Page 255 - DEDU505_TEACHER_EDUCATION_ENGLISH

Unit 27: Recent Trends in Research on Teacher Education

27.3 Areas of Research in Teacher Education Notes

During the seventies researches in teacher education were classified in five areas such as selection
criteria, abilities and qualities of a teacher, pre and in service training of teachers, work load, job
expectations and difficulties expressed by teacher, procedures and practices of teacher education
in India and personality variables of teachers. Now researches were classified under context,
input process and output variables. During the eighties context, presage, process, product were
the categories.
The context variables include student-teacher characteristics, institutional characteristics related
studies and on classroom context. Student-teacher characteristics means student-teachers formative
experiences, academic qualifications, abilities, personality factors, intelligence, etc. Institutional
characteristics include climate of teacher education institutions, administrative set up, classroom
climate, curriculum framework.
The process variables such as classroom interactions, classroom transactions and mediating
processes that lead to learning. Such variables are attending, practicing, task persistence, active
learning time and student teacher engagement with learning task.Teacher behaviour in the
classroom and supervisory behaviour of teachers relating to student teaching too are some of the
research variables. The product studies on outcome of teacher education include two types of
variables. One, those describing immediate outcome of teacher education i.e. student-teacher
outcomes such as their achievement, attitudes and skills, and two long term outcomes describing
level of professional skills and teaching success or teaching effectiveness.
27.3.1 Problems of Research in Teacher Education
Problems of research are both intrinsic and extrinsic to the researcher. Following are some of the
main problems of research in teacher education.
(i) Lack of Motivation: This happens when researcher has no qualification and no inclination
to do research. The system fails to encourage them and utilize their abilities. There are no
proper incentives to do research.
(ii) Lack of Qualified Personnel: Researchers lack the minimum abilities, skills, Acquiring
these is a deliberate process. It is important that besides acquiring the qualifications
researchers gain knowledge of the theory of teacher education, skills of scientific inquiry,
ability to analyze and interpret data and make rational judgments.
(iii) Problems of Finance: There is less research done due to lack of finance.
(iv) Lack of Resources and Facilities: Many a times there is lack of several adjunct conditions
influencing undertaking of research. For example unavailability of expert advice for proper
planning, or statistical procedures for analyzing the data, or proper reporting of findings.
Lack of material facilities such as hardware, stationary can also cause hindrances.
(v) Lack of Consensus: There are as many views and priorities in education as there are
researchers involved in it. Concurrence of views in a point of time will help researchers
to work within common theoretical purpose.
(vi) Arbitrariness: Arbitrariness in research means lack of meaningful relation among studies.
Any research should be based on previous research for its assumptions, hypotheses and
theoretical background. Only then will there be hierarchical growth in the discipline.
Therefore it is important to establish proper linkage among studies to develop a coherent
understanding of the phenomenon after a certain number of studies. This avoids duplication
in research and enhances the possibility that all aspects and variables involved are attended
to properly. Prediction becomes difficult and it becomes difficult to establish as to the
direction in which research in teacher education is going. Instead of paradigmatic set of
hypotheses getting tested, individual hypotheses are tested. As a result the growth of
knowledge is slow or zero. Thus it is important to have long term plans for research.
(vii) Lack of Coverage: Lack of attention to some of the areas of teacher education or differential
attention form researchers to some areas of research comes in the way of covering a large

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