Student Teachers’ Perception Towards Curriculum Reform in Teacher Education Programme in Odisha

According to NCTE document National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education (2009), the curriculum of teacher education is broadly dealt under three areas, viz; foundation of Education, curriculum and pedagogy and school internship. The foundation of education includes learner studies, contemporary studies and educational studies. Curriculum and pedagogy deal with curriculum studies, pedagogic studies and assessment and evaluation studies. According to revised norm of NCTE (2014), the curriculum of teacher Education broader focus on two years long duration of B. Ed. and M. Ed. and give emphasis on relevant learning experiences involving engagement with the field and Internship programmes. In this study the student teachers perception towards curriculum reform in various teacher Education Programme (B. Ed, M. Ed & D.EI.ED) have been studied. Population for the study is taken from Teacher Education institutions of Odisha. The sample of the study consisted of 300 students of teacher education programmes offered by RIE, Bhubaneswar (50 B.A/B. Sc. B. Ed., 50 B. Ed. and 50 M. Ed) and Radhanath IASE, Cuttack (50 D.EI. Ed, 50 B. Ed and 50 M. Ed). Data were collected with the help of a questionnaire. The components of the tool consisted of different areas of curriculum, viz; Perspectives in Education, Curriculum Pedagogic studies and Practicum and school Internship. Data were analyzed descriptively. It was noticed that a large majority of M. Ed students gave high opinion about different items covering three components of curriculum. A large majority of B. Ed. and B.A./B. Sc. B. Ed. programme students gave favorable opinion about curriculum reform. Similarly, a large majority of D.EI. Ed. Students expressed positive views about different areas of few teacher education curriculums. This is concluded that the curriculum reform in teacher education has been appreciated by the student teachers. Hence, appropriate steps must be taken to stabilize teacher education curriculum in view of making it more realistic and relevant to teaching learning system.