Introduction

Teacher education or teacher training refers to the policies, procedures, and provision designed to equip (prospective) teachers with the knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, approaches, methodologies and skills they require to perform their tasks effectively in the classroom, school, and wider community. The professionals who engage in training the prospective teachers are called teacher educators (or, in some contexts, teacher trainers).

There is a longstanding and ongoing debate about the most appropriate term to describe these activities. The term 'teacher training' (which may give the impression that the activity involves training staff to undertake relatively routine tasks) seems to be losing ground, at least in the U.S., to 'teacher education' (with its connotation of preparing staff for a professional role as a reflective practitioner).The two major components of teacher education are in-service teacher education and pre-service teacher education.

Induction of beginning teachers

Teaching involves the use of a wide body of knowledge about the subject being taught, and another set of knowledge about the most effective ways to teach that subject to different kinds of learner; it, therefore, requires teachers to undertake a complex set of tasks every minute. Many teachers experience their first years in the profession as stressful. The proportion of teachers who either do not enter the profession after completing initial training, or who leave the profession after their first teaching post, is high.

A distinction is sometimes made between inducting a teacher into a new school (explaining the school's vision, procedures etc.), and inducting a new teacher into the teaching profession (providing the support necessary to help the beginning teacher develop a professional identity, and to further develop the basic competences that were acquired in college).

A number of countries and states have put in place comprehensive systems of support to help beginning teachers during their first years in the profession. Elements of such a programme can include:

· mentoring: the allocation to each beginning teacher of an experienced teacher, specifically trained as a mentor; the mentor may provide emotional and professional support and guidance; in teacher training, induction is limited to the provision of a mentor, but research suggests that, in itself, it is not enough.

· a peer network: for mutual support but also for peer learning.

· input from educational experts (e.g. to help the beginning teacher relate what she learned in college with classroom reality).

· support for the process of self-reflection that all teachers engage in (e.g. through the keeping of a journal).

Some research suggests that such programmes can: increase the retention of beginning teachers in the profession; improve teaching performance; promote the teachers' personal and professional well-being.

However, numerous authors suggest that current teacher education is highly flawed and primarily geared towards a western dominated curriculum. Hence, they suggest that teacher education should be inclusive and take into account multiple backgrounds and variables to allow teachers to be responsive to the requirements of their students. This falls into the area of culturally responsive teaching and requires teaching education and teachers to address issues of diversity education and disadvantage as a part of a teacher education curriculum. Jabbar & Hardaker (2013) argue that this is an essential process in helping students of ethnicity, colour and diversity achieve and attain.

Continuous Professional Development

Because the world that teachers are preparing young people to enter is changing so rapidly, and because the teaching skills required are evolving likewise, no initial course of teacher education can be sufficient to prepare a teacher for a career of 30 or 40 years. In addition, as the student body continues to change due to demographic issues there is a continuous pressure on academics to have mastery of their subjects but also to understand their students. Continuous professional development is the process by which teachers (like other professionals) reflect upon their competencies, keep them up to date, and develop them further.

The extent to which education authorities support this process varies, as does the effectiveness of the different approaches. A growing research base suggests that to be most effective, continuing professional development activities should:

· be spread over time,

· be collaborative,

· use active learning,

· be delivered to groups of teachers,

· include periods of practice, coaching, and follow-up,

· promote reflective practice,

· encourage experimentation, and

· respond to teachers' needs.

However, a systematic review published in 2019 by the Campbell Collaboration, summarizing evidence from 51 studies, finds no clear evidence that continuing professional development in education improves student academic outcomes

Professional knowledge and competences of teacher educators

Being able to educate teachers requires different knowledge and skills than those required to teach pupils or students

Teacher educators' fields of knowledge

Some recent research has highlighted the many fields of knowledge that are required by teacher educators; these include knowledge about: the pedagogy of teacher education; learning and learners; teaching and coaching; and the profession of teacher educator itself. In addition, teacher educators need to know about the specific contexts their students will work and working in (e.g. for primary, or secondary education) and the subjects they will teach. More experienced teacher educators need expertise in: curriculum development and assessment; the wider context of teacher education, the way it is organized, and in research.

