Primary Teacher Education Syllabus Professional Education Studies

Abstract

1.INTEGRATED TEACHING AND EXAMINATION SYLLABI Before the current educational reform, it was the practice to keep a Teaching Syllabus separate from an Examinations Syllabus. This practice had encouraged teachers/tutors to give greater attention to the examination syllabus than they gave to the curriculum. The increasing use of Continuous Assessment for in-service Primary Teacher Education has necessitated a more comprehensive approach to the establishment of the student-teacher's profile during training. Consequently, all parties concerned have agreed to use one Integrated Primary Teacher Education Syllabus for every subject area. This new approach will ensure that all assessment, including formal examinations, will be strictly based on the curriculum prescribed for Teacher Education. It has also been agreed that the integrated syllabi will be the same for both pre-service and in- service primary teachers colleges. (a) The Goals or General Aims of Teacher Education The current Primary Teacher Education Syllabi have been designed with the goals or aims stated in the Government White Paper on Education (1992) particularly in mind. These goals/aims are restated, for ease of reference, from Recommendation (R. 133) of the Education Policy Review Commission (EPRC, 1989) with amendments to read as follows: - (W.P. pages: 137-138) The aims of teacher education are: (i)To broaden the student teacher's own academic knowledge and to deepen his/her knowledge of the teaching subjects as well as his/her understanding of the developmental stages and needs of the child; (ii) To produce competent, reliable, honest and responsible teachers; (iii) To produce highly motivated, conscientious and efficient teachers; (iv) To develop and deepen attitudes conducive to development, respect for work, loyalty, self-reliance and to cultivate the desire for life-long education; (v) To instill professional ethics and develop an enquiring mind for innovative education; (vi) To cultivate a sense of national consciousness, patriotism and allegiance to professional code of conduct; (vii) To prepare teachers for co-curricular activities as well as for guidance and counselling as a part of their duties; and (viii) To prepare teachers adequately for efficiency in educational administration. management, evaluation and measurement. Objectives of Primary Teacher Education (b) In line with the general aims of teacher education stated above, the specific objectives of primary teacher education were refined by the Curriculum Review Task Force (Kiwanuka Report 1993) as follows: - (TFR para 3.5.3 pp. 31) The Specific Objectives of Primary Teacher Education, are: (i) enabling students to acquire basic knowledge of how children grow, develop and learn and the skills of handling these children: (ii) imparting knowledge, skills and attitudes to students that would enable them to prepare children for basic education: (iii) preparing and laying a foundation for the next level of education; (iv) stimulating objective and dialectical appreciation and awareness of society's economic. political and specific needs and potential; (v) promoting positive attitudes towards work and self-reliance to enable them to guide their pupils appropriately in Vocational Education: (vi) enhancing moral and ethical values in the school and the rest of the community; (vii) providing students with more academic education so as to deepen and strengthen their knowledge of their environment and of the world and build up their intellectual powers as well as their self-confidence; and (viii) equipping all teachers with proper knowledge and methods to enable them to counsel children and guide them for their future education and employment careers, and to undertake literacy and adult education during their teaching career.