colleagues. Rather, teacher trainers need to have both a thorough knowledge on
current methodological principles which concern the teaching of young learners and
an understanding of what is involved in teaching adults. Finally, any training
programme should be based on a clearly defined syllabus which would reflect the
needs (both real and perceived) of the particular trainees.
Teachers should be given the chance to pilot what they have learnt.
According to Hayes (1995), teachers need to do more than just ‘think about’ the
principles and practice of teaching, but they need to be given an opportunity to try
things out for themselves before they attempt to implement them in the setting of their
classroom. This can take the form of micro-teaching, or peer teaching which, based on
the theory of social learning (Vygotsky 1978; Bandura 1977) give teachers the chance
to exchange views, and to learn from each other (Thiessen 1993).
Any training programme should include an evaluation component. Brown
(1989: 229) distinguishes evaluation into formative (i.e. the one taking place during
the development of a programme) and summative (i.e. the one occurring when a
programme has been completed). In order to evaluate an in-service training
programme, both kinds of evaluation are considered essential. Formative evaluation
will not only inform trainers about the effectiveness of their methods, but it will offer
trainees the chance to be involved in the preparation of courses by suggesting which
topics they would like to see dealt with during the course (Hayes 1995). Finally,
Breen et. al (1989) stress that summative evaluation would be best carried out after
the participants have tried what they have learnt in the real setting of their classrooms.
This will inform trainers about things that did not go as expected, something which
would form the starting point of future in-service provision. In this way, training
becomes an on-going, cyclical process.
The principles referred to above are by no means exhaustive, but a more
detailed discussion would be above the scope of this book. However, it is considered
that they are essential in changing the way in-service training is carried out nowadays,
and in offering teachers the knowledge and skills which they need in order to be
effective.
77