International Teacher Education Conference 2014 1

International Teacher Education Conference 2014
Figure 3 The Reflective Model (Wallce 1991, 49)
Nowadays, in North Cyprus all three models are in practice to a limited extent. Pre-service teacher trainees
are sent to longer practicum anda re attached to a mentor teacher. ‘Sitting with Nellie’ (Wallace 1991,p 6) is stil
in practice. What is more, experience teachers can apply to the Ministy of National Education & Youth and
become ‘inspectors’. Inspectors not only visit schools and teachers but from time to time are asked to give inservice
training to the teachers. Thus, it can be concluded that the ‘ Craft Model’ is stil in practice.
Traninees take their pre-service traning from universities either at home or abroad. In the local universities
lecturers with academic degrees train/educate them. These trainees take in-service teachers traning after they
start teaching. This calls in the Applied Science Model as the main teacher education model. However, since
ecucation i given by the lecturers, this led to the problem of separation of content and process. One of us
(Ozad,1997) draws attentiom to the discrepamcy caused by the lecturers’ teaching sytle and teachers teaching
style.
With the rise of positivist thinking in education, following other social sciences, teacher training moved from
craft training to the training colleges, and then to the universities where tutors delivered their instruction by
lecturing. This form of education emphasizes the content of the courses. The assumption behind this form of
education is that trainees would gain knowledge in the university and they would put the knowledge they gained
during their degree courses into practice. The link between theory and practice - if there was any- was very poor.
The only time when these trainees had my practical experience was when they went to teaching practice. After
completion of their training course such teacher tend to perpetuate the poor methods of teaching they had been
used to (Özad, 1997). This way of educating teachers made trainees impotent because it blocked their ağabeylity
to be creative, original and mentally active.
In North Cyprus in-service teacher training provided by university lectures of ELT experts from the UK &
USA. These experts are more aware of the significant of process and pay specific attention to traning. The expert
trainees from the UK&USA are aware of content/process delimma/ distiction in ELT and try to give the best
example of how process can be.
The global recognition of English langauage as “The international language” led to more attention given to
this language and thus its teaching. Hence, ELT has been a pionner in a number of aspects of education. One of
these is the English teaching methodology & teacher training. Efforts led the field to look for beter means for
teacher training. Therefore, more complex model, reflective model is recommended. The Reflective model
embraces the prior two model; the Craft model (experiential knowledge) and the Applied Science Model
(received knowledge and blends these two with significant element of reflection.)
In North Cyprus, gradually more attention started to be paid to the process (experience) in addition to
knowledge. What is more, English Language Teaching literature has grown. Yet, the reflective element is not
given enough attention. In pre-service, teachers are asked to complete portfolia and this portfolio is taken as the
reflective element. We hold that ‘reflection’ should be paid attention.
In conclusion, in all there models, teacher trainers or educators act as ‘experienced’ people (trainers, lectures,
mentors) the field of education; village elders. However, todays world is more complicated. Now that the
Reflective model is used in ELT teacher preparetion in some parts of the world, fort he preparation of teachers
even this has a room to extend: technology.
In the 21st centuty, people integrate technology in to their lives even more than before. People are swifting in
tecnology highway. Technology pointing new and numerous opportunities in all fields of our lives. This is very
much so respect to our profession. Bearing in mind the distiction of Digital Natives and Digital İmmigrants
teachers mostly are a disadvantage. With the respect to technology. Thus, for those who will be teacher trainers,
in addition to professional support, support in technology is needed.
References
Fish, D. (1989). Learning Through Practice in Initial Teacher Tranin, Kogan Page.
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