Courses For Teachers - A General PerspectiveCourses for teachers are a wonderful tool for teachers. It is a tool that can capacitate them to understand the correct and new ways to teach infants, toddlers, children, youth, or adults, who can make dramatic changes in society based on the knowledge they have acquired. Courses for teachers are designed according to procedures and policies that equip teachers with the correct attitude, knowledge, skills, and behavior. This is required by them to perform their tasks, effectively and efficiently, in their respective classrooms. Teachers are responsible to transmit the beliefs of society to children. Children build attitudes, the power to advise, wisdom, and deontology through thought processes that are provided to them by teachers. Therefore, it is important for teachers to be themselves politically and socially correct. This can be achieved only after they have undergone specialized courses that would enable them to learn new and correct teaching techniques. The curriculum of a course for teachers can be broken down into three blocks: * Skills and knowledge about learning and teaching. * Skills and knowledge concerning the subject to be taught, and * The knowledge about deontology of teachers'. The various categories into which a teachers education can be divided are: Teacher training or education: This is a pre-service program that tutors the teacher to become fully responsible before he/she enters the classroom. This is based on two basic models: 1. Consecutive Model: According to this model, the teacher must first obtain a basic qualification. This can be a first university degree. Then the teacher is eligible to study for a further period so as to acquire an additional teaching qualification. This may be a postgraduate degree or a Masters. 2. The second model is one, in which the student, under the program, can study simultaneously, the ways of teaching a particular subject as well as an academic subject. This would then lead the teacher to gain a qualification as a teacher in that specialized subject. Induction: This is another category that provides support and training to teachers. This course lasts until the teacher completes his/her first year of teaching in a particular school. It may even last until a few years of teaching. Teacher CPD (continuing professional development) or development program: This is a process that is in-service. It is designed for those teachers who are already working. These are some of the courses for teachers that are available in the curricula. The selection for a specific course is based on the course that the teacher wants to opt for. A teacher is not only someone who imparts their knowledge to pupils and students, but is also responsible to open the windows of the minds of their students. Therefore, it is very essential for a teacher to select the course that he/she feels strongly about, and thinks could teach it well in future. |