Multiple identities

The complexity of the tasks of the teacher educator arises in part because, as research has shown, they have multiple professional identities. (This is linked to the issues of definition of the term, highlighted above). While some of those who carry responsibility for the education of teachers do self-identify as 'teacher educator', others may self-identify rather as 'researcher' or 'academic'; others may relate primarily to their academic discipline, such as 'chemist' or 'geographer.'

But the key duality of identity that lies at the core of the teacher educator profession is that of first-order and second order teaching. A teacher educator must be a highly competent ‘first-order educator’ (i.e. a good teacher) but also a skilled ‘second-order educator’ (i.e. capable of teaching effectively about the skill of teaching and facilitating others to acquire teaching skills). As first-order educators, they need to be proficient teachers (of 'adult' students). As second-order educators, they require, in addition, specific competences and dispositions, such as modelling and meta-reflection, that enable them to teach about teaching.

The acquisition or improvement of teacher competences requires training, through which it will be improved educational planning and assessment. This results in a better learning of students, as evidences show It is the objective of FAMT & L Comenius project, conducted at the University of Bologna, designed with the aim of promoting the correct use of formative assessment in mathematics education for students aged from 11 to 16. Reaching this goal supposes to design training programs for teachers of mathematics, starting from identifying their needs, believes, expectations and the use of formative assessment.

Modelling

The way in which teacher educators teach has a greater impact on student teachers’ thinking about practice than what teacher educators teach So, teacher educators need to be able to model the competences and attributes they wish their students to adopt. Swennen et al. (2008) concluded that, in order to ‘model’ what they teach, teacher educators need to develop the ability to link their own (tacit) theories and practice of teaching to public theory, i.e., in Korthagen’s words, to translate Theory with a capital ‘T’ to theory with a small ‘t’.

Meta-reflection

Just as teaching is no longer seen as simply transferring factual information, so educating teachers also requires a more sophisticated approach, based upon professional awareness that comes from reflective practice. For Loughran, being a professional teacher educator requires “genuinely reflecting on, and responding to, the needs, demands, and expectations of teaching about teaching within the academy”.

Professional standards for teacher educators

In some parts of the world (notably the United States, Flanders and the Netherlands) specific standards of professional practice have been developed for, or by, teacher educators. These set out the range of competences that a member of the teacher educator profession is expected to be able to deploy, as well as the attitudes, values and behaviours that are deemed to be acceptable for membership of the profession).

Policy and legislation on the teacher educator profession

While schools and school teachers are often in the news and in political debate, research shows that the teacher educator profession is largely absent from such public discussions and from policy discourse in Education which often focuses exclusively on teachers and school leaders.

Some research suggests that, while most countries have policies, and legislation, in place concerning the teaching profession, few countries have a clear policy or strategy on the teacher educator profession. Caena (2012) found that some of the consequences of this situation can include a teacher educator profession that is poorly organised, has low status or low formal recognition, has few regulations, professional standards – or even minimum qualifications, and no coherent approach to the selection, induction, or continuing professional development of Teacher Educators.

In India, the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) released the 'National Curricular Framework for Teacher Education, 2010 (NCFTE), which aims to remedy many of the ills of teacher training in India. It calls for preparing a 'humane and reflective practitioner' and for fostering the agency and autonomy of the teacher, who can interpret the curriculum meaningfully to the contextual needs of the learners, than merely focus on 'teaching the text book'.

Research into the teacher educator profession

The teacher educator profession has also been seen as under-researched empirical research on professional practice is also scarce.

However, the importance of the quality of this profession for the quality of teaching and learning has been underlined by international bodies including the OECD and the European Commission.

Some writers have therefore identified a need for more research into "what teachers of teachers themselves need to know", and what institutional supports are needed to "meet the complex demands of preparing teachers for the 21st century".

In response to this perceived need, more research projects are now focussing on the teacher educator profession.Several academic journals cover this field.