Teachers' Views of the Role of Initial Teacher Education in Developing their Professionalism

Abstract

Abstract This report is part of The Teachers as Learners Project, a study of teachers undertaken in primary and secondary schools in the south of England to investigate the role of initial teacher education (ITE) in the formation of teachers' professionalism. The sample was divided into three groups of new teachers, medium and long-serving teachers. We report here, first, teachers' responses to the question: what gaps did they perceive in their own ITE? The two major gaps, reported by over four fifths of our sample, were dealing with behavioural problems and contact with parents. The general conclusion was that neither of these could easily be provided within ITE. Second, we asked whether teachers could take over responsibility for training new teachers, and over four fifths said that they could not. Some of their reasons are given in the report.