Critical Analysis of the Quality of Teacher Education in the Province of Sindh

Abstract

The major purpose of the study was to analyze the quality of teacher education in the province of Sindh. The study focused on the perception of teacher educators regarding quality of teacher education, investigate teaching learning process, determine the effectiveness of teaching practice/practicum, evaluation system, and to weaknesses and causes in the programmes offered by teacher training institutes of Sind. Eight hypotheses were framed for the study. The hypotheses were related to demographic variables of type of control, sex, age, experience, academic and professional qualification of teacher educators and prospective teachers, status of teacher training institute, and allocation of teacher training institute (rural/urban) for teacher educators and prospective teachers respectively. The ninth hypothesis was related to research questions; four research questions were addressed in the connection of quality of curriculum of teacher education, effectiveness of teaching practice/practicum in teacher training institutes, evaluation of different components of teacher training programme, and its strengths and weaknesses. The tenth hypothesis was related to item-by-item analysis of the questionnaire for teacher educators; focused on seventy-five significant dimensions related to quality of teacher education. The eleventh hypothesis was dealing with item-by-item analysis of the questionnaire for prospective teachers. Survey was utilized as the overall strategy of this research study. The population of study was consisted of principals/ head of department, teacher educators and prospective teachers in all teacher training institutes in the province of Sindh. The stratified random sampling design was adopted. The rule-based classification related to demographical variables such as gender, age and education were pursued. 501 was total size of the sample (300 teacher educators, 201 prospective teachers (15 principals were interviewed) drawn from 30 Teacher Training Institutes. Two questionnaires were designed as research instruments. One was consisted of 75 items for TEs and other was for prospective teachers, which has two sections, first section was comprised of 30 items (close ended) and other was open ended to know the opinion about teacher training programmes (ADE & B.Ed. (Hons.), its curriculum and physical and social aspects of teacher training institute. Interview was analyzed through qualitative technique and findings were elaborated in iii chronicle scheme. Frequencies and percentage are presented in tabular form to describe the data. The t-test was applied for statistical inferences and group involvement. The researcher used chi-test for analyses of questionnaire item-by-item that consist of categorical data. Few questions in questionnaire for prospective teachers were open ended, to analyze them content analyses technique was adopted by researcher. Out of eight hypotheses, three were rejected and five accepted. The findings of study highlighted that the quality of teaching is depended on quality of teachers, and generally associated with academic qualifications and expertisation in pedagogical skills of teachers. The impact of teacher is significant in terms of getting intended outcomes and students’ achievement. It was also indicated from the findings of the study that B.Ed. (Hons.) program is absolutely beneficial for students and it meets with the challenges of present era. Curriculum taught in teacher training institutes increase the knowledge and skills of prospective teachers. Results also specified by respondents that sometimes teacher educators feel burden and difficulties to complete their work because of new methodologies in comparison of time and lack of trainings. Therefore, there were requests for arrangement of trainings, workshops, and seminars for the professional development of teacher educators. It all can be done through a chain of little efforts. Practicum is also a quality-oriented element of teacher education. It is also identified that teacher education in Pakistan is in miserable condition. It is facing hundreds of problems such as, shortage of clear policy, lack of resources, scarcity of teacher educators, lack of coordination in curriculum developers and teacher educators, lack of trainings or refresher courses, no provision for supplementary material for reading, lack of standard of quality in teaching learning process, less funding, ineffective supervision and monitoring, political interference in recruitment and place of posting, and less involvement of community representatives.