15. (For advanced students) In what way is teacher training provided in England and in Russia?

It may seem that teaching is all the same, no matter what country you take. However, the way teachers are trained is very different in various countries. Let’s take, for example Great Britain and Russia. Two absolutely different countries – two totally different ways of providing teacher training.

In Great Britain there are several ways of becoming a school teacher. First a person should choose whether he or she will be trained to be a teacher at a university, at a college or at a college of higher education.

 At a college of education students first take either a four or three-year degree course leading to the Bachelor of Education, or a shorter, less academic course leading to the Teacher’s Certificate. Both courses combine the study of subjects to be taught with teacher training;

 At a college of higher education students take the Diploma in Higher Education, and then a teacher training course leading either to the Bachelor of Education or the Teacher’s Certificate.

 At a university students first take a degree in some subject(s) and then a Postgraduate Diploma / Certificate in Education in the faculty / department of education. One-year course is concerned with training him as a teacher, usually as a secondary-school teacher. Students start it in October by spending a fortnight in a local primary school, observing lessons themselves in various classes and giving occasional lessons themselves. The first 6 weeks of the first term are chiefly taken up with lectures and tutorials on the theory of education, educational psychology, the history and sociology of English education, and teaching methods of certain languages. Then their full-time practice begins. The second term is also divided between theoretical and practical work with greater emphasis on the latter. In the summer term there are a few weeks of lectures and tutorials, followed by examinations in May.

After that a person becomes a fully-qualified teacher with 30 periods a week and a form of his own.

As far as Russia is concerned, it is impossible to take up teaching without Higher Education. If a person intends to be a teacher, he or she should be admitted to a university first, having successfully passed USE which are often Russian, History and still another subject (it depends on the specialization chosen by an applicant) and entrance examinations on particular subjects. The course of teacher training in Russian universities is a five year one. It includes theoretical and practical work, just as in English universities. Students’ curriculum consists of Psychology, Russian Stylistics, History, Maths, IT and other subjects; if the specialization is teaching foreign languages, as mine is, a great emphasis is made on studying foreign languages, the number of which can vary from 2 to 3 or even 5, up to a student. Since their third year students can start practicing in schools and their university. During their fifth year students write a diploma work and at the end of the fifth year they take the Diploma in Higher Education which qualifies them to teach in any kind of school. A student may continue postgraduate studies having finished which he will be able to work at university.

These are the ways in which teacher training is provided in Great Britain and Russia. They are very different, but still there is one common thing which can be applied to any country with any system of education: to be a good qualified teacher, a person should work a lot, love his subject and his job in general, and love children, of course. This is the key to success.