Conceptualizing Teacher Education in Nigeria: The Counsellor’s Perspective

Abstract

Teacher education is a teacher preparation programme designed to produce professionally competent teachers in the education sector. Teacher education can either take the form of preservice or in-service training. The goals of teacher education among many other things are to produce highly motivated, conscientious, and efficient classroom teachers for all levels of our education system. Many questions are raised concerning the status of teacher education and teachers’ commitment to the teaching profession. These and many other unanswered questions suggest that there is a gap between the vision of teacher education concerning the practice and sustainability of teacher education in Nigeria. To address this gap, the counsellor's role of assisting students to distribute their energies into the many learning opportunities available to them must be improved. Counselling services such as orientation, appraisal, follow-up, placement, and many others must be provided to the teacher trainees before they are allowed to venture into the teaching
profession.