In-Service Early Childhood Teachers Reflect on Their Teacher Training Program: Reconceptualizing the Case of Cyprus

Abstract

This is a study that investigates the views of in-service Early Childhood teachers concerning their teacher training program. Ninety in-service teachers were interviewed and asked to reflect on their teacher training. The focus of this paper is on two major issues: the challenges teachers have faced and are facing during their years of teaching experience and the suggestions they have in improving teacher training programs. The participants consider the issues of parents, classroom management, multiculturalism, lesson planning, and children with special needs as their main challenges. Moreover, their suggestions include more student-teacher practicum and the consideration of teacher attitudes and dispositions. All of these considerations are based on the Cypriot milieu of teacher training. Suggestions for revision and reconceptualization of the case of Cyprus are made by using existing literature in the field of teacher education.