A PHILOSOPHICAL EXPLORATION OF TEACHER EDUCATION AND ITS IMPLICATION FOR NIGERIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM
Keywords:
Teacher, Professional Training, Pedagogical Skills, Trends and Implications.Abstract
The paper investigated teacher education in Nigeria and its implications for the nation’s
education system. For the purpose of effective study, the paper used the philosophical
method of analysis and clarification, to explicate the concepts of teacher education,
characteristics of teaching as a profession, objectives, and trends in teacher education.
The paper observed that teacher education if properly handled can yield the much needed
change and reform in the nation’s socio-political and economic landscape by injecting
the right caliber of highly motivated and efficient teaching personnel that can positively
impact the social life of their respective communities and the nation at large. The paper
is of the opinion that the achievement of this cadre of personnel lies in the education,
training and professional competences coupled with the right ethical background to
navigate the challenges of Nigerian education system. From the exposition, it was
discovered that teacher education in Nigeria has undergone several trends and changes in
administration and organization, content and processes, and in competency-based teacher
education with distinct aims and objectives from the colonial, post-independence, and the
contemporary period. The paper is of the opinion that achieving this task would
necessitate contending with the challenges of recruiting and selecting the right caliber of
teachers, funding education and training teachers professionally. Given this scenario, the
paper concludes that teacher education should be prioritized in the nation’s development
process to inject the knowledge, ingenuity and professional competence of teachers on whose shoulders national development rests. It was recommended among other things,
that teacher training should be taken seriously; and the necessary incentives and
infrastructure should be provided to make teaching and learning more attractive and
effective.
