A Review of British Research in Teacher Education

It may be argued that the chief purpose of research on the education of teachers is to improve the programmes of teacher preparation which are provided in university departments and colleges of education. In recent times, however, more stress has been placed on increasing the numbers of students in training than on improving the processes by which they are educated. By the end of this century it seems likely that we shall need half a million teachers to satisfy the needs of the ten million children who will then be in our schools (Wilson, 1969). It seems probable that questions concerning the demand for, and supply of efficient teachers will continually require consideration. The realisation that we are unlikely to have enough good teachers within the foreseeable future has led to the conclusion that we must make the best use of our limited resources and must seriously question the efficiency of our present programmes of teacher education.