International Teacher Education Conference 2014 1

International Teacher Education Conference 2014
Trainer-led modules 0% 0% 46.15% 38.46% 15.38%
DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS
While both Tunisian policy makers and APs recognize the crucial necessity for teacher training programs,
they tend to diverge on the accommodation and realization of this necessity. Tunisian higher education policy
makers see the teacher training programs as an administrative requirement for tenure. Training sessions take
place only once throughout the AP’s carrier as part of the preparation for tenure and usually few months after the
APs are hired. APs, on the other hand, see these programs chiefly as opportunities for professional, academic
and personal development. Yet, as shown by the results, only 33.33% of them see the training programs as an
important requirement for getting tenured. What lead us to this assumption are the lack of needs analysis prior to
the training programs and the lack of pre-service and continuous in-service training. Indeed the micro needs
analysis that we conducted for our study shows a disconnection between what the current training programs are
offering and how they are implemented, and what the APs needs are. As a matter of fact the 2011 and 2013
programs provided training in the following topics:
• Syllabus/Course planning,
• Learning tools,
• Lecturing and audiovisuals,
• Evaluation of learning,
• Animation of a group,
• Digitization of a course,
• Motivation of the learners,
• Research methodology,
• Communication, and
• Supervision
All of the aforementioned topics were delivered in plenary sessions by different trainers in different
institutions. Even though the programs designers consider lecturing and audiovisuals, animation of a group, and
motivation of learners as teaching methods, the results show that 72.22% of the trainees still felt that they needed
that topic to be more present in the training. The same applies to research methodology and syllabus design with
55.56% and 50% respectively. This discrepancy implies that the trainees’ dissatisfaction with both training
events is not exclusively related to the content itself. In fact, most topics seem to be consistent with those our
results show the participants to need the most. In order to find out the source of the problem, we need to go back
to the key elements that make up any professional development system and proceed by elimination. We already
ruled out part of the first element, which is the training program in terms of content areas. However, the results
show that in terms of modes of delivery of that content, 84.62% of the trainees prefer that to be within their field
of expertise. As for the delivering methods, 84.52% prefer pedagogical (hands-on) workshops and 76.92% prefer
to have examples of good practice. However, the training programs under study are only delivered in plenary
sessions format. Let’s consider the second element, which are the learners who in our case are the APs. As
shown by the results reported in the previous section, the APs were intrinsically motivated to take the training.
Therefore, this option could be safely ruled out. The third key element, are the facilitators i.e. the teacher
trainers. As a matter of fact, the results show that 75% of the trainees did not find the trainers to be skilled
enough, and 66.67% did not consider them as specialists in the field of pedagogy. Therefore, the quality and
competence of the trainers seem to be a major part of the problem, but are they the only problem? To find out we
need to explore the last key element, which is the context in which the professional development occurs. As
mentioned earlier, all of the training sessions took place in different institutions. The results; however, show that
69.23% of the participants preferred the training to take place in their department. Accordingly, we have spotted
a number of problems that could explain the overall dissatisfaction with the training programs. First, the content
was not tailored to the trainees’ different fields of expertise. Then, the content delivering method did not
correspond to their preferences as they clearly favored a more practical approach. In addition, the trainers were
not perceived as skillful enough. Finally, the trainees appear to appreciate a greater proximity to their working
place, which is not provided by the current program, as they had to take the different sessions in different
institutions.
Having spotted the major sources of the trainees’ dissatisfaction with the teacher training programs that the
University of Sousse is providing, and having an idea about their needs, we make the following suggestions for a
more efficient professional development system. Firstly, the training institution should conduct a needs analysis
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