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Dear all,

this main topic introduces to the use of distance education in teacher education. There is little need to define teacher education besides noting the difference between in-service and pre-service teacher education. Hence we may skip the definition and restrict this main topic to identifying some questions and issues, identifying some case studies of teacher education in various parts of the world, and finally identifying a first set of references.

Issues and questions

Teacher education has been used in various countries for different reasons. Creed (2001) distinguishes three major sets of such reasons: (i) to increase access (overcoming regional differences and reaching out to geographically challenging' areas) or just coping with scale; (ii) cost-effectiveness since training at a distance has 'lower opportunity costs to the learner than regular college approaches' (Creed, 2001, p. 14); (iii) supporting teachers in times of educational change.

Teachers developed into the world's larget profession (cf. Perraton, 2000, pp. 57-83). Still the numbers of learners rise so quickly that the production of teachers cannot follow suit. We have seen that in some cases formal education uses distance education to provide alternative and complemantary routes to formal education. In these cases the role of the teacher changes considerably. Here we discuss if distance education could be used for teacher training including for teachers within the conventional system of formal education.

Is this a good way of preparing teachers? Could it be used in pre-service as well as in -inservice teacher education? While in-service teacher education at a distance seems to be cost-efficient, the rhythm of teaching at the school is driven by different schedules than the teachers colleges' training programs.

Look at some of the cases characterized below and form an opinion about the appropriateness of using distance education for teacher training. What are the organizational models we find, which are used?

Case studies

PERFORMAÇAO (Brazil) is a distance teacher capacity building course aimed at providing training to 27,372 non-certified teachers already teaching the first four years of primary education. The program uses print, video and bi-weekly workshops.

Bof (2004, abstract).

Another example from Brazil reported by Creed et al.:

TELEVISION-PLUS: JOURNALISM IN THE SERVICE OF TEACHER DEVELOPMENT, BRAZIL

A-Plus is a daily television series designed to stimulate interest in education, teaching and learning among teachers and in the broader community. Taking a journalistic approach, it uses a private educational television channel to reach an audience of 13 million across Brazil. It also helps mobilise teachers into follow-up action through its Community Mobilisation Networks.

The context

The Brazilian education system has large numbers of primary and secondary teachers who have low levelsof qualification. The poor quality of many teachers has been a matter of concern. As a result, manyinitiatives have been taken by a variety of state and private providers for in-service teacher development.Teachers in Brazil are well-provided with all kinds of professional development opportunities though theirrelevance and effectiveness are sometimes questioned. Many of the initiatives offer distance education,usually print and other media. Some of the providers are non-governmental organisations (NGOs) andprivate sector organisations. One of these is TV-Futura, a non-profit educational television channelsponsored by a consortium of 14 public and private institutions. TV-Futura (‘The Learning Channel’) hassponsored the popular A-Plus television series. The target audience is educators at large: primarily teachersbut also parents, social workers, nurses, childcare providers, and the community. TV-Futura states that itsmission starts when the broadcast ends so one of its goals is to mobilise viewers (especially teachers)through its Community Mobilisation Network.

The programme

Its purpose is to help educators deal more critically and effectively with practical matters of concern to themand the community. The 15-minute daily TV programmes have a magazine format, combining generaleducational news with an in-depth documentary. Each programme shows two examples of real-lifeapplications of the programme topic, for example, a method of literacy teaching or using videos in theclassroom or conducting PTA meetings. An education expert comments in a challenging way on theexamples or presents arguments designed to lead viewers to reflect. Suggestions for further activities andreferences to other sources of information are given at the end of each broadcast. Twice a week, theprogramme is supplemented by two sets of commentaries, one based on relevant research, the otherintroducing literature to help viewers apply the topic in real-life situations. Follow-on activities and monthlymeetings are organised around these programmes for teachers’ groups that opt in to the ‘plus’ part of theprogramme. A-Plus provides 60 Community Officers who facilitate the Community Mobilisation Networkwhich supports this activity. The programme has no set curriculum but aims to be responsive to teachers’needs, drawing on several sources of guidance.

