ABSTRACT
This chapter considers four facets of teacher education in relation to the social and economic factors: the perceptions of teaching, teacher socialisation, content or curriculum of teacher-training programmes, and structure and organisation of teacher education and its relationship to other forms and levels of education. The curriculum of teacher-education is the precise means by which the kinds and quality of behaviour expected of teachers are developed. A close examination of the actual teacher-education curriculum gives some idea as to the kind of behaviour and professional skills most likely to be developed in prospective teachers. Teacher training in Communist China after 1949 developed along lines of a dual system in which secondary school teachers were trained in higher teacher-training institutes and primary schools teachers in secondary teacher-training schools. The organisational provisions and structure of teacher education reveal the extent to which the achievement of stated aims has been facilitated.
