The Role of the University in the Inservice Education of Teachers

Abstract

In the United States, college and university courses have been the primary means of continuing teacher education and the majority of teachers received a Master's Degree by attending part-time prior to 1980. Continuing education was rewarded by salary increases in specified increments, and was required for recertification and moving to administrative positions. Prior to 1980 most inservice programs focused on professional training rather than broader topics or a specific discipline. In the U.S., Nation at Risk, produced by The National Commission on Excellence in Education in April, 1983, called for education reform. In response, the Commission for Excellence in Teacher Education published the report, A Call for Change in Teacher Education, in which every part of teacher education-from the liberal arts education of the prospective teacher to the continuing education of the veteran teacheris said to need improvement. It stated that even the best existing program is not good enough. It recommended that state boards of education give highest priority to the improvement of the professional development of teachers. The trend calling for reform was extended by the report by The Holmes Group, Tomorrow's Teachers (1986), and the improvement of the quality of teacher education was again stressed. Various teacher education reform activities have been developed by state and local boards of education, such as career ladder plans. In Japan, universities have not played much of a role in teachers' continuing education, although individual faculty contributed as members of an advisory group to educational boards. Teachers, including teacher organizations, took responsibility for their own professional de-