Study On The Development Of Teacher In-Service Education In Britain

The national characteristics of British people are distinguishingly labeled by "dual-features": cherishing of their traditions as well as transcending the traditions. To some extent the particular national characteristics are decisive in the process of British history, and therefore decisive to the same effect in the process of the teacher in-service education in the country, and myriad of features are the reflections of the national characteristics. The tendency of appreciative attitude toward their tradition keeps the teacher in-service education in Britain stay with the accepted routines and kind of even a certain degree of obstinacy to those conventional institutions. When this obstinacy showed its impact on teacher education, we identified the fact that Britain virtually stayed with the Mentor-Apprenticeship System as the dominating model when in many countries in the world the facilitating teacher education, which we now called Normal Colleges, long came into fashion. As seen today we still identify quite some of the traces of the traditional model in what are referred as school-based training, mentorship, practice-orientation, unification of pre-service education and in-service education, to mention but a few; while on the other hand, the British practices in school-based teacher training and the monitorial system are seen as representatives of the transcendent characteristics from conventions, and initiated the new perspectives in teacher education for the world to follow. In the West, the phenomena of education's inheritance as well as transcendence of tradition and its close linkage with the society, politics and economy are most clearly seen in no other country than in Britain, as a matter of fact. Therefore, this doctorial dissertation focuses the study of Teacher in-service education in Britain on the vertical (developmental) and horizontal (motivation) bi-dimensional route, and establishes a holistic research framework based on the discussions of the following: what are the phases developments in the teacher in-service education in Britain? What are the possible motivations for such developments? What are the features in the teacher in-service education in Britain? What enlightenments can we draw from the discussions in light of the Chinese scenario? This dissertation shall start from the introduction, which includes the purpose of the dissertation, the current research status quo, and the definitions of concerned concepts differentiating teacher in-service education, teacher education and teacher continuing education. The rest of the dissertation is divided into four parts, the first part analyzes from historical perspective the developments and the motivations of Teacher in-service education in Britain before 80s of 20th century; the second part discusses about the status quo of teacher in-service education in Britain in such aspects as the ultimate goal, the managements, and implementations of the education since 1980s; the third part examines the developmental motivation of the education in light of its historical motivation, its social environmental impacts, its practical inquires and its theoretical initials; the fourth part identifies the advantages and disadvantages of teacher in-service education in Britain, predicts the future development tendency of the concerned issue and offers suggestions for the Chinese teacher in-service education. as well.From the historical and developmental aspects, Teacher in-service education in Britain has gone through from practical orientation to theoretical emphasis and back to practical reflection, from school to university and back to school, from pre-service to unified professional training to diverted training and back to co-coordinated training. The Teacher in-service education in Britain initiated with the work done by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) in 1698 where the young teachers and the teachers working in the rural areas were professionally trained. By the end of 18 and early 19th century, the Monitorial System and the Pupil-Teacher Apprenticeship appeared in the field, both of which were done in the school where the trainees were basically the enlisted teachers in that school. This training model was in use for about a hundred years in the country. The Mcnair Report of 1944 initiated the beginning of the standard regular teacher education, and it was the recommended "three-step teacher training model" in the James Report of 1972 that accelerated the slow evolving teacher education. Not until late 80s in the last century did the Teacher in-service education in Britain management transferred the managerial power from the local to both the central and the school itself so that the local education departments were no longer the managerial center in teacher education. Meanwhile the multi-purposed and diverse education models and miscellaneous types concerned mushroomed and flourished faster than any time in the past, and the teacher education managements at various levels marched into the stage of its modern development. With continuous reforms along the development, the teacher education has now grown in full. The legislative guarantee, reflection in reality, partnership in educational activities and proper assessment are all there to contribute to the more plausible features. Fortunately, the experiments done in educational legislation, educational goal adjustment, managerial mechanism, partnership relation and school-based training can all be regarded as beneficial reference for similar attempts in China.From the motivational aspect, the fact that the teacher in-service education in Britain has achieved what is now seen has related its developments to the political and economic circumstances of the time, to the educational and cultural circumstances and the relevant theoretical research. The industrial revolution, the conflicts between different ideologies, the development of elementary education, and the flourish of normal colleges and the promotion of life-long learning and the teacher professionalism are all accounted for as the motivations for the teacher in-service education. The four main motivations in the teacher in-service education in Britain from 80s are assumably as the following: first, the worldwide information waves have washed up more challenges and more opportunities; second, the Thatcherism and the "the third road" have ushered the teacher in-service education in Britain into such a social niche in which check-balance and self-governance are interwoven while competition and cooperation are co-existed; third, the demand from the reforms of basic education and the public inquiries into the issue have propelled the changes of teacher in-service education; fourth, theoretical knowledge concerning teachers and the theories concerning the career have provided fresh premises for necessary reforms and professional developments. It is with all of these motivations that the teacher in-service education in Britain is now progressing along in the path of institutionalization, cooperation, school-based orientation and supervision.