EFL Teacher Education in Iran: Does It Promote Trainees’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge?

Abstract

Teacher education programs can play a principal role in helping prospective teachers to acquire requisite knowledge and skills. Vital to the issue of teacher education is the efficient evaluation of such programs in promoting prospective teachers' knowledge base. However, the literature contains very few reports of the evaluation of the Iranian EFL preservice teacher education program, which is a gap to be addressed by this study. To this end, 346 high school EFL teachers, 20 EFL teacher educators, and 97 teacher trainees took part in the study. A questionnaire, semistructured interviews, tests, and an observation checklist were utilized. A mixed methods design was employed to evaluate the program. The results of the questionnaire, tests, and observation checklist were analyzed quantitatively. For the interview results, both quantitative (percentages) and qualitative analyses were deployed. Findings indicated that the program was not satisfactory in enhancing the EFL teacher trainees' pedagogical content knowledge.