Teacher education in India primarily refers to the policies and procedures that
strengthen the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviours of the prospective
teachers and carry out the tasks effectively in the classrooms, schools, and
wider community. Teacher education in India is regulated by the National
Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), a statutory body that was established
in 1993. The National Education Policy 2020 has proposed several reforms
and innovations in teacher education in India, such as making the 4-year
integrated Teacher Education program as the minimum degree qualification
for teaching by 2030, developing the National Professional Standards for
Teachers (NPST) to define the work and competencies of teachers, launching
the National Mission for Mentoring (NMM) to provide guidance and support
to new teachers by senior mentors, offering continuous professional
development (CPD) opportunities for teachers to update their knowledge and
skills, and revising the National Curriculum Framework for Teacher
Education (NCFTE) to align it with the new vision of education. This book
has fourteen chapters that explore the dynamics of Teacher education in India
and provides insight to readers and teachers for the changing needs and
expectations of learners, society, and the nation.
In Chapter 1, Dr. Birender Kaur focuses on the teachers’ professional
development and quality indicators along with the factors that influence the
development of teachers. Here the author also talks about constructive school
culture, appropriate encouragement as well as support by the head of the
educational institution can externally motivate the teachers for de-learning
and re-learning of the skills of their profession. Chapter 2 is authored by
Srijata Biswas which emphasises the development of teacher education in
India and need of the professional training required by teachers before joining
an institution and during the job training. Dr. Srijata also talks about the
recommendation of National Education Policy 2020 for continuous
professional development for teachers in chapter 2. In chapter 3, Paskalia
Nausiku Otto and Dr. Rekha Kaushal explain about the classification of
Teacher Education in context to pre-service, In-service and refresher
programs and the importance of these programs for teachers’ professional
development because they complement one another and result in an
endowment of qualified teacher educators. Chapter 4 explains the
Understanding Knowledge Base of Teacher Education through the lens of
Indian Thinkers, here Dr. Sunita Devi and Dr. Suman Dalal reflect on the
unique insights provided by Indian thinkers into the knowledge base of
teacher education. In chapter 5, Dr. Ozma reiterates on ICT Integration for
Quality Enhancement of Teacher Education and explains that integrating ICT
in teacher education can greatly enhance the quality of education for future
teachers. In chapter 6, Teacher education as explained by western thinkers has
been discussed by Dr. Sangita Sharma and Dr. Sunita Sehrawat where she
focuses on the ideas of western thinkers who have had a profound impact on
teacher education and understanding of the role of the teacher in society. Dr.
Divya Kalra Baweja and Ritu Sapra in chapter 7 describe the changes in
teacher education paradigm since NEP-2020.
In chapter 8, Dr. Shally describes the differences between the contemporary
and traditional education systems of India by explaining Vedic education
system and present era. In Chapter 9, Zeba Fatima and Md. Tabish Kamran
elucidate recent trends and innovations in teacher education by emphasising
that teacher education must be designed in such a way that boosts the
confidence and increases the motivation of the teachers to become ingenious
and innovative in their practice of teaching. Chapter 10 authored by Dr.
Akanksha Srivastava and Archana Dwivedi discuss the role of a teacher as a
reflective practitioner, the advantages of reflective practice, and pragmatic
approaches for integrating reflective practice into teaching. In Chapter 11,
Pradeep Gusain discusses the important role of teacher in building the value
systems of the society based upon the history rich culture of student-teacher
relationships in India. Ms. Nazama and Dr. Parvesh Lata in chapter 12 entitled
Teacher Education in the Indian Context explain the crucial role of
educational institutions in guiding their pupils from ignorance to knowledge
by offering learning opportunities. In Chapter 13, Dr. Rishi Raj Balwaria and
Dr. Vaibhavi Gawarikar reflect on the Teaching competencies for Developing
21st Century skills by exploring the teachers’ and teacher educators’
competencies. Further, it discusses meeting the challenges of the learner, role
of the teacher and ways to develop these competencies for the teachers and in
Chapter 14, Dr. Rajkumari and Ronak describe the Transactional Approaches
in Pre-Service and In-Service Teacher Education explaining the goal of inservice teacher development should be to ensure that optimal learning takes
place in the classrooms