Good teacher education in an ODL context

Abstract

The strategies and approaches commonly used in traditional settings seemingly differ from those used in ODL. But is the role of lecturers in an ODL setting that different from traditional universities? The researcher asked the following questions concerning teacher education in higher education (HE) institutions: What is “good teacher education” in general and more specifically in an ODL context? The sub questions asked are: Is there a difference between “good teacher education in traditional and ODL institutions?” and “How can teacher education be improved in HE?” Literature was reviewed with reference to “good teacher education” in traditional higher education and that in an ODL context. A phenomenographic study was done with the responses to two open-ended questions that were e-mailed to staff members in the in the College of Education at the ODL institution where the researcher is tenured, namely “What is good teacher education?” and “What is good teacher education in ODL?” Since the researcher is part of the College of Education she made use of convenience sampling. In comparing literature to the empirical findings it shows that lecturers and literature come to the same conclusion about what good teacher education entails. Good teacher education in higher education does not appear to differ much between ODL and traditional HE settings. Recommendations on how teacher education can be improved will be made.