Teacher Training in Latin America

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Teacher Training in Latin America:

Innovations and Trends

Juan Carlos NavarroAimee Verdisco

Inter-American Development Bank

Washington, D.C.

Sustainable Development Department

Technical Paper Series


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Cataloging-in-Publication data provided by the

Inter-American Development BankFelipe Herrera Library

Navarro, Juan Carlos.Teacher training in Latin America : innovations and trends / Juan Carlos Navarro,

Aimee Verdisco..

p. cm. (Sustainable Development Dept. Technical papers series ; EDU-114)Includes bibliographical references.

1. Teachers--Training of--Latin America. 2. Teachers--In-service training--LatinAmerica. I. Verdisco, Aimee. E. II.Inter-American Development Bank. SustainableDevelopment Dept. Education Unit. III. Title. IV. Series.

370.711 N282--dc21

Juan Carlos Navarro is an Education Specialist and Aimee Verdisco is a consultant spe-cializing in education in the Sustainable Development Department. The authors would liketo recognize the contribution of Marcelo Cabrol (Social Programs Specialist, RE2/SO2) tothe research project that made this paper possible. Rich Tobin (American Institute for Re-search) and Jeff Puryear (PREAL) provided valuable comments. Claudio de Moura Castro(SDS Education Advisor) and Katherine Taylor (consultant) provided comments on anearlier draft.

The information and opinions contained in this article are those of the authors and do not

necessarily reflect official position of the Inter-American Development Bank.

August 2000

This publication (No. EDU-114) can be obtained through:

Publications, Education UnitInter-American Development Bank1300 New York Avenue, N.W.Washington, D.C. 20577

E-mail: sds/[email protected]

Fax: 202-623-1558Web site: www.iadb.org/sds/edu


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Foreword

On average, teachers' qualifications in Latin America fall short of what is needed to implement and sus-tain the education reforms under way in most countries. Large investments in teacher training, both pre-service and in-service have been made and will continue to be made by the governments of the region inrecognition of this fact, often with the support of the IDB and other international organizations. This pa-per responds to the growing demand for new approaches to the design of teacher training components ineducation reforms. This demand reflects widespread disappointment with the effectiveness of traditional

methods and the principles upon which they are organized. The paper builds on the existing literature onthe subject around the world but draws its conclusions from eight case studies on innovations in teachertraining in Latin America. The cases include both in-service and pre-service programs, in rural and urbanenvironments and public as well as private initiatives, in different countries.

Rather than focusing on the description and evaluation of specific programs, the paper aims at findingcommon denominatorsor "trends"in new approaches to teacher training. Despite widespread diver-sity in the nature of the programs reviewed, classroom-based training, continuing education, intensive useof group training and supervision, and an attempt to integrate teacher training in the larger framework ofteachers career regulations emerge as clear common features, as well as an awareness of the need toadapt design to particular local conditions and priorities. Issues of cost-effectiveness and scaling up ofinnovations are also taken into consideration.

It is hoped that such trends will be helpful in designing future programs in diverse institutional contexts.The paper may also be useful in facilitating the dialogue between governments, private actors and inter-national organizations on key issues to be addressed when planning investments in teacher training.

Claudio de Moura CastroSenior Education Advisor

Education UnitSustainable Development Department


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Contents

Introduction1

Trends, Not Best Practices2

Current Trends in Teacher Trainingin Latin America

6

Scaling Up and Replicability14

Conclusion18

References

20


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Introduction

Teachers are the main link between societies'expectations of their educational systems andconcrete student outcomes. In Latin America,this link is weak and the quality of teachers andteaching leave much to be desired. Even afterallowing for differences among countries due to

variations in the level of economic developmentand the strength of institutions in the educationsector, most observers would be hard pressed tofind a country satisfied with the capabilities andperformance of its teachers. The profession longago lost the prestige and social status it onceenjoyed. New and often competing requirementsplaced on massive school systems have erodedthe quality of public education. Schools can nolonger afford to have distinguished intellectualsor top-level professionals teaching in their class-rooms.

The "golden era" of teaching is gone for good, ifonly becausefortunatelyso too are the timesof massive illiteracy, education restricted to theelite and low enrollment rates in primary educa-tion in Latin America. Millions of children have

to be educated. Yet this does not automaticallymean, as we have learned at high costs over thepast two or three decades, that the thousands ofadults leading classes throughout the region nec-essarily have the appropriate qualifications toteach. Nor is there necessarily any connection

between appropriate teaching credentials and themotivation and support that are needed to facili-tate and promote the intended task of helpingchildren to learn. The equation for good qualityteaching in education systems of massive scalesthroughout Latin America has yet to be solved.And, from all indications, there are no easy so-lutions or much consensus about where to start.

Through the review of the literature and an ex-amination of various case studies, this paper at-tempts to synthesize recent and promising trends

in the field of teacher training in Latin America.These trends are intended to provide a prelimi-nary indication of the methods and mechanismsof teacher training that can be adapted to meetthe daily challenges of improving learning in theclassrooms.


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Trends, Not Best Practices

There is no one best way to train teachers. Suc-cess is highly sensitive to context. Perennialformulas, by definition, are hard to find. Ourintent is more modest: to identify trends associ-ated with interesting outcomes, if not outrightsuccess.

The approach used in this study is straightfor-ward. Given all the difficulties in determiningwhat works in teacher training, it is increasinglyclear what does not work. As a result, innova-tions explicitly designed to overcome the fail-ures, errors and problems of previous initiativeshave flourished in most countries and educationsystems. In an effort to capture these efforts, theEducation Unit of the IDB, with the support insome cases of other sponsors, commissioned thefollowing eight case studies:1

Teacher training in the context of the Accel-erated Training Program, a privately initi-

ated program applied in the school systemsof several Brazilian states and municipalities(Oliveira, 1998).

The Program for the Continuing Educationof Teachers (PFPD) developed and managedby the school system of Bogota, Colombia(Chiappe and Zuluaga, 1998).

1 The Ministry of Education and Sports of Perusponsored an evaluation of PLANCAD as part of the

background studies for an IDB loan under prepara-tion with the support of Regional Operations De-partment 3, Social Programs Division. The only casestudy fully published before this paper corresponds tothe Castro paper on the Regional Centers in Uruguay,in Vaillant and Wettstein (1999). This volume con-tains additional studies of the case that also have beenvery useful in writing this paper. Selected cases willbe published separately. For more information, con-tact the Education Unit by e-mail atsds/[email protected].

The microcentros for teacher training in ru-ral schools in Chile (Williamson, 1998).

Teacher training in the context of the Edu-cational Technology Program in Costa Rica,a collaborative effort between the OmarDengo Foundation and the Ministry of Edu-cation (Anfossi and Fonseca, 1999).

The Regional Center for Higher Education-ESTIPAC, in Jalisco, Mexico (Limn,1998).

The Regional Centers for Teachers, post-secondary institutions providing a new, in-tensive program of teacher training in Uru-guay (Castro, 1999).

Teacher training in Fe y Alegra, a private,publicly-supported network of Catholic

schools for poor children in Venezuela(Prez Esclarn, 1998).

The Teacher Training Program (Programade Capacitacin Docente, PLANCAD) inPeru, under the responsibility of the Minis-try of Education (Instituto Apoyo, 2000).

This paper provides a first report on the issuesraised and trends detected through the review.2

TEACHERS AS AN ISSUE

OF EDUCATION POLICY

Dealing with teacher issues as a matter of policyhas all the characteristics of the most difficultproblems faced by governments and societies

2 From this point forward, all information and com-ments related to these cases are based on the studies

just listed; unless otherwise noted, references will notbe repeated.


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alike. Such issues are politically and ideologi-cally charged; their financial implications, inalmost any scenario, are huge; and technicaldefinition largely has been weak, loose, andanything but clear-cut and convincingly con-ceptualized.

It is, therefore, not surprising that issues relatedto teachers constitute an underdeveloped field ofeducation and that interventions intended to ad-dress these issues have been less than satisfac-tory. Indeed, more than a few education projectscan be read as quite deliberate attempts to fix allaspects of an education systemfrom infra-structure, to equipment, materials, financialmanagement and technologywith the excep-tion of those dealing with teachers. Few projectsaddress, directly or indirectly, the way teacherswork or live within the system. Important re-forms under way in several countries across theregion explicitly seek to improve the quality ofthe teaching force. Through interventions pro-moting activities such as parental involvement,testing, or school management, it is hoped thataccountability will be enhanced, stakeholderswill be mobilized, and the day-to-day function-ing of the education institutions will be mademore responsive and efficient. Yet, more oftenthan not, these interventions fail to tackle headon such fundamental issues as who teaches, howmuch is taught and how well it is taught.

