Mishra (1986) studied the growth of teacher education for women with respect to the history of women's education, institutions involved and number of student-teachers in the institutions. Dash (1985) studied the development of teacher education programmes in Orissa. Hemambujam (1983) made a study of teacher education programme at secondary level in Tamil Nadu. The researchers also made a study of development and organization of in-service teacher-education programmes. Pathak (1985) traced the growth of in-service teacher education programmes in India. Butala (1987) made a study of in- service programmes conducted by secondary teacher training colleges of Gujarat State with respect to number of programmes conducted. Arya (1986) studied the tension education activities organized by the Northern Teachers Colleges in Thailand. All these inquiries have either historically or through the survey method studied the growth of teacher education institutions. Gogate (1985) went a step further and made a case study of teacher education in Marathwada at different levels. The study revealed that there was a teacher-education programme for elementary and secondary teachers in the region but none for university and college teachers. But this may not be true for all regions. There are some universities in India that have introduced teacher-education programmes for college teachers. Kadwadkar (1984) made a study of this aspect and traced the growth of professional courses for college teachers in India.
Another set of studies has surveyed the existing teacher- education programme with respect to admissions, teaching staff and facilities available. These have their relevance because they expose the gap between what exists at present and what is required. It is only on this basis that planning of an effective teacher-education- programme can be done at different levels of education and at different stages, viz., pre-service and in-service.
The NCERT has conducted a number of surveys of institutions of teacher education as part of general surveys of elementary and secondary education programmes. This effort has been supplemented by the SCERTs at state level. There are 84 such studies, out of which 48 are at Ph.D. level and 36 at institutional level. The regional SCERT (1966) made a survey of the primary teachers training programme in the State of Rajasthan. The survey was conducted with respect to qualifi- cations for admission, teaching staff available, syllabus, arrangement of practice teaching, difficulties faced, and stipends for student- teachers. Seetharamu and Sharda (1984) and Seetharamu and Usha (1986) made a status study of institutions of primary and secondary teacher education respectively of Bangalore city with respect to admission procedure, physical facilities and financial status. Indradevi (1985) studied the clientele of teacher education programmes (both at M.Ed. and B.Ed. level) run through the non-formal system of education. Kumar et al (1986) tried to find out motivating factors due to which teachers joined the summer-school-cum-correspondence courses of the NCERT for the B.Ed. degree. The factors were found to be compulsions rather than interests. The regional SCERT (1981) evaluated the in- service training programme for primary teachers in teacher-training institutions in Andhra Pradesh with respect to staff, books and teaching strategies adopted. In another study, the SCERT (1980) surveyed inservice training of secondary teachers in science teaching centres attached to colleges of education in Andhra Pradesh. All these surveys painted a dismal picture of teacher education so far as the qualitative aspect was concerned. Dearth of required physical facilities and adequate financial provisions were the major findings. Similar revelations were made when the researchers carried out studies with respect to the teacher-education programme in specific disciplines. Gangaiah (1986) evaluated English-teacher education in Andhra Pradesh both at the pre-service and in-service stage. It was found that proficiency, in English of trainees was not taken care of and the training programmes were not need-based.
904 L.C.SINGH, S.P. MALHOTRA
There are studies that survey teacher education programmes with respect to-their objectives and innovations carried out. Shaw (1986) surveyed the management of a teacher-education programme with respect to its objectives, criteria of allocation of methods of teaching to student-teachers and innovative practices carried out. Mohanty (1984) studied teaching programmes in the colleges of education of Orissa. Raj (1984) made a survey of teaching programmes in secondary teacher education colleges of the northern region of India with respect to supervisory practices and current duties of those in charge of practice teaching. All these studies sought to look into the inner functional variables. There were also studies aimed at investigating the peripheral functional variables of institutions, viz., how persons living on the outer precincts of the institution viewed it and got benefit from it. Babu et al (1986) evaluated the Regional College of Education (Mysore) from the point of view of awareness of the people about the courses offered by it.
The objectives of these studies have primarily been collection of information and making suggestions for improvement. But researchers have not been doing justice to the second objective in most cases. There is a need that such studies be conducted with in-depth analysis, insight and intensive logical thinking so that valid lessons are learnt for organizing teacher-education programmes in the country.
(ii) INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT- There are nine studies that compare the features of Indian teacher-education programmes with that of developed and developing countries. Researchers like Ghosh (1977) compared Indian teacher- education programmes with those of developed countries like the USA and UK. He came to the conclusion that, apart from differences in teacher education systems between developed and developing countries, the teachers in all these cases came from middle-class groups. Further, the courses and curricula of study in all these models of teacher education needed revision. These studies show that all is not gold everywhere. The criticism against such studies is that they compare the systems irrespective of needs, requirements and environment prevailing in, different countries.
