A Study of Teacher Education Curriculum in Relation to the Development of Professional Skills in Pre Service Teachers

Abstract

A Study of Teacher Education Curriculum in relation to the Development of Professional Skills in Pre-Service Teachers was carried out by the researcher. Teacher education newlinecurriculum here refers to the curriculum for two years B. Ed. program for pre-service teachers adopted by NCT with effect from Jun 2015. B.Ed. is considered as qualifying education to become a teacher. This study focussed the curriculum framework by NCTE newlinefor the B.Ed. degree programme as the foundation for teacher education, which therefore forms a base in preparing the teachers for secondary school in India. The aim of the study was also to conduct a gap analysis of the existing two years B.Ed. curriculum in the promotion of identified professional skills in pre service teachers in making them ready for their future employment. A descriptive survey method was used for the study. Tools used for the study were Interview schedule, questionnaire and content analysis. The first phase of newlinestudy was broadly divided in two parts i.e. a) Pilot study to prepare the questionnaire; b) newlineData collection and analysis to identify the important professional skills. For the first newlinephase of study, the population consisted of the secondary schools in Delhi NCR region. newlineAbout 30 secondary schools in the Delhi NCR region were selected by random method. In second phase, data collection and analysis was carried out to identify the gaps in newlinethe curriculum on the basis of the difference in perception of teacher educators about the newlineimportant professional skills for teachers and the perception of pre-service teachers with newlineregard to development of these skills in to them on completion of the two years newlineprogramme. Large gaps were observed between the industry expectations and actual development of skills in this skill category. These findings will be helpful in setting our priorities right with regard to development of important skills in pre-service teachers and standardizing the teacher education curriculum. newline newline