Investments in teacher training have been theone outstanding exception. Support of teachertraining, particularly in-service, has become aroutine component of major investment pack-ages for the education sector, with or withoutsupport of multilateral organizations. The Inter-American Development Bank, to mention oneexample, has committed funds for teacher train-ing to the point that nearly one of five teachersin the region has been or will be trained in thenear future within the context of a Bank-related

project (Deutsch and Verdisco, 1997).

The priority given to in-service training stemsfrom an almost region-wide recognition that asubstantial share of teachers in each country arepoorly prepared to perform well in the class-room. What pre-service training many may havereceived is likely to have been insufficient orinadequate or both (IDB, 1999; Lockheed and

Verspoor, 1991). Thus, rather than justifyingtraining in the name of "lifelong" or "continu-ous" education per se, the working hypothesiswidely applied throughout Latin America stemsfrom a somewhat different perspective. Trainingis thought to deliver or compensate for whatever

teachers lack in terms of skills, motivation, orknowledge. The particular kinds of in-servicetraining thus provided are seen as a general re-sponse to the failure of teachers to teach at alevel expected by society or as required by agiven set of standards. Yet, by definition, suchresponses have been partial. Training as tradi-tionally and typically delivered tends to treat theteacher in isolation, separate from the largercontexts of the classroom, school, and commu-nity.

DISPELLING THE MYTHS

Training teachers is a daunting task. No country,developed or otherwise, is completely satisfiedwith initiatives implemented in this sphere (seeOECD, 1998). In Latin America, dissatisfactionwith current practices in the field prevails amongeducation specialists and government officials.Widespread adoption of teacher training pro-grams is rarely accompanied by dedicated ef-forts for monitoring and evaluation. No matterhow much training teachers may have receivedin the recent past, serious doubts persist aboutthe effectiveness of such training in affecting theend goal of all initiatives on this front: improv-ing classroom practices in a way consistent withbetter learning. The fact that most societiesacross the region recognize both the need forteacher education and its importance stems fromthe realization that current practices fall short ofexpectations and needs. More often than not,concrete decisions about what and how to de-liver teacher training are fed by interest grouppreferences or are shaped by weak assumptionsand designs (Tatto and Velez, 1997; Skyes,

1997).

Among these weak assumptions and designs isthe common, albeit mostly discredited, notionthat large-scale training programs can operatethrough "cascades." Under this approach, an ini-tial, relatively modest number of teachers aretrained. Once trained, they, in turn, train a sec-ond round of teachers who, in turn, would train a


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third tier and so on (see OECD, 1998). Althoughsound in the abstract, "cascades" have producedless-than-convincing results in practice. Innova-tions in teacher training that lead to improve-ments in student learning are likely to induceifnot outright demand as a prerequisitechanges

in how schools and teachers are managed. Ex-amples abound of well-intentioned and evenwell-financed efforts that fail to produce ex-pected results due to inadequate management,communication, and/or other institutional con-siderations. "Cascade" approaches, unfortu-nately, tend to fall into this group. Their imple-mentation is often truncated by factors otherthan the disposition of teachers to train otherteachers.

Another problematic assumption, still muchalive, is that pre-service training can be im-proved, almost automatically, by pushingteacher training programs from the secondaryschool level (escuela normal) or from short-career status to full university degree programs.The rationale behind such a move is obvious: asthe level of teacher education improves, thequality of teaching also improves. Yet the cor-relation is not perfect. In fact, in more than oneinstance, the policy has led to the loss of quali-fied individuals to more financially rewardingprofessions. Educational systems have been left,on average, with student teachers or teacherswith less exposure to the realities of the class-room than those of previous generations. Bypushing teacher training higher up on the educa-tional ladder, the academic side of learning theprofession becomes further removed from thepractice of teaching in real classrooms. The gapbetween theory and practice widens and teachertraining becomes more abstract and theoreticalin its delivery. Although such delivery can suc-cessfully prepare students for myriad profes-sions, it is not particularly well-suited for pre-paring good teachers. Substantial contact be-

tween theory and practice lies at the heart of ef-fective teaching.

An additional problematic assumption arisesfrom the poor design of incentives. Training of-ten is linked to career advancement and salaryimprovements. But this linkage functions insuch a way that training does little to improveperformance. By focusing both on diplomas or

certificates that teachers accumulate and the la-bel of the training delivered and received, asopposed to its quality, such (misplaced) incen-tives only perpetuate the consequences of sub-standard performance (see IDB, 1999). Indeed,the impact of well-focussed and timely training

can be extremely limited if it is poorly designed.

Teacher training is hardly the kind of field thatlends itself to well-structured, highly deductivetheoretical approaches. It is, like the study ofmanagement, an area in which knowledge ismuch more likely to be developed from experi-ence, trial and error and reflection on practice.Cognitive psychology and pedagogy can helpand have helped but teacher training policy re-quires a more integrated approach that goes farbeyond the particular content of the training tobe carried out to incorporate financial, manage-rial, cultural and economic perspectives andcontributions. These dimensions influence theeventual success or failure of a training pro-gramand finding an adequate combination ofthese dimensions is not an exact science.

INNOVATIVE PROGRAMS

AND IDENTIFIABLE TRENDS

The difficulties in determining what works inteacher training are widely recognized through-out Latin America. Indeed, they have promptedgovernments and education systems alike to de-sign and implement an array of innovations ex-plicitly intended to overcome perceived failuresin training teachers.

The larger research initiative, upon which thispaper is based, employed a broad definition ofinnovation. Cases included in the project dealwith programs for educating teachers that re-sponded to failures in mainstream arrangements.Innovation, accordingly, was understood as thedeliberate response, as seen by those involved in

designing and implementing each program, toperceived failures in existing teaching trainingpractices. Each case had to clearly define theproblem or set of problems in established train-ing practices that the innovation sought to ad-dress. At the outset, it was hypothesized that apossiblealbeit incompletelist of such prob-lems would include:


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Failures in pedagogic methods used to teachteachers: The paradox of teachers beingtaught the latest constructivist approaches byfrontal methods and in a memoristic fashionis well known (OAS, 1998; Calvo, 1997;Tenti, 1997; UNICEF, 1997; World Bank,

1998; Tatto and Velez, 1997).There hasbeen widespread criticism of isolated or in-dividualistic training as opposed to team-based training and of university-basedteacher education as opposed to within-classroom and tutoring approaches (Darling-Hammond, 1992; UNICEF, 1997; WorldBank, 1998; OECD, 1998). The potential oftechnology in teacher training is muchtalked about but it has not been firmly es-tablished (IDB, 1999).

Failures in the content of training: It iscommon to find a mismatch between subjectareas where a clear shortage of quantity orquality of teachers is diagnosed (e.g., math,science and foreign languages), and the sup-ply of training opportunities (Robinson,1996; UNICEF, 1997; IDB, 1999). Simi-larly, teachers that are likely to face disad-vantaged or culturally diverse studentgroups are often introduced to teachingtechniques appropriate for relatively privi-leged or homogenous groups of children(Tatto and Velez, 1997; Darling-Hammondand Cobb, 1996; OECD, 1998).

Failures in the impact of training: The ef-fectiveness of many programs vis--visteaching practices or classroom activities

has been nil or extremely short lived (Har-bison and Hanushek, 1992; Tenti, 1997).Trained teachers often revert quickly to oldhabits and training activities have little ef-fect on their motivation and ability to use theinnovation or good practices they were ex-

posed to during training.

Failures in integrating teacher training intothe larger context of education policy and

institutions: Teachers often receive trainingas a means of advancing in their careers orof satisfying a given legal requirement. Inmany instances, however, training is treatedin a superficial or formalistic manner. Pre-vailing incentive structures lead teachers toaccumulate diplomas or certificates, not toacquire substantive education. There is little,

if any, connection between the diploma orcertificate received and the use of new skillsor techniques in the classroom (OECD,1998).

Beyond innovation, the criteria for the selectionof cases were broad. In order to be included, acase had to present an innovation responding toone or more of the deficiencies most commonlyobserved in teacher training in the region today.This was a key characteristic of the researchstrategy: it was precisely through the observa-tion of such cases that good practices could beidentified. It was through observation, in turn,that we were able to judge how interesting, ef-fective, or feasible an innovation was or hasbeen in correcting a problem found in teachertraining programs.


