Abstract

This research evaluates the English Language teacher education programme in
two Colleges of Education, institutions that award the National Certificate in
Education (NCE) which is the minimum teaching qualification in Nigeria. The
research is centred on the objectives of the English Language teacher
education programme at the NCE level. It seeks not only to identify the
programme objectives but to also examine how the said objectives are
interpreted by the lecturers through their classroom practices and the extent to
which the objectives reflect the teaching needs of the student teachers in the
programme. To understand and explore the topic from diverse perspectives, the
case study and naturalistic inquiry are employed as the main research methods
in the study. The research participants - five lecturers and six student teachers -
are drawn from the two Colleges of Education involved in the study.
Document examination, semi-structured interview and observation are utilised
as data collection instruments in the research. An examination of relevant
documents not only shows the original intent of the programme but also gives
an indication of how the programme is implemented by the regulatory body
(National Commission for Colleges of Education) and the management of the
institutions. To identify their teaching needs, the student teachers are observed
in their respective placement schools and then interviewed. The same process
is used for the lecturers to examine their translations of the programme
objectives in the classrooms of the two Colleges of Education involved in the
study. Thematic analysis is used to analyse the data gathered.
A major finding of this research is the 2-in-1 evaluation model. The model,
which has practice as its focus, is proposed for the evaluation of pre-service
English Language teacher education programmes in second language contexts.
The 2-in-1 evaluation model is an objective based model which also analyses
the needs of the programme users simultaneously with the evaluation process.
The model obliterates the need for a separate needs analysis as this is done
during the evaluation process itself. Practice is used as a lens which allows the
model to examine how the different aspects of the programme function. The
development of the 2-in-1 evaluation model is based on the methodology and
research findings of this study.
A number of themes are generated from the analysed data. These have
revealed some equally striking findings which include “institutional autonomy”,
discrepancies in the concurrent development of “learner autonomy and teacher
autonomy” and “the middleman issue”. The research through its findings,
therefore, makes significant contributions to theory, policy and practice.