Page 262 - DEDU505_TEACHER_EDUCATION_ENGLISH

Teacher Education

Notes 4. What competencies and skills should they possess to deal fairly well with the children,
colleagues and parents?
5. How many types of teachers do we require for our schools where our future citizens or our
country's manpower is to be produced?
At present, there is no scientific data on which we can build a justifiable system of teacher
education improve the present system of teacher training in our country. There is no policy
statement made either by our government or by any of the professional organizations which can
guide the purposeful programmes of teacher education in India.
Even the Kothari Commission has not evolved an appropriate philosophy of teacher education,
which could be workable in our context although it has suggested several reforms to strengthen
and vitalize teacher education. So it would indeed be a piecemeal effort to improve various
aspects of teacher education without having a theoretical frame of reference.
The major problem is the suspected deterioration of the quality of teachers that we are producing
today. This is probably because of the lack of consensus on the fundamental objectives of the
entire B.Ed. programme in the light of demands objectives of the modern India, with particular
reference to general education, have undergone transformation in the last twenty years. Naturally,
the objectives and the activities that we are following in our teacher teacher curriculum today
lack a great deal in meeting the 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.
The concept of teaching itself has changed. Teaching now-a-days is considered more than imparting
knowledge and communicating information. It is considered as 'helping' learners to learn by
themselves, to acquire skills and develop attitudes and values in the changed social context.
The role perception of the teacher again has changed. If learning is considered as behaving and if
the success of learning is to be judged by the change of behaviour that results from learning, then
the teacher of today and to be an Acharya of yesterday-a long forgotten image of the teacher. A
teacher is not merely a communicator of knowledge; he has to be director of learning, a transmitter
of culture and value; the teacher is a person who teach by behaving in the manner he would like
his pupil to behave.
"The concept of school is also changing. It must directly and indirectly participate in improving the immediate
environment, in which it is located, through continued interaction between itself and the local community."
All these current tendencies have implications for curriculum change in teachers colleges. Naturally,
while determining to the various elements of the programme of teacher education we have to
pay adequate attention to the following:
(a) Development of the basic insight and understandings without which a beginning teacher
cannot start his 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 g in them a sense
of belonging to it and motivating him 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.
(f) Development of scientific attitude in at least a few teacher for undertaking experimentation
and innovation in education.
(g) Development of attitudes and values needed of cultural citizens of a free society.
The teacher training curriculum should be flexible enough to meet the needs of both the average
as well as the creative teachers. In fact, we cannot expect that all of our teacher will be creative in

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