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Current Trends in Teacher Training in Latin America

In what follows, we highlight and briefly de-scribe what we see as main trends in innovationin teacher training. Trends are defined as com-mon denominators, particular features or oper-ating principles that have been identified in allor several of the cases and abstracted from theiroriginal programmatic context to become an in-carnation of best practice. For purposes of pres-entation, the trends are intentionally organized.They start with the most generally accepted, ap-plicable and incorporated in literally all pro-grams under consideration and decrease by thedegree of consensus or likely applicability. Thissection leads into a discussion of feasibility; thepaper ends with a brief conclusion.

TREND No. 1:

CLASSROOM-BASED TRAINING

The literature dating from the last decade indi-cates that effective in-service programs are those

that focus on the practical needs of teachers inclassrooms (Wolff, Schieffelbein and Valen-zuela, 1994; OCED, 1998; Tatto and Velez,1997; Oliveira and Farrell, 1993; American Fed-eration of Teachers, 1998; Craig et al., 1998).This is confirmed by our (admittedly limited)review of innovations in the region. The mostbasic trend shared by the cases surveyed appearsto be that effective teacher training, pre-serviceor in-service, is classroom based. The correla-tion is direct: the sooner student teachers comeinto contact with real-life situations associated

with professional practice, and the longer thiscontact is maintained, the more effective thetraining.

Fe y Alegra3 in Venezuela provides a good ex-

ample of the benefits of classroom-based ap-

3 Fe y Alegra, a private network of Catholic schoolsfor the poor operating in more than a dozen countries

proaches. Teachers are trained through teaching.Schools are perceived and utilized as learningenvironments, broadly defined, where teacherslearn by doing and through examples providedby peers or experienced teachers and supervi-sors.

The everyday challenges of the classroom andthe lesson material become key training tools.This emphasis is deliberate. It aims to counteractthe "learned disability" of new teacherstrainedby law4at post-secondary institutions(university-level schools of education or tertiarylevel pedagogic institutes). As alluded to above,training teachers at the tertiary level is (oftenerroneously) assumed to improve the quality ofteaching. In some cases, including that of Fe yAlegra, this shift effectively removes mostcontact between the academic side of learningthe profession and the practice of teaching inclassrooms.

Since its inception, Fe y Alegra has beengrounded in the realities of the classroom. In-deed, prior to their closing, the normalistas pro-vided training that was applied in nature. Stu-dent teachers were immersed from the start intothe realities and challenges presented by theclassroomareas which, to the judgment of theFe y Alegra system, currently receive far toolittle attention in the nation's universities andpedagogical institutes. The training providedthrough Fe y Alegra thus seeks to reintroduce

in Latin America, has a long history of involvementin teacher training both pre-service and in-service.These activities can be traced back to 1960 and thefounding of the first normalista of the Fe y Alegrasystem in Caracas.

4 Article 77 of theLey Orgnica de Educacinclosed the nation's normal schools, pushing teachertraining up to the level of higher education.


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the practice- and community-oriented methodsof teaching lostthrough training at the universitylevel.

This type of approach is not unique to Fe y Ale-gra. Many programs, including the innovations

examined here, emphasize early immersion inclassroom practice.5 ESTIPAC, a pre-serviceprogram in Jalisco, Mexico, trains teachers forrural schools. It includes classroom practice asearly as the first semester of training. These ex-periences are videotaped and used as the foun-dation for group discussions and feedback. TheProgram for the Continuing Education of Teach-ers (PFPD) in Bogota, Colombia similarly em-phasizes classroom teaching and learning. Theprogram is centered around reflection on thepractice of teaching rather than around abstractlecturing on teaching methods and pedagogy.The Accelerated Learning Program in Braziloffers yet another example. The program'screator uses the expression "learn as you teach"to describe its teacher training components. De-spite the fact that the program's primarily focusis not teacher training per se (but rather on re-ducing rates of repetition and dropout; discussedin further detail ahead), it includes highly struc-tured elements for teachers. These elementsguide program implementation and, through im-plementation, train teachers: teachers receivetraining as they implement the program.

Emphasis on classroom practice should not beconfused with the abandonmentassuming for amoment it takes placeof good preparation insubject knowledge. As a trend, the emphasis onclassroom practice injects a dose of reality intothe training process. The trend contrasts not only

5 Other examples abound. Of particular note are theProfessional Development Schools (PDSs) in theUnited States. These schools form the last year in a

five-year program of teacher education. Studentteachers spend this fifth year in the classroom,teaching alongside expert practitioners. The PDSs runparallel to in-service activities making use of "vet-eran" teachers or veteran-teachers-turned-administrators as mentors for incoming teachers. Fora more detailed discussion see: Darling-Hammondand McLaughlin, 1996; American Federation ofTeachers, 1998; National Commission on Teachingand Americas Future, 1996; Fideler and Haselkorn,1999; and OECD, 1998.

with teacher training removed from the realitiesof the classroom but, above all, with the ex-cesses of endless theoretical courses and mod-ules of pedagogy, educational planning or re-lated subjects that regularly consume the lion'sshare of teachers' time in pre- and in-service

programs. The idea is one of value added: valueadded in terms of how to apply theoreticalknowledge to concrete situations and to the stu-dents in the classroom. The emphasis on class-room practice thus complements competency insubject knowledge. Indeed, it is in this respectthat the trend appears in each of the innovationsexamined here.

TREND No. 2:

EFFECTIVE TEACHER EDUCATION

AS CONTINUING EDUCATION

All the cases examined for the purposes of thispaper tend to blur the distinction between pre-service and in-service training. Pre-service, asnoted above, increasingly includes early immer-sion in classroom practice; in-service, for itspart, increasingly is connected to academic in-stitutions that reach beyond their walls to de-velop close relationships with schools. Twopractical implications of these trends emerge.For one, pre-service training tends to becomeshorter in duration. For example, the Centros Regionales de Profesores, CERPs (post-secondary institutions), a pre-service programrecently developed in Uruguay by the Adminis-tracin Nacional de Educacin Pblica (NationalPublic Education AdministrationANEP),trains middle and high school level teachers inthree years; this compares to the four or evenfive years now common in most countries in theregion. Rather than offering a program of 20hours per week stretched over many years, as thetraditional system does, CERP is a 40-hours perweek program. "The change from 20 to 40 hoursis more than the arithmetic of reducing in half

the total time. Forty hours plus boarding is thedifference between a school and a 'total institu-tion' A total institution is what seminaries andarmy barracks are about. It is the total capture ofthe participant" (Castro, 1999).

Second, in-service training becomes longer.Rather than a single event, training is seen as acontinuous process. Each of the innovations ex-


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amined in this study shows definite movementin this direction. Training is conceived and usedas a means for developing teachers' capacity forself-reflection and professional decision-makingin the classroom. Such skills lay a foundation foreffective teaching. They are applicable regard-

less of curriculum or student population. Oncedeveloped, it is precisely these skills that arereinforced by continuous nurturing.

Many of the innovations examined in this studyreflect these considerations. In contexts such asColombia (Chiappe and Zuluaga, 1998), Vene-zuela (Prez Esclarn, 1998) and the rural areasof Chile (Williamson, 1998), the linking oftraining to career advancement and salary in-creases proved to be a powerful, albeit mis-placed, incentive for teachers to accumulate di-plomas and certificates. The training-credentiallinkage rendered any notion of quality or qualitycontrol meaningless. Simply put, it was thequantity of training that matteredand the morethe better. Training was an all but direct route tosalary increases and career advancement. Therewas little, if any, guarantee that the training re-ceived was relevant or that what was learnedwas implemented in the classroom. Trainingremained an event-driven process.

The PFPD in Colombia was created with theexplicit aim of developing an in-service alterna-tive to the proliferation of short, poor qualitycourses for teachers largely disconnected fromthe practical concerns of teachers in classroomsettings. The program stresses the continuousnature of in-service training. Training lasts for aminimum of one year and teachers are requiredto enroll in a new program every three or fouryears. In much the same vein, training activitiesdeveloped within the context of the Microcen-tros Program in Chile sought, among other ob- jectives, to overcome the lack of continuity intraining and to do away with the emphasis on the

accumulation of meaningless diplomas that waspart and parcel of traditional teacher trainingstrategies. Fe y Alegra, as described above, in-corporates and implements similar types of ac-tivities, as does the PLANCAD in Peru. Thisprogram emphasizes follow-up and support ac-tivities well beyond formal training courses.Teachers receive at least four individual class-room visits during the six months immediately

following their training and participate in twoadditional follow-up meetings with their peers insimilar situations. These activities are expectedto become permanent components of an integralsystem of teacher education in the (near) future.

