The purpose of this study was to ascertain the role of colleges of education in the North West Province. Put differently it wished to determine to what extent colleges of education in the North West Province as institutions are adjusted to their real potential environments so that adjustments could be made if necessary. In order to be able to investigate teacher training in the North West Province, a literature survey was conducted to determine the core criteria regarding quality and efficiency in teacher training. The instruments used in the planning process are explained and the one which deals with strategic planning in an education system is used to plan the functioning of colleges of education in the North West Province to comply with the identified core criteria. A detailed consideration of the functioning of colleges of education in the North West Province is introduced by a brief overview of the evolving pattern of the South African teacher education and a review of proposals to unify higher education and to broaden the role of colleges. The literature study on the historical background of teacher education in South Africa revealed that it has been a fragmented and inefficient system in which teachers were inequitably distributed across South Africa. An investigation into the functioning of colleges of education in the North West Province is based on the components of the education system as entailed in the chosen strategic planning in education model mentioned earlier. The opinions of experts and stakeholders in the field of the role of colleges of education in the North West Province were obtained through the empirical study done according to the steps of strategic planning in education. The findings obtained after data interpretation were then compared with the information from the literature study. The following trends were identified amongst others: Firstly that there is a great need for in-service or further training to upgrade the qualifications of practising teachers. Secondly, that there is a great need for properly trained teachers for the technical, mathematics and science subjects and also that there is a need for trained teachers to assist with non-formal programmes. An analysis and evaluation of the identified trends revealed that colleges of education can play a larger and more important role and would be in a position to utilise their facilities and skills more effectively if they made the necessary adjustments. In sketching the future possibilities for colleges of education in the North West Province it was shown that colleges of education will function more cost-effectively if they diversify their function to include other tasks than the training of teachers, like carrying out the function of community colleges. / Thesis (MEd)--PU for CHE, 1998

The purpose of the study is two-fold. The primary concern is to specify to what degree the senior students of the Department of English Language Teaching (ELT) at Abant izzet Baysal University and those, authorized with a teaching certificate, of the Department of English Language and Literature (ELL) at Erciyes University feel knowledgeable and competent in meeting the international standards that an English Language teacher should have. The secondary concern is to identify to what degree the methodology courses offered by the ELT and Certificate Programs seem adequate to provide the students with those standards in terms of general aims, the contents and the number of methodology courses.In this study, various methods of gathering data were utilized: A two-part questionnaire (i.e., knowledge and performance) were given to the senior students of the two departments, and interviews were conducted with the instructors who teach methodology courses in these programs.The findings related to the first concern of the study revealed that the senior students of the ELT Department felt better prepared than those of the ELL Department in achieving the desired standards. In the &ldquo / Language and Awareness&rdquo / domain of the knowledge and performance parts of the questionnaire, ELT students got the lowest mean scores. Among the five, only in this domain, did the students from the ELL department outrank the students from the ELT department. In other words, the ELL students felt more knowledgeable and competent in many aspects of language and culture than the ELT students. Yet, the t-test results indicated that the difference between the students&rsquo / perceptions of their knowledge and competence in this domain of the two parts of the questionnaire is not statistically significant. In the other domains, &ldquo / Learning, Teaching, Assessment, and Classroom Environment&rdquo / of the knowledge and performance parts of the questionnaire, the ELT students seemed to be more satisfied with the input and practice when compared to the ELL students, but the t-test results of both groups indicated that the perceptions showed a statistically significant difference only in &ldquo / Learning, Teaching, Assessment, and Classroom Environment&rdquo / domains of the performance part of the questionnaire.The findings related to the second concern of the study indicated that the two programs (i.e., ELT and Certificate) seemed adequate, to a certain degree, in providing prospective English Language teachers with desired standards. However, based on the opinions of students and instructors, it could be concluded that those programs had some deficiencies in terms of the contents and the number of the methodology courses.In the light of the data collected and analyzed, some recommendations are made about the revealed deficiencies in the ELT and Certificate Programs in the last chapter to ensure that the prospective teachers are equipped with the best qualities and standards required to be a professionally qualified English teacher.