Creed et al. (2001, p. 7-8)

Reseau Africain pour la Formacion à Distance (RESAFAD) or African Network for Education at a Distance) Burkina Faso has developed a course for the in-service professional development of head teachers. For course development ICT was used but print, coupled with face-to-face meetings of head teachers, were used for delivery. Over four years it reached about a quarter of Burkina Faso’s head teachers.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF HEADTEACHERS IN BURKINA FASO

In association with RESAFAD (the African Network for Education at a Distance) Burkina Faso has developeda course for the in-service professional development of headteachers. The programme benefited from theuse of new information and communication technologies to help the process of course development butused print, coupled with meetings of headteachers, to reach its scattered audience. Over four years itreached about a quarter of Burkina Faso’s headteachers.

The context

More than 80 per cent of Burkina Faso’s population is rural so that its schools are widely scattered, someof them being many kilometres from district education offices. The need to develop in-service programmesfor headteachers was recognised at a meeting of ministers of education in 1992 and carried forward byRESAFAD in a joint programme initially involving Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Togo. Distance educationwas identified as an appropriate methodology to reach headteachers, and to offer them professionalupgrading without their having to lose their jobs.

The programme

The intention of the programme was to strengthen the management cap acity of headteachers. Theprogramme contained material on pedagogy, practical teaching, educational principles and values,environment and the local community, concentrating above all on school management. Plans for the coursewere developed in association with RESAFAD, which works to develop regional uses of distance education,and with the other member countries in the region. But the materials used within Burkina Faso weredeveloped in-country, by the staff of teachers’ colleges there, who received training about distanceeducation through RESAFAD. Three cohorts of headteachers went through the programme between 1997and 2000. The programme concentrated on the heads of larger schools – those with more than three classes.The headteachers themselves had varied background education: while a small number had a universitydiploma some had no more than six years of primary and three years of junior secondary education. Theprogramme did not lead to any formal qualification but this is not reported to have caused difficulty or raised objections.

Creed et al. (2001, p.9 )

INADES-Formation African Institute for Economic and Social Development: Mostly in Francophone countries; using print and radio. The pedagogical model is one of 'read, listen, discuss, and act'.

West Africa: INADES-formation

Founded by Jesuits in West Africa in 1962 to promote African development, INADES-formation provides educational opportunities for rural audiences, including farmers, since 1962. The idea of using correspondence courses to teach better farming practices to peasant farmers, often with modest levels of literacy, seems old fashioned and biszzare, a mismatch between educational technology and audience (Perraton, 2000). However, ‘it was quite startling to arrive with INADES-formation staff, in village after village, often miles from a main road and often with no warning, to be met by students coming from their houses carrying their correspondence assignments ready to be marked’ (Jenkins and Perraton, 1982, p.15). With its headquarters in Ivory Coast, currently INADAS-formation has its branches in seven francophone states and in Kenya and Tanzania.

INADAS-formation’s provides a diverse educational programme; farmers, agricultural extension personnel, and women are some of its learners. The system works through a variety of means, including distance education. Its programmes include farming practices, women’s participation in development, soil conservation, water supply and civic education. The main media and methods include correspondence lessons, assignments, seminars, magazines, and occasional broadcast radio. Students are recruited by INADES-formation field staff and carry out written assignments on which they get detailed responses from their tutors. It has retained its autonomy while collaborating with the governments and extension agencies. Since 1984 they began moving towards programmes of integrated rural development and, at the same time, modularising its courses to make them more flexible. Other changes include moving away from the associations historic concern to raise the capacity of individual farmers towards educational activities designed for the strengthening of groups within society (Perraton, 2000).

Edirisingha (1999, p. 11)

The China Television Teachers College (CTVT) is part of the big China Central Radio and TelevisionUniversity (CCRTVU):

This case describes the provision of large-scale teacher education through a national distance teachinginstitution, the China Television Teachers College (CTVTC), a part of the China Central Radio and TelevisionUniversity (CCRTVU) since 1994. Distance education is included in China’s strategic planning for teachereducation and plays a significant role in initial teacher education and continuing professional development.