Applications of technology in the field ofteacher training reinforce the trend toward con-tinuous teacher education. The EducationalTechnology Program in Costa Rica, first imple-mented in 1987 and continuing to date, providesa good example of such uses of technology.6

Conceived within a constructionist framework,the program is in-service and computer based.Computers are used as tools "with which tothink" and with which to structure and link in-tellectual tasks, technical competencies, andpedagogical skills. Training is provided throughmodules (unidades de capacitacin) and adaptedto the needs and abilities of the given targetgroup; content difficulty and the intensity oftechnology increase progressively. Each trainingmodule integrates a variety of platforms andmedia. Information technology allows for con-stant communication among teachers and be-tween teachers and facilitators; facilitation andmonitoring are usually delivered electronically.7

6 The emphasis on teachers is illustrated, in part, bythe distribution of program resources. Investments intraining and pedagogical support (32.4 percent) havenearly equaled investments in equipment (36.2 per-cent).

7 It should be noted that evaluations of the use ofinstructional technologies to train teachers suggestthat technology cannot replace face-to-face contact.A generalized notion arising from the literature alsosuggests that distance education (a key application oftechnology to teacher training) is better suited forupgrading subject knowledge and disseminating newinformation than for changing classroom behavior orteaching practical subjects. See, for example, Robin-

son, 1996. It should be further noted that applicationsof technologies other than computersparticularlyvideoare in used in Brazil, Mexico and Chile. Re-view of these cases indicates that such technologies,when combined with other innovative trends (e.g.,classroom-based training; group training), improvethe quality of training provided. The CAPACITAR(in Brazil; discussed below), ESTIPAC andMicro-centros programs regularly use video as a basis forcritical discussion of how teachers and student teach-ers teach.


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The introduction of technology into the teach-ing-learning process changes traditional patternsof teacher training. Training is no longer boundto fixed schedules or physical spaces of instruc-tion. Rather, teachers are free to enter intotraining on their own and at their convenience.

They can receive training as often as they log onto their computers.

This situation has implications for the manage-ment of training. To a certain extent, it is theindividual teacher, as opposed to the school orthe educational authorities, who decides whentraining will occur. Training thus becomes anissue of time management for teachers and, inso-far as it is not an issue of staff management forschools, implementation can be relatively easy.The Educational Technology Program, for ex-ample, is neither management nor time intensivefor school administrators. Training activities are,literally, taking place all the time for differentteachers. Yet, from the point of view of admini-stration, there are economies of scale: the ad-ministrative burden varies little if one or allteachers participate in these sessions.

TREND No. 3:

GROUP TRAINING AND NETWORKING

Most of the innovations reviewed here are or-ganized around work groups. By providing"critical friends" to examine and reflect onteaching and opportunities to share experiencesassociated with efforts to develop new practicesor strategies, these groupsstructured asteacher-to-teacher networksbecome powerfullearning tools.8 Depending on the compositionof the group, the training delivered responds di-rectly to the needs of a particular school and itsteachers. This is consistent with the approacheshighlighted above. For example, prior to ap-proval of any PFDP, teacher training must beintegrated into the Proyecto Educativo Institu-cional (Institutional Education ProjectPEI),

8 This trend, as others, extends beyond the eight casesanalyzed. Group training is paramount in experienceslike the Teacher Actualization Centers in Mexico (seeTatto and Velez, 1997); teacher clusters in Thailandand Balochistan (Schaefer, 1993; Craig et al., 1998)and School Learning Action Cells in the Philippines(Schaefer, 1993).

which was developed with the participation ofgroups of teachers of the respective school. Inmuch the same vein, rather than pulling togetherteachers from different schools, training pro-vided through the Fe y Alegra system engagesgroups of teachers in the same school. In the

Accelerated Learning (Brazil) and PLANCAD(Peru) programs, teachers participate in a rangeof networking activities, including follow upmeetings, e-mail or regular mail exchanges (bothcountries) and peer-directed meetings (Brazil).Moreover, for those who also have access to theCAPACITAR Program,9 weekly teacher-directed and focussed meetings are used towatch and discuss these videos and the goodpractices they present.

The Microcentros experience in Chile consti-tutes a particularly notable application of thegroup-training notion. In addition to the benefitsnetwork-based training brings to teachers, theprogram serves to break the isolation of teachersin rural areas. Despite the fact that rural teachersface many of the same issues as their urbancounterparts, many challengesincluding mul-tigrade teaching, overage students and limitedresourcesare exacerbated by professional iso-lationism. Indeed, isolation contributes toteacher absenteeism and high rates of turnover(Tatto and Velez, 1997; ERIC, 1994; Robinson,1996; Williamson, 1998).

The Microcentros Program departs from theseconsiderations. Created by the Ministry of Edu-cation through the rural component of its Pro-gram to Improve the Quality and Equity of Edu-cation (MECE/RURAL), the program empha-sizes training through communication. Micro-centros are not physical locations but ratherteacher-directed and focussed seminars held at

9

CAPACITAR, a distance education program forteacher training created by the Sistema Pitgoras deEnsino in Brazil, is available, albeit at a cost, toteachers and schools participating in the AcceleratedLearning Program. CAPACITAR profiles high per-formance teachers in their classrooms. Through its 12modules, supported by printed materials and tapes,CAPACITAR introduces a given topic, explains thepedagogy behind it, and provides a demonstration ofits implementation in an actual classroom with stu-dents (see Oliveira, 1998).


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the initiative of interested teachers and super-vised by provincial representatives. The forumestablished by Microcentros give rural teachers,many of whom work at single-teacher schools,an opportunity to exchange experiences, take on joint projects, and otherwise learn from each

other. Issues discussed address concrete con-cerns arising from the classroom; solutions aresimilarly grounded and are based on the experi-ence ofMicrocentro participants.

TheMicrocentros have had a noticeable impacton methods used in rural classrooms. Teachersmake intensive use of work groups and bring agreater variety of materials and student-orientedstrategies to the classroom. Students seem to belearning more and rates of repetition and dropouthave decreased. The program also appears to beincreasing rates of teacher retention. In additionto providing a forum for discussion and training,the Microcentros provide platforms for the or-ganization and participation of rural teachers(e.g., the National Organization of Rural Teach-ers, which later became the National Departmentof Rural Teachers of the Colegio de Profesores).Through such collective action, rural teachershave increased their salaries, restructured thefinancing of some rural schools, and opened thedoors to exchange programs abroad.

TREND No. 4:

INTENSIVE USE OF PEDAGOGICSUPPORT AND SUPERVISION

Supervisory mechanisms lie at the heart of pro-gram success in many cases. Supervisors play anactive role throughout the training exercises andsupervision, in turn, is used to provide encour-agement and constructive feedback. In most in-stances, supervisors are former teachers, a re-quirement in the Chilean and Venezuelan cases.The benefits of this arrangement are many:teachers-turned-supervisors assume their tasks

with first-hand knowledge of the classroom andof the daily challenges that teachers face. To alarge extent, they are able to approach their workas peers and tutors, rather than government bu-reaucrats or other "outsiders" with limitedknowledge and experience of the realities of theteaching profession.

Under the Fe y Alegra approach, supervision iscontinuous, used to provide input into theteacher-learning process as well as into proc-esses of school-wide planning. Considerably lessimportance is placed on monitoring and supervi-sion per se. Supervisors, responsible for facili-

tating (as opposed to directing) processes oftraining within the schools, serve as pedagogicalrole models for teachers in service.

Supervision drives Brazil's Accelerated LearningProgram. In fact, if any program deserves thelabel of "supervision-intensive," it is this one.Supervisors are chosen from among participat-ing teachers and there is one supervisor forevery ten teachers.10 Each makes a four-hourvisit to every classroom every week, 40 times ayear. In much the same manner as their Fe yAlegra counterparts, these professionals aretrained to provide constructive feedback toteachers, meeting with those under their supervi-sion twice a month. Such meetings are partici-patory and collegial in nature. Under guidancefrom the supervisor, teachers exchange ideas andexperiences with others. Supervision, accord-ingly, serves as a mechanism to train and coachteachers within a structured setting. Most teach-ers find that this is an effective strategy.

These programs are making major contributionstoward a radically new definition of supervisionthat preserves little, if any, of traditional super-visory practices so common and so often mean-ingless, repressive or even corrupt in mostcountries across the region. Under this new defi-nition, supervisor-tutors become key sources ofon-site pedagogic support for teachers, bothwithin the school and within the community. Inthe case ofFe y Alegra, they participate in thelife of the school, providing input into annualplanning processes and solutions to school-wideproblems (e.g., malnutrition or learning disabili-ties in poor children; lack of resources; etc.).