Le but de la recherche était de révéler et d'analyser les bases théoriques et pratiques du système de la formation des enseignants de langues en France et en Ukraine, de révéler les principales tendances du développement de ces système et de poser la « première pierre » pour une réelle harmonisation de la formation des enseignants de langues étrangères en Europe à partir de la problématique franco-ukrainienne. L'hypothèse est la suivante : les systèmes français et ukrainien de la formation des enseignants de langues sur leur voie vers l'harmonisation européenne sont freinés par la représentation sociale du métier d'enseignant dans chaque système ce qui a des incidences sur certains éléments composants sur les finalités de ces systèmes. Les outils européens encadrant la formation des enseignants de langues étrangères en Europe pourraient servir de véhicule à l'harmonisation de la formation des enseignants de langues étrangères. Ainsi, nos tâches étaient de définir la représentation du métier d'enseignant dans les deux systèmes ; de rechercher des moyens et des outils afin de la faire évoluer ; étudier le processus actuel de la formation des enseignants de langues et les exemples des réformes des deux pays pour surmonter les raisons des blocages ; étudier la possibilité de les surmonter à l'aide des outils européens. Notre hypothèse ayant été vérifiée et confirmée, nous a permis de déduire une nouvelle représentation du professeur de langues de type européen basée sur les outils européens et de faire des propositions vers la conception d'un modèle commun franco-ukrainien de formation des enseignants de langues étrangères dans le cadre de la dimension européenne. / The objective of this research was to reveal and analyse the theoretical and practical bases of the foreign language teacher training system in France and Ukraine, to find out the main tendencies of the development of these systems and to lay the foundation of the real harmonization of foreign language teacher training in Europe through the franco-ukrainian set of issues.The hypothesis we had put forward were the following: the Ukrainian and French foreign language teacher training systems on their way towards the harmonisation are slowed down by the social representation of the foreign language teaching profession within each system which has an impact on some of their components and especially on the relations between them of structural and functional nature as well as on the final results of these systems. Thus, the European tools which determine the foreign language teacher training policy in Europe could serve as a vehicle for their harmonisation.So our task was to define the social representation of the teacher profession in either system; to find means and tools to upgrade it; to study the process of foreign teacher training and the examples of reforms in both countries and to identify the deadlocks caused by those representations; to study the possibilities to overcome them with the help of the European tools. Our hypotheses having been verified and confirmed allowed us to deduce a new representation of a foreign language teacher of European type based on the European tools and finally, to make propositions towards the conception of a common franco-ukrainian model of foreign language teacher training within the confines of the European dimension.

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The systematic review in this study focuses on questionnaire-based quantitative and qualitative studies that focus on the role of massive open online courses (MOOCs) in teacher professional development, with a concentration on the COVID-19 lockdown period. Sixteen studies were selected to be included in this systematic review based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The study was designed to answer four main questions: (a) how have MOOCs been used in teacher professional development during the COVID-19 crisis? (b) what are teachers' perspectives toward using MOOCs for professional development? (c) what teacher skills reported as critical in those studies can be improved using MOOCs? and (d) what challenges faced by teachers during the use of MOOCs for training are reported in those studies? The results of this review reveal that (i) MOOCs were used to support teachers moving online, improve their personal skills during that crisis, and allow them to meet teachers in different areas and share their experience through online camps; (ii) teachers viewed a set of positive and negative aspects of the available MOOCs, and they addressed some criticisms of the available MOOCs and factors that may impact the success of MOOCs; (iii) MOOCs during the COVID-19 pandemic focused on developing three types of skills in teachers: online teaching skills, personal skills, and specialization skills; and (iv) financial and technical challenges, the quality of the available MOOC content, and the lack of time combined with their duties during that time are the most critical challenges teacher faced.

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Doctor of Education / Department of Special Education / Warren J. White / Historically, the provision of special education has moved from settings isolated from children without disabilities to services in public school classrooms with non-disabled peers. As advocates began to impact civil rights legislation, the educational rights of individuals with disabilities were realized, and laws began to protect them. Public Law 94-142, 1975 and subsequent reauthorizations assured these students a free and appropriate public education and, to the greatest extent possible, with non-disabled peers. In 2002, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 became law. Its goal is that all children, including children with disabilities, attending public schools in the United States would be proficient in reading and mathematics by 2014. Consequently, students with disabilities have had an increased presence in general education classrooms. Some leaders in the field of special education imply that teacher preparation might not be keeping up with current trends and that it is their responsibility to make changes to teacher education programs so that beginning teachers are prepared for current job demands. The primary purpose of this study was to determine what is being taught in elementary education teacher preparation programs regarding how to teach students with disabilities who are educated entirely or in part in general education settings. The goal was to provide information to IHE’s considering more comprehensive and specialized training for elementary preservice general educators by making critical program adjustments in order to prepare effective educators in the context of classrooms in which students with disabilities receive some of their education, and importantly, to inform those adjustments. This study explored levels to which preferred knowledge and skills for including students with disabilities in elementary general education classrooms are taught and assessed. It also looked at differences among state licensing and university graduation coursework requirements. The study represented approximately 15,075 preservice teachers from 72 different universities in the United States. It revealed a full range of levels at which skills are taught and assessed. There are notable inconsistencies in special education requirements for general education teacher candidates seeking initial licensure.

Published Article / The central theme of this article is to investigate the potential advantages to school management and teacher training in South Africa of an aesthetic approach or arts-based staff development. It is argued that the field of education with its specific body of professional and scientific knowledge seems unable to offer satisfying solutions to pressing problems in post-apartheid South African schools. It is suggested that the arts should be explored for answers and solutions. The opinions and attitudes of school management teams from some of the poorest schools in the Free State Province of South Africa were analysed in order to gauge whether any positive change had occurred in their professional knowledge, confidence and self awareness after the said teams had been exposed to arts-based staff training and learning workshops. The positive change that was detected may be ascribable to the application of an aesthetic approach being followed during in-service workshops. Statistical analysis of the pre- and post-unit responses of 117 attendants of management training workshops indicated that there had indeed been some statistically significant improvements in their professional knowledge, in their confidence as managers and in their perception of themselves as educational artists. Most appear to have been quite prepared to see themselves as educational artists. The positive changes could provide some encouragement and a kind of quantitative basis for the advocates of aesthetic education.