Thumbs down for shorter teacher training

[webfact]

Thumbs down for shorter teacher training

By Kornrawee Panyasuppakun 
The Nation

 

 

Some calls for longer, not shorter, course

 

THE IMMINENT move to cut the duration of teacher-training programmes by a year has upset teachers and students alike.

 

At a roundtable discussion held at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Education earlier , many teaching students said that if the programme was shortened from five to four years, they would lose the opportunity to learn many useful things. 

 

“In fact, I think the programme should be extended to six years,” Romklao Changnoi, a maths teacher at the Wat Dusitaram secondary school in Bangkok, said. He had completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Education from Chulalongkorn University. The university held a forum last week to hear what its students, former graduates and other stakeholders thought about the government’s initiative to cut down on the duration of teacher-training courses. 

 

In response to the Education Ministry’s policy, Rajabhat universities will be the first to shorten the programmes from next year, while other higher-education institutes will likely follow suit. The five-year programme was introduced in 2004 with the hope of raising the quality of teachers and promoting the teaching profession. 

 

 

Romklao said the longer programme allowed students to explore different subjects. For instance, he said, he once enrolled in a design course in the Faculty of Architecture and found it very useful in designing his maths classes. 

 

“It expanded my horizons and helped me think outside the box,” he said. 

 

Many students at the forum echoed his opinion, saying they would learn less if the programme were shortened by a year. They are also keen on enrolling in practical courses, such as teaching students with disabilities, students with autism, learning sign language, marketing, basic finance, technology and design. “There is at least one student with autism in every class I teach. They study with other students and often lag behind. I think it would be good if we can learn how to cope with that,” Romklao pointed out.

 

Anurak Ninlahoot, who is majoring in secondary-school education and biology at Chulalongkorn University, said even with five years, students do not have enough time to practice teaching. “I hope we get more practice classes that allow us to work independently. Most of the courses at our faculty are group based,” he said. He has taken several science courses in the university and attended many lab classes. 

 

Currently, teacher-training courses comprise of solid academic classes, psychology studies, designing classrooms and classroom materials to name a few. Fifth-year students get to spend their last year teaching at an actual school. 

 

Cutting the course by a year could mean that students will not have a whole year to teach in front of a class anymore, but may have to rush through training in the last semester or do it during college breaks. Nutchadin Ma-inkaew, a Samsenwittayalai School teacher, said: “We study many theories in school like ‘flipping the classroom’ and ‘project-based learning’, but many trainees don’t seem to know how to incorporate them in teaching reflecting the need for adequate training time.” 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30357854

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-11-05

[Chang_paarp]

Rather than debating the length of the course they should be debating the quality of the course and the quality of the courses studied prior to going to university. The Thai curriculum is not so rigorous that the teachers need more time at university that teacher from other countries.

[Thailand]

Very unfair for vertically challenged teachers!

[Somtamnication]

Longer or shorter training, still not enough. It will take a generation or longer and the old dinosaurs dying off.

[zzaa09]

It's quality, less quantity. 

.....and still not getting it.

[mikebell]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

In fact, I think the programme should be extended to six years,

Extend it to sixteen years; won't make any difference.  Paid five years fees for two step-daughters.   One was made to work as a skivvy in a Koh Chang hotel; one worked in a factory inhaling chemicals all day.  I never found out how this helped them become teachers!

[LazySlipper]

Teacher training with the internships lasts 4 years in Canada...

 

I guess they should actually add a few years to the Thai teaching curriculum and maybe get some real English teaching done for the candidates...

[ChrisY1]

It would not matter if the courses were 3 years or 13 years......the teaching course/s in Thailand are useless.

[Ossy]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

teaching students said that if the programme was shortened from five to four years, they would lose the opportunity to learn many useful things.

It's come as a shock to me that teacher training lasts as much as five years, considering the dismal performance that Thai teachers clock-up, year after year. As for losing the opportunity to learn many useful things, it wouldn't be half bad if they managed - in 5 bloody years - to learn how to teach kids how to ask their farang stepfathers, "And what have you been doing today, dear father?" And, as for six years … that has to be a prime contender for 'joke of the century'.

[hotchilli]

A recent survey posted here recently in Thaivisa reported that the English language skills were dropping further down the ratings due to Thai teachers inability to speak the language themselves, let alone try to teach & explain it to students... each generation gets worse and so the rot continues.

Now they want to shorten the time for teachers to qualify, without any changes to the quality of the curriculum?

What result do the expect from this change??

[Sydebolle]

If I compare the German-speaking European basic education lasting nine years and compare it with the Thai basic education lasting 12 years (to compare apples with apples) then it results in quality before quantity. 

Given the fact, that Khon Thai is rather ill prepared for any professional future after leaving basic education it is ludicrous to assume that shortening the teacher's training by a year would have a negative impact. 

Put the teachers on the same level with everybody else, train them, test them and let those fail who cannot reach the goals. English to be taught be native English speaking teachers (not students and travel-bys), introduce apprenticeship programmes taught by professionals in the trade, add finishing school classes etc. to form the next generation to something closer to the 21st century world citizen.