Becoming a primary school teacher in Trinidad and Tobago: Part 1: The curriculum in the teachers' colleges
Date
2001
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
School of Education, UWI
Abstract
The monograph reports on a study that sought assess the philosophical orientation and content of specific aspects of the document teacher’s college curriculum in Trinidad and Tobago. The study also sought to describe how the lecturers at the two colleges articulate their understandings of what the documented curriculum demands, and how they try to implement it, that is, the espoused curriculum as enacted within the teachers’ college was explored through an examination of teaching/learning episodes in specific subject areas in the college. Data on the documented curriculum were gathered through content analysis of the curriculum document. Ideas about the espoused curriculum were obtained through in-depth interviews with 14 lecturers from the two colleges. It was found that there is no stated philosophy underpinning the teachers’ college curriculum in Trinidad and Tobago. The curriculum is differentiated into academic studies and teaching practice. There is a reasonable level of congruence between the documented curriculum and the curriculum as espoused by the lecturers. However, there were some areas of unease for the lecturers. The stated intentions of the lecturers did articulated, to a large extent, with the enacted curriculum.
Description
First published as Discussion Paper 20 by the Centre for International Education, University of Sussex Institute of Education, August 2000. Available in CVTLIB
Table of Contents
Keywords
primary school teacher, Teachers' colleges