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FAQ |
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Questions/Answers
| What is distance education?
Distance education has been defined as an educational
process in which a significant proportion of the teaching is conducted by someone removed in space and/or time from the learner. Open learning, in turn, is an organised educational activity, based on the use of teaching materials, in which constraints on study are minimised in terms either of access, or of time and place, pace, method of study, or any combination of these. The term ‘open and distance learning’ is used as an umbrella term to cover educational approaches of this kind that reach teachers in their schools, provide learning resources for them, or enable them to qualify without attending college in person, or open up new opportunities for keeping up to date no matter where or when they want to study. |
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| Why use distance education?
Using distance education for teacher training has various potential advantages. Large
programmes have brought economies of scale. In contrast to college-based training,
distance programmes can provide access to courses on a much larger scale and wider
geographical reach. It can overcome regional differences in access to teacher educa-tion.
It provides a means of side-stepping the slowness and dilution of the cascade
approach. In continuing professional development, distance education can help avoid
the cost of replacing a teacher who has gone to full-time education. It can open up
access to teacher-training opportunities for teachers with family responsibilities who
are earning an income and need to remain within their communities. The establish-ment
of a decentralised distance-education structure can also be used to support train-ing
in the districts and serve as a basis for the development of a programme for the
continuing development of teachers. In print-poor countries, self-study materials can
become a permanent resource. It can also ‘put information about curricula and teach-ing
approaches directly in to the hands of individual teachers’ and cut down the time between learning about new teaching practices and trying them out in the classroom. |
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| What is the distance education role in continuing professional development?
Distance education is being used to raise the skills, deepen the understanding and extend the knowledge of teachers. Some programmes are broadly focused while others are targeted at specialist groups. Programmes are taken either by individuals or by groups of teachers who are encouraged to participate by their schools or their employers. |
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| What does it consist of?
Teacher education has to do a whole range of different jobs: to enable teachers to develop the potential of their pupils; to serve as role models; to help transform education and through it society; to encourage self confidence and creativity. At the same time, many educators often hope that student teachers will develop appropriate, and where necessary changed, attitudes to their job. In order to meet these hopes, teacher education is likely to include four elements: improving the general educational background of the trainee teachers; increasing their knowledge and understanding of the subjects they are to teach; pedagogy and understanding of children and learning; and the development of practical skills and competences. The balance between these four elements varies in relation to the background education of student teachers, to the level at which they will teach, and to the stage they have reached in their career. Two distinctions are important here. The first is between the initial education and training of teachers and their continuing professional development. The second is between preservice and inservice activities. The two sets of distinctions do not overlap: many teachers begin work without teaching qualifications so that they may get initial training while they are working inservice. Then, inservice programmes may meet a variety of different needs, from initial training to updating or preparing teachers for new roles to helping reform the curriculum. |
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| Who are the teacher?
Programmes of both initial teacher education and continuing professional development need to match the needs and circumstances of their audience. One size will not fit all. In particular, in designing a programme for teachers, we need to take account of:
• their educational background: This varies enormously between different countries and different levels of education. In some countries there are many teachers with little more than junior secondary education while in others all are graduates with a professional qualification as well. The balance between the different elements in teacher education is likely to affect the content of programmes for them.
• gender:It is difficult to recruit enough women teachers in many countries, enough men teachers in some. Programmes need to fit with the rest of teachers’ lives and be sensitive to cultural norms and expectations that affect their jobs. In some countries there are restrictions on women teachers’ mobility that affect their ability to attend initial or updating courses.
• their experience as teachers: Again, the content of a programme for – say – unqualified teachers who have just left school may be very different from one for teachers with limited formal education but long experience as untrained teachers.
The teaching force is scattered so that there are logistical problems to be overcome in providing In service courses. If they have to travel to a central point, then there are actual costs involved for transport and possibly subsistence and opportunity costs for the time they are out of school. Family and other commitments may limit the ability of teachers to attend courses. There is obvious strength in any approach that can reach teachers without their leaving their schools for long journeys. |
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| What is the curriculum?
The curriculum of teacher education is varied, and contested, is widely criticised, and in many countries is in a state of flux.
many education authorities are seeking fundamental changes in the curriculum.
There is a widespread view that some emphasis, and resources, should shift from initial to continuing teacher education. At the same time, some authorities are beginning to revisit traditional and indigenous educational institutions in order to learn from their strengths and explore the possibility of integrating their work with a more modern curriculum. |
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| PUBLICATIONS |
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The
Virtual University: Models and Messages:
Lessons from case studies
Visit
the website |
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Information
and communication Technologies in teacher education:
A curriculum for schools and Programme of teacher development
Download it in PDF |
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Information
and communication Technologies in teacher education : A planning guide.
Download
it in PDF |
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Open
and distance Learning: Trends, policy and Strategy considerations.
Download
it in PDF |
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Teacher
Education Guidelines: Using Open And Distance Learning.
Download
it in PDF |
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Teacher
education Through distance learning: Technology - curriculum - cost
– evaluation.
Download
it in PDF |
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