Supervisors also develop close links to theircommunities, providing an institutional linkbetween teachers, administrators and interested10 During the first year of program operation, super-visors were personally appointed by and directly an-swerable to mayors. Training was provided by theCentro Tecnolgico de Brasilia, a private, nonprofiteducational organization providing technical assis-tance to the program.


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parties outside school walls. Frequently, thesenew networks clash with more traditional net-works of supervisors, producing debilitating ef-fects on the effectiveness of training. Teachersparticipating in PLANCAD, for example, com-plain that insofar as regional supervisors do not

share their training in new pedagogic ap-proaches, advice regarding good practices in theclassroom varies, even conflicts. This serves as areminder of the difficulties involved with tryingto move the pieces of the teacher training ma-chine in unison.

TREND No. 5:

INTEGRATION OF TRAINING INTOTHE LARGER FRAMEWORK OF

TEACHER CAREER REGULATIONS

AND INCENTIVES

The original purpose of allocating "points" tosalary scales or career ladders was to achieveprecisely this type of integration. Indeed, thelarger policy framework for career advancementand mobility all but revolved around the pointsteachers collected for (typically) training hoursreceived or accumulating certificates. Yet suchan incentive structure often proved misplaced,generating mediocre or substandard practicesand a creating "credentialism" of sorts. By fo-cusing on the external signals of training ratherthan on its content or effects, training becameinseparable from personal advancement, withthe former being a necessary and sufficient con-dition of the latter. The result was an overabun-dance of low-quality teacher training initiativeswhich (mis)focussed the minds of teachers onfulfilling formal requirements rather than on at-taining substantive goals. Teachers had everyincentive to obtain training but, rather than do-ing so to improve performance, the emphasis onthe accumulation of points and credits droveteachers to seek training opportunities for thenumber of points they awarded. It was the end

(the credits) not the process (training) that mat-tered, and any link to quality or performanceseemed to get lost somewhere in between.

Examples of misplaced incentive structuresabound. In Ecuador and the Dominican Repub-lic, teachers received training when they came tothe central (ncleo) offices to pick up their pay-checksa situation which, upon evaluation, was

found to epitomize the situation describedabove. Teachers enrolled in training activities asa condition of their pay; few implemented whatthey learned in the classroom or were motivatedto look for other relevant training opportuni-ties.11 Similar examples can be found in the

United States and across Europe (see Morgan,1997; Knott, 1997; Skyes, 1997). Simply re-quiring teachers to take "continuing educationunits" over summer or winter holidays or on al-lotted days, or linking continuing education unitsto increases in pay does not automatically leadto any changes in teaching behavior or strate-gies.

Several of the innovations reviewed here includeactivities to restructure the role of incentives inteacher training programs. Under the PFPD Pro-gram, teachers are awarded points only aftercompleting a year-long training program pre-approved for content and relevancy. The per-verse effect of a "point system" thus is offset bythe strict regulation of the quality and content ofthe training supplied. Notably, however, thisregulatory mechanism does not seem to stifle thechoice of training activities. By relying on quali-fied third parties (private and public institutions)to deliver the training, PFPDs allow for, andeven encourage, diversity in subject area andmethodology.

Fe y Alegra, in turn, has developed its trainingactivities in a way consistent with the recruit-ment and selection practices of its school net-work. New teachers enter through a competitiveselection process involving both a written examand an interview with the school principal. Ifselected, they then receive a one-year appoint-ment. During this time, novices are evaluatedand observed. They also receive tutoring andstrong support from supervisors and other peda-gogic support personnel in the school. If, at theend of the first year, their evaluation is positive,

a full contract is granted and novices, like themore seasoned teachers, continue to receivetraining through the Fe y Alegra system. Thiscombined training/recruiting/selection procedure

11 See Basic Education Improvement Program inEcuador (EC-0035) and Basic Education Improve-ment Program in the Dominican Republic (DR-0122), both of which were Bank projects.


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has gained considerable recognition. Employersin the public sector or other private schools con-sider it to be a strong indication of good teachingability when seeking candidates for jobs in theirown schools.

The CERP Program in Uruguay provides one ofthe most striking illustrations of recent innova-tions linking training and career-oriented inter-ventions. The fact that it was the public sector(operating under myriad political constraintslittle known in private school networks) that ini-tiated this program makes it all the more re-markable.

The CERP strategy seeks to reform teachers'recruitment, compensation and career patterns.Through a series of incentives, the programmakes teaching more attractive to talentedyouth, overcoming the syndrome of teaching asthe career choice of last resort that prevailsthroughout the region.12 The CERPs offer fullfellowships to half of the students and food sub-sidies to an additional 20 percent. Upon gradua-tion, students are assigned a school or, in otherwords, they finish pre-service training with aguaranteed teaching position. This structure hasproduced notable results. It has drastically re-duced dropout rates (which were on the order of40 to 50 percent in Uruguay) to below 5 percentduring the first year (Castro, 1999). These re-ductions, in turn, increase the cost-effectivenessof training. The per student cost of the new pro-gram is estimated to be 20 times less than thoseassociated with the old program (Ibid.).

Before moving on, it is worth noting that thistrend of integrating teacher training into thelarger policy framework crosses the line fromquite universally accepted practice into the ter-ritory of less than universally accepted or

12

Preliminary data from a six-country study onteachers careers and incentives (SDS/EDU, OCE,Red de Centros, forthcoming) indicate that those en-tering the teaching profession are overwhelminglyfemale, single, and from households with levels ofincome and education generally lower than those ofcandidates entering other fields of university study.In the case of Uruguay, there is some indication thatthe CERPs are attracting some students from house-holds with higher income and educational levels (seeANEP, 1999).

adopted approaches. It is interesting to note thatthe Accelerated Training Program, in contrast tothe cases just described, characterizes itself as a"surgical intervention." Operating on the "sur-face," it leaves all rules and regulations govern-ing schools and the teaching profession in place.

The program is weakly linked to larger issues ofcareer regulations or incentives. From the pointof view of its proponents, this stands out as avirtue. The program can be readily applied with-out the need for more ambitious and politicallydifficult educational reforms. Incentives thusoperate in a different way. Participation in theprogram is voluntary, both for teachers andschools. The highly motivated are the first toparticipate. These, in turn, also are most likely tobe successful and, it is their success that moti-vates others to follow.

These findings are consistent with the basicpremise of this paper. There is no single bestway to solve the complex puzzle of teachertraining. What works in Catholic schools forpoor children in Venezuela or in the publicschools of Bogota may be neither appropriatenor relevant for municipal schools in the North-eastern of Brazil that are battling high rates ofrepetition. Yet, there is a common denominator.This trend points to a new sophistication on thepart of policymakers to consider and apply in-centives. It is underpinned and driven by astrong awareness of counterproductive outcomesthat have resulted from the (often misplaced)incentives built into traditional teacher trainingarrangements. It is this awareness, not the par-ticular approach or design of incentives, thateach of the cases examined here share.

TREND No. 6:

TRAINING AS A RESPONSE TO SOCIAL

AND EDUCATIONAL PRIORITIES AT

THE LOCAL LEVEL

Several of the innovations share the commontrait of being linked closely to their social andeducational contexts. Indeed, those involved inrunning these programs see this closeness as akey to program effectiveness. Training is effec-tive when: the challenges faced in a particulartime and place are well understood; the teachers,students and schools toward which training isdirected are correctly profiled; and the education


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system is structured in a way that lends recipro-cal support (e.g., from the surrounding commu-nity) to the training activities provided.

The Microcentros in Chile, for instance, wereconceived at a time when urban schools were

receiving strong support through channels thatwere not appropriate for rural schools. TheCERP Program, to cite a further example, wascreated with the explicit objective of trainingteachers from and in the country's interior (seeANEP, 1999). Prior to CERP's creation, therewas only one teacher training college (Institutode Profesores Artigas) located in Montevideo.The CERP Program led to the establishment offive regional centers, each catering to studentsfrom and in its immediate and surrounding de-partments.

The Accelerated Learning Program, for its part,was designed within the context of a larger proj-ect to tackle high rates of repetition and theirdirect consequence, the abundance of overagechildren in the Brazilian schools. Yet, in imple-menting a series of activities targeted toward thisgoal, the program addresses another problem,namely the low level of teacher preparation. TheAccelerated Learning Program deliberatelyavoids massive efforts in teacher training.Teachers are trained as they implement the pro-gram's highly structured activities. This strategyhas proved to be both an innovative approach totraining and an innovative response to local cir-cumstances.

