead. Teachers shall have to take a global view of the new trends, strategies
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and practices, and focus on indigenous heritage and thoughts which could fit in the
local and national situation. Transplantation of alien educational ideas and practices
has not been found rewarding in developing countries (Jha, 2005). The teacher
education programmes shall focus on competencies and commitment in much
magnitude in future. Such a transformation in teacher preparation strategies would
emerge only after due familiarity and adequate appreciation of indigenous thoughts
developed over decades. Gradually an indigenous approach and strategy would
emanate and replace the alien practices that have remained in vogue in teacher
education over the decades (Jha, 2005).
Naturally, while determining various elements of the programmes of teachereducation
we have to pay adequate attention to the following:
a) Development of the basic insights and understandings of subject matter
without which a beginning teacher cannot start his/her work in the classroom.
b) Development of ability in the future teachers to understand the growth process,
problems of behaviour peculiar to the concerned age group and the learning
process.
c) Development of fundamental skills and attitudes needed of a beginning
teacher.
d) Initiating the beginning teachers to the teaching profession, developing in them
a sense of belonging to it and motivating them for further growth while in
service. After all the pre-service training cannot bring out a finished product.
e) Development of competencies in the teachers to design curriculum according
to individual needs and also according to the changing needs of the society
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f) Development of scientific attitude in at least a few teachers for undertaking
experimentation and innovation in education to get the necessary guidelines for
sound planning and implementation.
g) Development of attitudes and values needed of citizens of a free society.
The teacher-training programme should be flexible enough to meet the needs
of creative teachers.
The objectives and the activities that we are following in our teacherpreparation
programme today lack a great deal in meeting the new modern new
demands. Besides attaining necessary knowledge and skills, it is important for the
teacher to know the social perspective in which he is living and for which he is to
prepare the future generation. It is, therefore, the vital responsibility of the training
colleges to take the leadership role in shaping the destiny of this country by improving
the quality of teachers. As Quaid-E-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah noted in an
Educational Conference in December 1947,
“There is no doubt that the future of our State will and must greatly depend
upon the type of education we give to our children, and the way in which we bring
them up as future citizens of Pakistan. Education does not merely mean academic
education. There is an immediate and urgent need to give a scientific and technical
education to our people in order to build up our future economic life”.
Participants of the conference agreed that a properly trained and reasonably
well-paid teaching profession was essential to the development of a great state
(Farooq, 1994).