EVALUATING TEACHERS TRAINING PROGRAMS: A CASE OF IRAN AND INDIA

Teachers are called nation-builders, in every country, in every period, and in every society the role of teachers is of great importance. It is left to the teachers to inculcate right values and developing young nation. The image of an ideal teacher has undoubtedly changed through the ages. In the past the teacher was considered as source of all knowledge, but today this view does not exist anymore. A major dichotomy is between the concept of the teacher as a mediator or conserver, on the one hand, and an agent of change on the other hand. In fact, the teachers need to be conceived as a “change agent” and not as a mere transmitter of knowledge and culture. It is also believed that the role of the teacher is changing so fast that limited amount of pre-service and in-service teacher education cannot cope with the expectations of the society. Today, it is observed that in most countries (developed and developing) the universities or higher education systems are focusing and investigating on teachers training and development in a variety of ways, to ensure quality of education and improve efficiency and productivity of their systems. Although most of countries and their higher education systems apply various methods and subjects for teachers training and developments, but there is substantial agreement on one point- teachers should be trained.
In recent years, one of the most significant concerns in the field of teachers’ education and training in developing countries has been a growing concern about the efficiency of teachers training programs. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate whether its goals and aims have actually been achieved and whether the expectations been met Due to different models and systems of teacher training, provided by different countries, their efficiency should be evaluated by comparative evidence.
Accordingly, the main focus of this paper is to evaluate the effects of teachers’ short-term training programs from the viewpoint of administrators of Islamic Azad University and University of Pune in order to evaluate the efficiency and rate of success in teacher training programs .