Challenges in Ethiopian Teacher Education Pedagogy: Resistance Factors to Innovative Teaching-Learning Practices

Abstract

Quality is at the heart of any education and training system. It influences what trainees learn, how well they learn and what benefits they draw from their education and training. Whether a particular education and training system is of high or low quality can be judged in terms of input, output and process. Until recently, however, much discussion of educational quality has been centered on only system inputs in terms of the provision of teachers, educators, teaching materials and other facilities, and on output in terms of trainees’ achievement.  Little or no attention is given to the teaching-learning process, the dimension which involves what really happens in the classroom. This study thus aims at finding out the extent to which innovative approach to teaching and learning are employed in the Ethiopian primary teacher training classrooms, to identify the factors that affect its implementation, and to recommend better ways and means for further improvement. In conclusion, the study found that traditional lecture methods, in which teachers talk and students listen, dominate most classrooms. The common obstacles to the employment of innovative methods of teaching as found out by this study are: the Ethiopian tradition of teaching, lack of institutional support, and learning resources, teachers’ lack of expertise, inappropriate curricular materials and student teachers’ lack of prior experience to actively participate in the teaching and learning process.