Toward a Five-Year Project of the College of Education: Diagnosis, Challenges, and Proposed Bases of Development in the Light of the Experiences of Other Countries

Abstract

That modern change in the developed world has imposed on us the need to take the strategic planning approach to build generations able to cope with these

variables with a thought that goes beyond the limits of reality and predicts the future, with all its threats and available opportunities. Hence the need to pay attention  to  the  process  of  teacher  preparation  represents  a  special  priority

because it is the issue of education which the future of the nation depends on, especially in light of the many problems faced by the Faculties of Education that affect  its  performance  and  the  efficiency  of  its  graduates.Several  critical

evaluation research studies have been conducted on educating teachers before enrolling in service in terms of knowledge, educational content, and the educational technology provided. The researches have shown that it does not

keep pace with scientific or educational developments and contemporary educational technology.This requires trying to develop the current old four year program for the preparation of the teacher in the Faculties of Education that is limited to teacher training on traditional methods and the development of some

of the mental skills that do not go beyond the level of memorization. This is done, through a period of five full years where the teacher studies about 300 hours of lectures, practical lessons and field training. Therefore, the problem of the study has been phrased in the following questions: Q 1: What aspects of the criticism directed to the Faculties of Education? Q 2: What are the challenges facing the teacher preparation process in the Faculties of Education? Q 3: What are the experiences of some countries that apply the five-year system in the Faculties of Education? Q 4: What are the bases of the development of the Faculty of Education to the five years system?

To answer the questions of the study, the historical approach has been used in many places in order to answer the first, second and third questions. While the

descriptive analytical approach was used through conducting interviews with experts and specialists in the areas of education and professors of the Faculties of Education to get to know their views on the bases on which the development of

the Faculty of Education into the five years system should be built.This is done after studying the challenges facing the process of teacher preparation and reviewing     some  international  experiences  such  as  the  system  of  teacher

preparation in Canada, teacher preparation at the University of Pennsylvania , teacher preparation in the Faculty of Education, University of New England, teacher  preparation  in  Turkey  and  the  system  of  teacher  preparation  at  the

University of Damascus. All these apply the five years system, and answer the fourth question of the study questions.In the end, the outcomes of the study were the  bases  of  the  development  of  the  proposed  project  for  the  Faculties  of

Education five years system that was introduced to a group of arbitrators.