Prospective teachers’ views about the structure of a European Teacher Training Program

The aim of the present study was (a) to investigate the parameters of the current teacher training programs that are valued by the prospective teachers as the most and least important aspects of the teacher training program, (b) to explore the factors that compose the current national teacher training programs, (c) and to examine the differences in teachers’ opinions between the European ideal and the current importance of each factor of the teacher training program. Five hundred and eighty-seven persons from eight European countries completed a web-based questionnaire regarding the current and the ideal importance of the different parameters of their national teacher training programs. The results of the study showed that teachers valued “practical school experience” as the most important parameter of the current teacher training programs and “dissertation” as the least important parameter. The results of an exploratory factor analysis showed that six distinct factors compose the structure of their national teacher training program. A MANOVA identified national differences among teachers’ valued importance of each factor and between the European ideal and the current importance of each factor