A teacher training program is a program that equips teachers with techniques and modern pedagogy strategies that helps them to better connect with, manage, and teach to their students in a manner which ensures that all students are learning and benefitting.
The partners of the European project Erasmus + DigitalTA (2022-25), led by the Universidad Europea del Atlántico (UNEATLANTICO) held a presentation at the university campus located in Santander on the 30th of September, 2022. The project is aimed at proposing the design and implementation of a digital resource open to all educational agents that improves the transition of studies and practices of student teachers and novice teachers.
Teacher training programs are of different types and forms: There are short term, medium term and long term programs which are conducted online or offline. The teacher needs to understand from the perspective of the student as to what would make a classroom session significantly more intriguing. Every training course designed for teachers offers practical classroom sessions as an integral part of the course, with each candidate being mentored for making the classroom teaching sessions more engaging and interesting for the benefit of the students.
Here are some of the benefits of teacher training:
Professional growth
When teachers attend training programs, it gives them the opportunity for continuous professional development – to learn new ways, methods, strategies, skills and tools. When teachers get upskilled they automatically feel confident, happy and motivated to achieve greater things with their students.
Better student management
As a teacher it is important to know, understand and analyze students effectively. Only then can they know how to teach their students. Teacher training programs help teachers to better understand and therefore, better manage their students.
Dr. Rachel Lenihan from the University of Limerick (Ireland) spoke about how their school is working on building partnerships from campus to classroom and making sure students are supported during their transition to teaching, as well as providing support for current teachers, both in and out of the classroom.
Impacts students indirectly
A teacher training program not just impacts teachers but also students. A single teacher who is upskilled can go on to impact thousands of students. Teachers have a big role to play in nation building because students are the citizens of tomorrow.
At the end of the conference after students had the opportunity to ask questions, Dr. Jiri Kropac from the Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci in Olomouc (Czech Republic) answered a question about what values the DigitalTA project is hoping to defend in teacher training at universities. “We want to transfer our values to students,” answered Kropac, “and even if we cannot get them to believe them, we want to give them the opportunity to think about teaching morals in a different way”.
It is also important to not only train new teachers, but also continued training for teachers who have been working for a long time. Even the best teachers will begin to lag behind if they don’t continue to strive for excellence. The reason why continuing teacher training is so important for educational excellence is simple: teachers need to be given regular training opportunities in order to stay at the top of their game.
Jesús Solera from the Centro de Formación del Profesorado e Innovación Educativa de Segovia (Spain) discussed the importance of facilitating training of teachers both in pre-service training and in-service teaching. This includes enhancing the detection of training needs of the teaching staff, and using evaluation as an instrument for improvement.
Teacher training gives the teacher a theoretical and practical education on the nuances of teaching students how to accomplish their greatest potential. Without this training, the teachers will not be in a position to provide proper guidance, and that will affect the foundation of the education being built.
The project is aimed at proposing the design and implementation of a digital resource open to all educational agents that improves the transition of studies and practices of student teachers and novice teachers.