The Accelerated Learning Program targetsteachers in the lower primary grades (1 to 4). InBrazil, these teachers usually receive training atthe secondary school or escuela normal level.The highly structured components of the pro-gram directly respond to this (comparatively)low level of preparation. Through the imple-mentation of these components, teachers are

guided from start to finish, step by step, throughvarious activities. The highly structured natureallows teachers, regardless of their level ofpreparation, to methodically implement a pro-gram that has been shown to increase studentcomprehension and reduce rates of repetition.The room for teacher improvisation thus is re-duced, as is the probability of failure. Training ison-the-job. It comes through a combination of

high quality support materials, short pre-serviceactivities to introduce the program, and intensivesupervision. These components work becausethey are tailored to the clienteles, both teachersand students, and targeted to the clearly definedobjectives of reducing rates of repetition and the

number of overage students in lower grades.

A similar approach can be found in the ES-TIPAC Program, a private, pre-service programthat targets rural teachers. Its course work is de-signed to meet the needs of rural schools andteachers. Students are drawn from across thecountry, with indigenous peoples comprisingapproximately 20 percent of the student popula-tion. Upon completion of course work, all stu-dents are expected to return to teach in their na-tive villages or in other rural areas.

Unlike many other pre-service programs acrossthe region, the ESTIPAC Program (like theCERP Program in Uruguay) is residential. Dur-ing their stay, students are completely immersedin the realities of the rural life and the life of thecommunity. This is a key component of the pro-gram. Immersion is seen as a way of better pre-paring teachers to face the challenges of teach-ing in rural Mexico. From the onset of theirstudies, students face issues that affect not onlythe classroom, but also transcend school walls,such as poverty, malnutrition, and variableschool time due to the cultivation and harvestingof crops. These issues are reflected in and ad-dressed through the curricula, all of which com-bine academics with community developmentand rural production, linking the school with thecommunity. Indeed, as students learn and gainboth knowledge and experience, they are ex-pected to serve those around them (e.g., throughcourses on literacy and health education; agri-cultural production, etc.).

The ESTIPAC approach is proactive. Exposure

to the realities of teaching in rural areas providesstudents with firsthand knowledge and experi-ence of the conditions and issues that they willconfront as teachers. This exposure, in turn, isexpected to reduce rates of teacher turnover andabsenteeism which, particularly in rural areas,correlate with a lack of relevant preparation.Such preparation also is seen as a measure toreduce emigration to urban areas.


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Scaling Up and Replicability

In analyzing innovations in Brazil, Castro (1998)suggests the analysis of several factors in orderto assess whether a given innovation can be ex-tended beyond its original scope and context.These factors are important considerations inany discussion about replicability or large-scaleapplications of innovations. Prominent amongthem are costs and robustness.

Cost considerations generally conspire againstinnovations in teacher training. Even if informedwith the best-possible policy advice, the imple-mentation of innovations like those reviewedhere may be considered to be too costly to befeasible. When dealing with large-scale projects,the tendency is to err on the conservative side.Those responsible for developing a massiveteacher training program often prefer to workwith clear costs and familiar programs, avoidingthe risks and unpredictability of innovative ap-proaches.

Many innovations remain in pilot stages or arelimited to individual states or school systems. Asa result, many are believed to be expensive andthus not amenable to the budgetary constraintsfacing ministries across the region. Equity issuesalso complicate matters, in that innovations mayrequire slower or technically demanding imple-mentation arrangements that tend to conspireagainst the needs of teachers and schools locatedin isolated, remote or underprivileged areas. Un-der these conditions, if a high number of teach-

ers (or all of them) are in need of training, deci-sionmakers are likely to opt for traditionallower-cost alternatives.

However, the cost data available from the inno-vations reviewed here do not suggest they areoverly expensive. Costs of the AcceleratedLearning Program (not only what we may iden-tify as the teacher training components, but the

whole "package" referred to above) range fromUS$60 to US$200 per student, depending on thecomponents included. These figures are consis-tent with the standard benchmark of US$200 perteacher trained through a traditional program.The CERPs in Uruguay are considerably moreexpensive (US$3,500-4,000/year, US$2,500-3,000 of which represents room and board). Yet,the higher operating costs arising from the in-

centives provided to students are more thancompensated by the lower dropout rates: the per-student cost of the program is estimated to be 20times less than the traditional program (Castro,1999).

In the end, of course, the discussion should re-volve around issues of cost-effectiveness, ratherthan only costs. Training a teacher through aPFPD in Bogota costs an average of US$600,well above the standard cost of traditional train-ing. When the prospect of a full year of training

that includes an academically strong, well-focused, competitively selected and innovativeprogram is taken into consideration, however, itceases to be overly expensive. In fact, for theeducation authorities in Bogota responsible forits adoption, the program appeared cost-effective: (cheaper) traditionally conceivedteacher training has been highly ineffective inchanging teachers practices.

Several of the programs reviewed (e.g., the Uru-guayan CERPs, Colombian PFDP, and the Bra-

zilian training within the Accelerated LearningProgram) are too recent to allow for a fullevaluation or, more specifically, to permit a se-rious look at whether the changes introduced inclassroom practices are producing the desiredimpact on learning. In the case of older pro-grams, there has been little done to date in thedirection of full impact evaluationa researchenterprise beyond the scope of this paper.


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Nonetheless, some information is available andcan be used to formulate tentative conclusions.

The Accelerated Learning Program in Brazil hasbeen implemented statewide in Minas Geraisand Maranho and in an additional 24 munici-

palities in other states. The program has reachedmassive scales, covering approximately 200,000students and about 8,000 teachers (Oliveira,1998). As noted above, the program promotesand encourages changes in teaching methods.Through and with these methods, overage stu-dents become accelerated learners. Upon thesuccessful completion of the program, they canskip two academic years, often catching up withtheir peers. And, once caught up, these studentsseem to be able to hold their own. A standard-ized national test applied to "graduates" of theprogram in 1997 indicated that their perform-ance was average for fourth-grade students. Akey test of program effectiveness will comewhen teachers participating in the Program re-turn to regular classrooms at the first grade level(a process which is now in progress).13 Even inthe absence of these data, however, the benefitscoming from reduced rates of repetition suggestthat the program is producing the desired impactand doing so in a cost-effective manner.

The Microcentros Program has expanded itscoverage of rural schools from 100 in 1991 tofull coverage in 1997 (4,201 schools, 18,200teachers and 333,540 students). Initially fi-nanced with the support of the World Bank,funds for program operation now come from theChilean government. A full evaluation of theimpact on learning is pending, yet indications ofsuccess abound: the elimination of frontal, tradi-tional chalk-and-talk methods in rural schools;decreases in repetition and dropout rates; andimprovements in test scores (although studentachievement in urban schools continues to behigher). In this case, the cause-and-effect rela-

tionship remains far from clear. Some improve-

13Teachers are encouraged to remain in the programfor two to three years and, upon completion, to be-come first-grade teachers. Through the implementa-tion of methods and strategies learned through theprogram at the first-grade level, it is hoped that pre-vailing patterns of repetition will be overcome andthat a pedagogy of success will replace the prevailingpedagogy of failure.

ments in teaching could be seen as a conse-quence of more general investments in ruralschools and, in the absence of impact andevaluation data, few definitive conclusions re-garding the effectiveness of training, in and ofitself, can be offered. Similar stories can be told

of the ESTIPAC, Fe y Alegra and the EducationTechnology Programs.

This paper, as has been made clear from the out-set, has focussed on what the innovations indi-cate, teach, or illustrate about desirable charac-teristics of teacher training. By concentrating onthe principles incorporated in the programs, ithas paid considerably less attention to the struc-ture and functioning of individual programs.Thus any one of several factors, few of whichhave fallen within the scope of this study, canfrustrate replicability. For example, in the casethe Fe y Alegra, it may be the approach's closeties to the Catholic Church, its unique manage-ment style at the school level, and/or any otherof its idiosyncratic characteristics that render itsreplication pointless in other systems. Thisshould not preclude us from recognizing thevalue of classroom- and group-based trainingprograms, especially if the same characteristicscan be observed in other interesting and seem-ingly cost-effective programs. It is this valuethat trends identified throughout this paper havesought to highlight. Robustness, then, becomesless of a concern. Trends can be combined andpackaged in multiple ways, as dictated by localconditions.

That said, some interesting findings do arisefrom the cases. Evaluation of the PLANCADProgram in Peru calls attention to the fact thatinnovative programs may not be able to take forgranted the particular institutional context andresources that they need for the training ofteachers to proceed as expected. The case de-serves special consideration given the fact that it

is the only example of an innovative programimplemented at a massive scale in our selectionof cases.14 Rather than delivering training di-rectly through the Ministry of Education (which

14 PLANCAD's stated goal was the training of129,029 primary school teachers in pedagogic tech-niques between 1995 and 2000. By 1999, 75 percentof this goal had been reached.