Researchers have also compared different teacher-education models in India. Kalla (1984) studied Gandhi Shiksha Bhavan College with respect to innovations carried out and its deviation from the Bombay University model. Yadav (1980) compared teacher-education institutions of different states and their organizational set-up, viz., colleges of Haryana, the Central Institute of Education, Delhi and the Regional College of Education, Ajmer. He found that facilities, courses of study, socioeconomic status, and clientele (student-teachers) differed in all three cases. Roy (1985) compared the teacher-education programme for English teachers of two institutions-the CIEFL (Hyderabad) and Patna University. He pointed out some structural flaws in the English-teacher preparation programme of Patna University. All these studies have one common observation, that is, teacher-education programmes are better in those institutions which have some missionary spirit and autonomous status in designing and managing their courses and programmes, thus making a case for autonomous status for teacher-education institutions. The National Education Policy (1986) has suggested the establishment of such autonomous college. This opens up a new dimension of teacher- education for researchers to ponder over and study.
(iii) INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT CONTEXT: RESEARCH IN TEACHER EDUCATION-A TREND REPORT 905
Pradesh from the administrative point of view pointed out that the teachers had to undertake a lot of paperwork in order to attend a training programme. There are other studies that have identified different types of organizational climate obtaining in various colleges of education. A cursory look at all these studies shows that many of them are just peripheral to the main concern of management of teacher-education institutions. It is necessary that researchers explore institutional environment from various angles, viz., role conflict of different functionaries, analysis of educational laws and acts concerned with teacher education, institutional viability in terms of number of admissions and goals of teacher-education, and evaluation of management practices adopted by different institutions with respect to economic, psychological and sociological factors.
(b) Curriculum Context Another set of context variables includes studies related to teacher education curriculum. The curriculum, in specific, is a medium that translates socio-educational philosophies into teaching procedures and teaching outcomes. So also, these studies provide an insight into the kind of curriculum that is needed for having a teachereducation programme that will cater to the needs of teachers in particular and education of children in general. There are 38 studies that have evaluated fundamental courses at different levels. Out of these, 23 have limited themselves to courses at the B.Ed. level. The courses have been mostly evaluated by seeking the opinion of teachers, teacher-educators, heads of schools and other personnel connected with teacher-education programmes. Other researchers have developed their own curricula and tried them in their teacher-education institutions in order' to. test these for expected outcomes.
Arora (1986) evaluated the B.Ed. teacher-education curriculum of the-universities of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, keeping in view the needs of science teachers in schools. Pradhananga (1986) examined the syllabi of elementary teacher-education institutions of Nepal with respect to instructional programme and coordination between different components of theory and practice teaching. He elicited the views of administrators, experts, headmasters, teachers and student-teachers. Most studies of this kind, following a similar procedure, did not find the curriculum suited to the needs of the schools teaching programmes. They found a great gap between theory and practice teaching. Some studies done in the sixties and seventies did not find theory related to practice teaching at all. Almost all studies in curriculum context suggested changes in the curriculum in general and theory courses in particular. Some researchers went a step further and developed their own curricula for student-teachers and tried the same in teacher- education institutions. Mian (1983) developed a programme of curriculum content and methodology in the areas of science and agriculture for teacher-training colleges of Bangladesh. He studied its workability on the basis of the opinions of teachers, instructors and college alumni.
A close look at the studies done in the field of curriculum reveals that almost all of them have concluded that the present curricula of teacher-education at different levels do not meet felt needs. These studies have also tried to suggest a new curriculum but their suggestions have also been limited to the same framework as that in which the old or present curriculum existed. Further, these studies evaluated the curriculum from the point of view of different personnel attached to the teacher-education system. Rarely have studies gone in for evaluation of curriculum from the consumers' point of view, that is, teacher-effectiveness, student-teachers' interest,- solving school problems, workability in existing school conditions, etc. The researchers need to explore such vital issues of curriculum relating to theory and practice and that also at different levels, primary, secondary and higher. Further, researches are needed to develop new curriculum programmes after removing current drawbacks and try the same in the institutions to find out their effectiveness. The effectiveness of a curriculum has not only to be seen from the point of view of others, but rather from the angle of desired behavioural changes that it can bring about in the student-teachers. To carry out such experiments, one obvious handicap with the researchers seems to be the rigid process of functioning of the universities. But those colleges and university departments that have autonomy in the construction and adoption of curricular courses need to go in for such research studies.
