School-based Teacher Training in Jordan: Towards On-school Sustainable Professional Development

Abstract

Abstract Despite the challenges to develop school-based sustainable teacher training and development and the diverse demands to execute this type of teacher professionalism to achieve sustainable teacher development, this new trend seems indispensable both for Jordanian teacher education and many other similar world educational systems. The present qualitative study robustly relied on a set of self-reports developed by 12 doctoral students who took a teacher education course at the University of Jordan in the second semester, 2017. They self-reported on their perspectives on school-based teacher training in terms of its significance, requirements, challenges and possible solutions to develop this route to teacher training in a country which like several other educational systems worldwide was dominated by an academic theory-based route to teacher preparation and qualification. Their self-reports were analysed and their patterns concerning the reasons behind adherence to school-based teacher training and the facilities to promote it and the challenges for school based teacher training were collected and meticulously probed. The findings of the study noticeably advocate school-based teacher training as a major route to teacher training. The participants of the study obviously considered this training route a method to transfer training experience to the teachersí classroom instruction. Some recommendations were proposed calling for adopting this new training approach and conducting further research in this emerging paradigm.