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is responsible for the program), training inPLANCAD is delivered through contractual ar-rangements with universities, technological col-leges and nongovernmental organizations. Theseinstitutions, after submitting applications fortraining contracts and surviving a competitive

selection process, are given guidelines and in-structions about the kind of training to be pro-moted, new pedagogic orientations and curricu-lum. Upon receipt of contract, the institutionsthen assume responsibility for delivering thetraining courses and for conducting follow-upactivities.

This design constitutes a deliberate attempt toavoid a "cascade" strategy while allowing theeducational system to benefit from expertise andinnovations found outside the Ministry of Edu-cation. Yet, countrywide implementation hasproved somewhat problematic. The supply ofsuitable, quality organizations willing and ableto deliver good teacher training has been morelimited than anticipated, creating sharp varia-tions in the quality of training received by dif-ferent groups of teachers.15 Coordinationmechanisms to fine-tune the programs plannedby the government have taken longer than ex-pected to go into effect and the technical andpedagogical skills of the intermediary entitiesoften have been found wanting. In addition,given the uneven availability of suitable trainingorganizations across Peru, training has not beendelivered timely or satisfactorily to all depart-ments and provinces (Instituto Apoyo, 2000).

Other findings arise from the AcceleratedLearning Program. Oliveira (1998) notes that theprogram's effectiveness varies as a function ofhow components are structured and imple-mented. For example, financial constraints inMaranho led to a less intense level of supervi-sion than in Minas Gerais. This has had a no-ticeable impact on results. In Maranho, on av-

15 This is reflected in part by the fact that more than70 percent of the institutions applying to participatein the program as training organizations were suc-cessfula situation which can be interpreted as a lowlevel of selectivity (compare with the equivalent fig-ure for the Colombian PFPD, below). Several otherindicators collected through monitoring and evalua-tion activities related to PLANCAD point in the samedirection.

erage, students skipped 1.6 years of study forone year of participation in the Program; in Mi-nas Gerais, students skipped an average of 2.8years. Repetition can be reduced through theimplementation of an incomplete "package," asthese data show. Yet, whereas no general rules

regarding the optimal level of investment in eachparticular context exist, these data indicate thatthe closer the replication, the greater the re-wards.

The message coming from other innovationstends to be encouraging as well. Despite somesnags in execution, results of the PLANCADhave been positive.16 Teachers are implementingnew methods and techniques in the classroom.Results from the Microcentros are similarly en-couraging. Microcentros are closely related to"quality circles" and other similar arrangementsproliferating across the region. And, once theshift to the new understanding and practice ofsupervision has been put into practice, financialand managerial burdens are relatively modest.The PFPD, for its part, is more of a format, orframework, for the organization and financing ofinnovations in teacher training than anythingelse. The program defines, from the outset,guidelines regulating the minimum length oftraining activities and the pedagogic support re-quired.17 It then calls a public competition inwhich training institutions, including public andprivate universities, present proposals with di-verse thematic foci and methodological empha-ses. The best proposals receive financing and,once implemented, are supervised and evaluated.This process is highly selective. Of the 302 pro-

16 Evaluations of the program indicate that, even ifthe adoption of new pedagogic approaches and tech-niques has been far from universal, a majority ofteachers in Peru now have adopted practices such asteam work in classrooms and learning based on chil-

dren's own experiences. This represents a changewhen compared to the recent pre-PLANCAD situa-tion. Given the short time elapsed since training,however, the permanence of such changes remainsopen to question.

17 Among the criteria used for the selection of pro-posals, relevance for classroom practice, strengthen-ing the school-community relationship and links withparticular projects and missions of the schools ofparticipating teachers are highly valued.


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posals presented over the last two years, 64(roughly 20 percent) have been financed. Such aflexible implementation strategy may well beapplicable in other settings. Fe y Alegra, in turn,is in the process of establishing a higher educa-

tion institution in Caracas. It will include athree-year pre-service training program open toall prospective teachers, not just those intendingto teach in Fe y Alegra schools.


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Conclusion

A strong case can be made that much more thantraining is involved in effectively tackling thetroubles of teaching in Latin America. Indeed, asdata from the Third International Math and Sci-ence Study (TIMSS) indicate, differences inteaching methods offer a compelling, albeit nei-ther definitive nor conclusive, explanation fordifferences in student performance. Other vari-ables, few of which ever enter the training

"equation," also come into play. Why should itbe taken for granted, for instance, that teachingwill attract the less able candidates from the eli-gible pool of students in each generation? Whyshould we think that even the most effectivetraining would transform teaching when the in-centives structuring the environment in whichteachers work discourage performance and fa-vors shirking? Is there a good reason for theteaching career to be organized in such a waythat it becomes almost unique in terms of re-cruiting, promotion, evaluation, mobility and

firing practices?

These are questions that require serious consid-eration if we want to go beyond in-servicetraining as the dominant response to inadequateteaching. The near-universal willingness to in-vest in teacher training appears to be expedient,both politically and economically, in that it isaccompanied by a clear neglect of other out-standing sides of the problem. Training, as apolicy alternative, has the advantage of beingconsidered as a win-win proposition: it is less

politically charged and even popular amongteachers and unions. Issues related to the socio-economic status of teachers, their performanceand evaluation, and prevailing incentive struc-tures, in contrast, are politically explosive, oftenladen with ideology and unrealistic expectationson all sides.

Political feasibility has been and justifiably willremain a key component of any comprehensivepolicy to improve the quality of education. Itfurther increases the attractiveness of training.Yet dissatisfaction with dominant practices iswidespread. Indeed, this paper has taken thisdissatisfaction as its starting point and highlightsinnovations that have sprung up throughoutLatin America in response.

Through the examination of these innovations,the paper has identified six major trends shapingwhat may prove to be best practices:

Classroom-based training. Effective teacher education understood as

continuing education.

Intensive use of group training and net-working.

Intensive use of pedagogic support and su-pervision.

Integration of training into the larger frame-work of teacher career regulations and in-centives.

Training understood as a response to socialand educational priorities at the local level.

In an effort to respond to the failures of tradi-tional teacher training ventures, each of the eightprograms examined combined several of thesetrends into viable and effective packages. Thesepackages not only encompass good or new ideasin the field, most of which find support in thebroader literature, but they also emerge as ideaswith concrete consequences, deliberately put


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into practice to address critical problems of lowquality teachers across region and to overcomemistakes that made teacher training programsineffective, even counterproductive, in the recentpast.

The discussion of scale, cost and replicability,although preliminary, gives reason for optimismas well, especially regarding the feasibility ofextending the reach of the practices identified astrends. The diversity of the programs reviewedhere should serve as a reminder that trends em-body nothing more than what appear to beguiding principles and good practices. Whereaseach program shows potential for some degreeof replicability, none rightly can be seen as amodel to be copied or replicated in detail. Eachposes institutional and contextual requirementsof its own that should not be taken for granted at

the design and implementation stages in any fu-ture initiative that finds inspiration in them.

This paper does not advocate particular recipesfor teacher training. Rather, it emphasizes theimportance of having the right ingredients in

every recipe. Its list of trends is by no meansexhaustive. It merely represents a first responseto the need reiterated by practitioners and spe-cialists across the region (and the world) tosynthesize what seem to be interesting andpromising innovations and to place them in alarger context. In matters of training teachers,there is no one best way. But powerful signalsare being sent from the field, signals that haveconsequences and implications for how teacherswill be trained in the future and for how interna-tional organizations such as the IDB will choseto structure their support.


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References

American Federation of Teachers. 1998. Six Promising Programs for Raising Student Achievement. Onthe Web at: http://www.aft.org//edissues/whatworks/six/index.htm

Anfossi Gmez, Andrea and Clotilde Fonseca Quesada. 1999. Informtica educativa y desarrollo docen-te: La experiencia de Costa Rica. Mimeo.

Asociacin Nacional de Educacin Pblica (ANEP). 1999. Anlisis del perfil socioeconmico de los es-tudiantes de los Centros Regionales de Profesores, 1998. Montevideo: ANEP.

Calvo, Gloria. 1997.Enseanza y aprendizaje: En busca de nuevas rutas. Document No. 6. PREAL.

Castro, Claudio de Moura. 1999. Uruguay: A New Teacher-Training Program. Mimeo.

_______. 1998. Avaliao do Programa Acelera Brasil. Presentation at the First Evaluation of ProgramaAcelera Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, March.

