In-service education and training of vocational school teachers in Iraq : a study of present provision and future needs

Iraq is confronted with the two-fold problem of extending vocational education and improving its quality. To improve the quality of vocational education it is necessary to improve the competence of inadequately trained teachers.Certain aims were formulated for the study which may be summarised as follows:1- Exploring and shedding light on the reality of the present situation of INSET activities.2- Ascertaining the perceptions among teaching staff regarding their INSET needs.3- Proposing new plans for INSET Programmes.This study is limited to the Iraqi vocational school teaching staff (both academic and vocational). The study sample was taken from the three representative provinces of Iraq, and four types of questionnaire were developed and used for the four groups (495 teachers and instructors, 42 administrators, 20 INSET trainers and 16 trainees involved in INSET courses). In addition to these, 13 experts and important educators were interviewed.The study is divided into 3 main parts (and comprise 11 chapters) together with an introductory chapter which reviews available INSET literature