(c) Practising School Context Another important aspect that affects the teacher-education programme is the practising school. These schools serve as links between laboratory conditions (teacher-education institutions) and real conditions (schools or colleges). Researches in this area provide awareness as to how close a training setting approxi-
906 L.C. SINGH, S.P. MALHOTRA
mates the workplace and how transfer of teaching skill can be facilitated in the student-teachers.
There are five studies (already reported in the previous surveys) which have examined practising schools from the point of view of facilities provided in the teacher-education institution, their availability to student-teachers at the time of the practising session, the perception of principals of colleges of education, teacher-educators, student-teachers, headmasters, etc. The practising school, though an important part of the teacher-education programme, has not attracted the attention of researchers. One obvious reason for this is that practising schools have not been an integral part of teacher-education institutions in India and their separate entity does not allow researchers to take up this area of research. But, there is a need to probe this area not only from the cooperation point of view but also from the angle of sources of expert feedback and apprenticeship training.
(d) Context Studies-Student-Teacher Characteristics The characteristics of student-teachers and their formative experiences are another set of context variables. There are 89 studies that have taken student-teachers' cognitive and non-cognitive variables into accounts. Such studies are probably conducted with a hunch that characteristics are conducive to adoption of a particular profession and teaching is no exception. The researchers, taking up these studies investigated self-concept, creativity, personality traits, adjustment, social maturity, etc. of the student-teachers. They tried to answer the question, 'Are there inherent characteristics in an individual that play their role in shaping him for the job? Whether this question is answered or not is one thing, but these types of studies are helpful in long-term planning for intake in the teacher-education programme.
Pillai (1985) tried to identify factors that influenced graduates in choosing teaching as a career. Some researchers have also tried to find out the motivating factor that impelled students to join teaching courses. Kumar (1986) studied the motivation factor behind students joining the B.Ed. correspondence courses. The potent factor was found to be personal likes and dislikes. Upadhyay (1984), along with motivation, compared attitude and values among student-teachers be- longing to different universities of Uttar Pradesh. The study revealed that geographical set-up and institutional structure did not relate to characteristics of student-teachers. Rai (1983) took up a study of self-concept of prospective teachers. Ls'verne (1985) compared high, medium and low creative student-teachers in terms of personality components. Donga (1987) studied adjustment differences among different student-teacher groups according to sex, marital status, age, educational qualifications, SES and residential accommodation. Tripathi (1983) studied personality traits of student- teachers as related to creativity, SES and sex. Pandeya (1983) prepared personality profiles of student-teachers belonging to groups based on sex and SES.
Savaluk (1983) and Pattramon (1986) studied social maturity of B.Ed. students of Thailand in relation to sex, level of study and social and family adjustment. Sirirassamee (1983) compared adjustment problems of different groups of student-teachers. The groups were based on sex, years of study, teaching subject and student control ideology. Malik (1978) studied the relationship of real and ideal self-concept of teacher trainees with personality dimensions and attitude towards teaching profession. Rao (1986) studied inter- relationship of values, adjustment, and teaching attitude of student- teachers at different levels of socioeconomic status. All these studies have mainly concentrated on investigating characteristics of studentteachers belonging to different groups based on sex, socioeconomic status, educational qualifications and subject of teaching offered. Further, the investigators were mainly concerned with student-teachers of secondary level. There are only 14 studies of student-teachers of primary level. But there are no studies which investigate such characteristics of prospective teachers in higher education, though some universities have such teacher-education programmes. Probably, teacher-education courses at the higher education level have not been extensive enough to attract the attention of investigators.
A peculiar feature of these studies is that they have approached the student-teacher not as a student of education, or a student under training in teaching skills, but as a person who is acquiring the traits of a teacher. The investigators need to see the student- teacher from a different angle and study the characteristics that are conducive to attaining particular teaching skills and promote learning. The study of reading habits, study hours, learning needs, etc. of student-teachers will be helpful for teacher-education programmes in a developing country like India.
RESEARCH IN TEACHER EDUCATION-A TREND REPORT 907
Context Studies: Teacher Characteristics Another set of context studies is concerned with teacher characteristics. There are 178 studies that have investigated the characteristics of teachers in pre-primary (9), primary (41), secondary (84), higher (26) and technical (18) education. These studies have their relevance in the field of teacher education on three counts. First, they try to answer the question, 'Who is a good teacher?' Secondly, these studies specify the conditions under which the teacher is working. Thirdly, such studies provide guidelines for arranging in-service courses for teachers.