China has about 1,100 institutions for pre-service teacher education and 2,200 for in-service (universities,colleges and secondary level training schools). Distance education is an established part of the provisionthrough a number of specialised institutions as well as departments of conventional ones. Much of theprovision is aimed at enabling unqualified serving teachers to gain initial qualifications or qualified teachersto upgrade. Though China has made huge strides towards a qualified teaching force and raised minimumqualification standards, all teachers are not yet qualified. About a million (11 per cent of all primary andsecondary teachers in 1998, many in rural areas) lack initial qualifications and training. In addition, toimprove quality, the government’s ‘Gardeners’ Promotion Project Across the Centuries’ (a component in the‘Action Scheme for Invigorating Education Towards the 21 st Century’) states an ambitious goal of providing240 hours of non-degree in-service training, including computer literacy, to all kindergarten, primary andsecondary teachers in most regions over three years. Altogether, these represent a considerable range andvolume of teacher training needs and the Ministry of Education has emphasised a strong role for open anddistance learning in meeting them.

The China Television Teachers College (CTVTC) provides a range of distance education programmes forserving primary and secondary teachers, school principals and administrators. CTVTC is part of ChinaCentral Radio and Television University (CCRTVU), the apex institution of a nation-wide system of 44 Provincial Radio and Television Universities (PRTVUs). CTVTC is in charge of the compulsory (60 per cent)core courses in teacher education programmes; these have a unified syllabus, materials, timetable andassessment methods throughout China. PRTVUs are responsible for learner support and local organisation(enrolling students and putting into practice the teacher training plans set by CTVTC). Award-bearingprogrammes lead to initial and further qualifications (diplomas and, since 1999, degrees). There are alsocontinuing education programmes (non-award-bearing) through television series (for example, ‘Friends ofPrimary School Teachers’) with an estimated viewing audience of two million teachers a year.

INTERACTIVE RADIO FOR SUPPORTING TEACHERS OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE, OLSET, SOUTH AFRICA
This South African radio project has two audiences: primary school children and their teachers. Through awell-structured curriculum and active learning approaches, the children learn English while the teachers improve both their English and their teaching of it.
The context
In 1994 the new post-apartheid government in South Africa faced enormous challenges in redressing greatinequalities in education. Wide disparities existed between schools for different ethnic groups in funding,resources, pupil-teacher ratios and teaching qualifications and skills. About 29 per cent of teachers wereunderqualified and 7 per cent unqualified. Since then the government has created a single unified systemof education but schools and teachers still vary in quality. The in-service training of teachers is not welldeveloped. This limits the possibilities for improvements in teacher quality and for implementing the manychanges facing them, for example, the policy shift from a content-based to outcomes-based curriculum. The'English in Action' programme has attempted to address these issues in the context of teaching English as asecond language. In South Africa, English is an official language but for many children and teachers, it istheir second or third or even fourth language. The project was begun in 1993 and is run by a non-governmental organisation, the Open Learning Systems Education Trust (OLSET).
The programme
'English in Action' is an interactive radio programme series. 'Interactive radio' is an approach used in severalcountries. It designs radio lessons to structure children's and teachers' learning activities as the radio lessonsproceed, with pauses left for responses and action. In using it for English language teaching, it also provides agood model of pronunciation and language use if teachers have weak spoken English. In the OLSET project,the daily half-hour radio lessons introduce pupils (Grades 1-3 in primary schools) to English through activitiessuch as stories, music and songs. The lessons involve teachers as partners in the teaching process by askingthem to lead language development activities, such as games or pairwork, and to mediate content, if necessaryin the mother tongue. The teachers, who may themselves have low levels of English or poor teaching methods,are supported by a structured and well-planned language curriculum which also introduces them to newteaching practices designed to foster active learning. Teachers are supported by visiting programmecoordinators who organise training workshops and teachers' groups as well as supplying equipment andprinted visual aids to the schools. From small beginnings in 300 classrooms in 1993-4, the project has grownto involve an estimated 11,000 teachers and 550,000 pupils in nine regions of South Africa in 2001.