A Concept Note on Enhancing Teacher Training and Cooperation among Faculties and Departments of Education in Public and Private Universities in Lebanon

النوع : Article

This concept note provides an overview of the teacher education programs in Lebanon as well as a rationale for studying their organizational structures, theoretical orientations, instructional practices, and impact in order to increase cooperation and knowledge transfer among them. The note reviews the extant literature on the subject and proposes a set of initial research questions, following which it describes the process and procedures followed in generating, prioritizing, and implementing a research agenda that focused on the structural make up, conceptual orientations, instructional and evaluation practices, and the degree of focus on citizenship and gender-related issues within the programs under study. Results indicated that most of the programs favor the academic technological orientation, despite some discrepancies in the admissions and transfer requirements, assessment practices, number or required course, and the classification of courses among them. The results also revealed some considerable emphasis on student-centered and interactive teaching. However, the majority of the programs did not have program learning outcomes and did not put much emphasis on citizenship education and gender-related issues.