without sufficient training and support, even teachers initially enthusiastic about an
innovation may become frustrated by implementation problems, turn against the
project and revert to the security of their previous teaching methods. In such a case,
Johnson (1989: 11) warns that, ‘gross mismatch is easy to detect, but hard to remedy’.
Teachers need to acquire knowledge and skills which relate to their
immediate needs. Rogers (1986) stresses that adults have competitive interests, and a
limited amount of time available. Therefore, they should be provided with knowledge
which they can immediately apply. According to Breen et al (1989) an in-service
training programme is likely to be most useful if it grows directly out of the
experiences, assumptions, and perceived problems of the trainees. Therefore, inservice training programmes should focus on what is done in the daily life of the
language class. Hayes (1995) stresses that sessions should be essentially practical, so
that teachers are given the chance to see the impact of a proposed innovation on daily
classroom procedures.
Teaching methodology should derive from practice. Another characteristic
Rogers (1986) attributes to adults is that they need to participate actively in the
process of learning. According to Hayes (1995), a transmission model is considered
completely inadequate for training teachers, as it does not give them the chance to
consider the rationales or principles underlying the use of particular classroom
activities. Breen et al (1989) claim that an in-service training programme should focus
on classroom-derived information which would be used in order to reach
generalisable conclusions. In this way one can be sure that trainees have fully
understood the principles upon which an activity is based, i.e. to derive theory from
an analysis of practice.
Teacher trainers should have current knowledge of the teaching practice.
According to Duff (1988: 111), one of the inadequacies of much teacher-training
activity throughout the world is that trainers actively stop being teachers, and are
training others to do something that they themselves no longer do. Hayes (1995)
emphasises that selecting practising classroom teachers as trainers gives immediate
validity to the development proceedings, as it is easier for participants to be convinced
of the usefulness of an innovation if this was based on the experience of a colleague,
rather than on people who are removed from the teaching process. However, this does
not mean that any teacher who has some teaching experience is able to train her
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