Chiappe, Clemencia and Olga L. Zuluaga. 1998. Los programas de formacin permanente de profesores(PFPD) de Bogot, Colombia. Mimeo.

Craig, Helen, Richard J. Kraft and Joy du Plessis. 1998. Teacher Education: Making Impact. Washington,DC: The World Bank.

Darling-Hammond, Linda and Velma L. Cobb. 1996. The Changing Context of Teacher Education. InThe Teacher Educator's Handbook: Building a Knowledge Base for the Preparation of Teachers,

ed. F. Murray. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Darling-Hammond, Linda and Milbrey W. McLaughlin. 1996. Policies that Support Professional Devel-opment in an Era of Reform. In McLaughlin and Oberman, pp. 202-218.

Deutsch, Ruthanne and Aimee Verdisco. 1997. Lessons to be Learned from the IDBs Portfolio of Pri-mary and Secondary Loans in Execution. Mimeo.

Fideler, Elizabeth F. and David Haselkorn. 1999. Learning the Ropes: Urban Teacher Induction Pro-grams and Practice in the United States. Belmont: Recruiting New Teachers, Inc.

Inter-American Development Bank. 2000. Reforming Primary and Secondary Education in Latin Amer-

ica and the Caribbean: An IDB Strategy. Sustainable Development Department, Sector Strategyand Policy Papers Series, No. EDU-113. Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank.

Instituto Apoyo. 2000. Estudio de evaluacin del Programa de Capacitacin Docente, PLANCAD. Mi-meo.

Knott, Richard. 1997. What Works in In-Service Training and Professional Development? Wales. Mimeo.CERI Report on In-Service Training. Prepared Under the Auspices Programme 2, What Works InInnovation, OECD.


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Limn Macas, Miguel A. 1998. Innovaciones en entrenamiento de maestros: Caso ESTIPACCentroRegional de Educacin Superior (CRES). Mimeo.

Lockheed, Marlaine E. and Ariaan M. Verspoor. 1991. Improving Primary Education in DevelopingCountries. New York: Oxford University Press.

National Commission on Teaching and Americas Future. 1996. What Matters Most: Teaching for Amer-icas Future. On the web at: http://www.tc.columbia.edu/~teachcomm/what.htm

Navarro, Juan Carlos. 1998. Good Practices in Teacher Education in Latin America. Mimeo.

Oliveira, Jono Batista Araujo e. 1998.Learn As You Teach: The Accelerated Learning Program in Braziland Its Approach to Teacher Education. Mimeo.

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Center for Educational Research andInnovation. 1998. Staying Ahead: In-Service Training and Teacher Professional Development.Paris: OECD.

Organization of American States (OAS). 1998. Education in the Americas: Quality and Equity in theGlobalization Process. Washington, D.C.: OAS.

Qiang, Haiyan. 1997. Innovative In-Service Teacher Training for Primary Education in China. Mimeo.Prepared for the 1998 Human Development Week, The World Bank.

Perez Esclarn, Antonio. 1998.La formacin docente en Fe y Alegra. Mimeo.

Robinson, Bernadette. 1996. Effective Schools/Teachers: Distance Education for Primary TeacherTraining in Developing Countries. On the web at: http://www.wordbank.org/HD

Shaeffer, Sheldon. 1993. Participatory Approaches to Teacher Training. In Teachers in DevelopingCountries: Improving Effectiveness and Managing Costs, eds. J. Farrell and J.B. Araujo eOliveira. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.

Sykes, Gary. 1997. Teacher Development in the United States: Institutional Arrangements and Alterna-tives. Mimeo. CERI Report on In-Service Training. Prepared Under the Auspices Programme 2,What Works In Innovation, OECD.

Tatto, Mara Teresa and Eduardo Vlez. 1997. Teacher Education Reform Initiatives: The Case of Mex-ico. In Latin American Education: Comparative Perspectives, eds. C.A. Torres and A. Puiggrs.Boulder: Westview Press.

Torres, Carlos Alberto and Adriana Puiggrs, eds. 1997. Latin American Education: Comparative Per-spectives. Boulder: Westview Press.

UNICEF. 1997.In-Service Teacher Training: Rights and Obligations in a Changing Society. Informationfor the Educational Press, No. 2. On the Web at: http://www/ibe.unesco.org/Inf_Doc/ Journal-ists/pres972e.htm

Vaillant, Denise and Germn Wettstein, eds. 1999. Centros Regionales de Profesores: Una apuesta alUruguay del Siglo XXI. ANEP-CODICEN. Montevideo: Editorial Fin de Siglo.


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Williamson Castro, Guillermo. 1998. Chile: Capacitacin de docentes para el cambio de las prcticaspedaggicas en las escuelas rurales multigrado. Mimeo.

World Bank. 1998. Charting the Course of Educational Change in Latin America and the Caribbean: A

World Bank Strategy Paper. Draft.


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Other publications from the Education Unit

Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean. A Strategy Paper. December 1997, N EDU-101.

(English, Spanish, and Portuguese versions available)

Institutional Reform in Mexican Higher Education: Conflict and Renewal in Three Public Universities, by

Rollin Kent. February 1998, N EDU-102. (English only)

Education Statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean, by R.W. McMeekin. January 1998, N EDU-104. (English and Spanish versions available)

The Stubborn Trainers vs. the Neoliberal Economists: Will Training Survive the Battle?, by Claudio de

Moura Castro. June 1998, N EDU-106. (English only)

Trinta anos de FINEP: Banco ou mecenas, fomento ou balco?, by Maria Helena de Magalhes Castro

and Eva Stal. August 1998, N

EDU-107. (Portuguese only)

Cost-Effectiveness of Education Policies in Latin America: A Survey of Expert Opinion, by Ernesto

Schiefelbein, Laurence Wolff and Paulina Schiefelbein. December 1998, N EDU-109. (Englishonly)

Proyecto Joven: New Solutions and Some Surprises, by Claudio de Moura Castro. July 1999, N EDU-110. (English only)

Secondary Education in Latin America and the Caribbean: The Challenge of Growth and Reform, byLaurence Wolff and Claudio de Moura Castro. January, 2000, N EDU-111. (English only)

Secondary Schools and the Transition to Work, by Claudio de Moura Castro, Martin Carnoy and LaurenceWolff. February, 2000, N EDU-112. (English and Spanish versions available)

Reforming Primary and Secondary Education in Latin America and the Caribbean. An IDB Strategy.May 2000, N EDU-113. (English and Spanish versions available.)

La educacin superior en Amrica Latina - Testimonios de un seminario de rectores, Salvador Malo andSamuel Morley, editors. (Spanish only)

Cerrando la brecha, by Romn Mayorga. January 1997, N SOC97-101. (Spanish and English versionsavailable)

A revoluco silenciosa: Autonoma financiera da USP e UNICAMP, by Mara Helena Magalhes Castro.December 1996, N SOC96-102. (Portuguese only)

Inversin en la calidad de la educacin pblica en el Per y su efecto sobre la fuerza de trabajo y la po-

breza, by Jaime Saavedra. March 1997, SOC97-104.(Spanish only)

La reforma educativa en Amrica Latina - Actas de un seminario, Claudio de Moura Castro and MartinCarnoy, editors. August 1997, SOC97-102. (Spanish only)


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Books:

Education in the Information Age, Claudio de Moura Castro, editor. (English and Spanish versions avail-able) Available through the IDB Bookstore, phone (202) 623-1753, e-mail: [email protected].

Economa poltica de la reforma educacional en Chile. La reforma vista por sus protagonistas, by Viola

Espnola and Claudio de Moura Castro, editors. 1999. (Spanish only) Available through the IDBBookstore, phone (202) 623-1753, e-mail: [email protected].

Perspectivas sobre la reforma educativa. Amrica Central en el contexto de polticas de educacin en las

Amricas, by Juan Carlos Navarro, Katherine Taylor, Andrs Bernasconi and Lewis Tyler, edi-tors. 2000. Published by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Harvard Institute forInternational Development and the Inter-American Development Bank.

Myth, Reality, and Reform. Higher Education Policy in Latin America, by Claudio de Moura Castro andDaniel Levy. 2000. (English only) Available through the IDB Bookstore, phone (202) 623-1753,e-mail: [email protected].

CD-Rom:

First Virtual IDB Seminar on Education and Technology.

For more information, or to be included in our mailing list, please contact the Education Unit at:

Phone: (202) 623-2087

Fax: (202) 623-1558

E-mail: sds/[email protected]

Website: http://www.iadb.org/sds

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Teacher Training in Latin America

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