Teacher Education: Questions of Quality and Quantity

Abstract

If teachers are to understand and support the aims of change, then they must be equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to effect implementation; furthermore, it would seem to be logical to conduct this process of training and re-training well in advance of the actual launch of such changes in the classroom.¹ In many countries, however, teacher education is often not seen as a priority, with due consequences for the development of the school, the career experience of teachers, and the progress of reform and innovation.² The Soviet Union was no exception, with the teacher-education (teacher-training) system suffering from a lack of investment and recognition of its importance.³ This legacy has meant that in the post-Soviet period the teacher-education network, instead of leading the way for change, struggled in the early 1990s to keep pace with developments in the schools, with due implications for the prospects of system-wide reform across the school network.