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<title> Winds of Change on Teacher Training Program </title>
After reading an article written by Arne Helldén about the new suggestion how to change the teacher training program in Sweden I would like to respond to a few things. The basic idea in the suggested change is to shorten the education for future teachers and therefore also change the amount of subject studies and the time for practical experience. Instead of a deep knowledge in a few subjects there will be less specialised knowledge in many subjects and less time to practice as a teacher together with a class. I do not agree with this and that is what I am going to discuss. I think that practical experience is very important and it would be a mistake to shorten it by half as suggested. I also believe that a less specialised knowledge in the subjects you are teaching in will make it harder to teach it to pupils.
	 The specialisation in the subjects you as a teacher are going to teach is to be shortened according to this new suggested change. I do not believe that this change could be done without serious consequences. In Sweden today the students on the teachers learning program read one and a half-year of each of their chosen subjects (often two subjects). The new suggestion will obviously give us future teachers less knowledge and therefore less chance of learning our pupils something. A deep understanding for a subject is extremely important when you are supposed to explain it to someone else. If you cannot see the whole picture it is very hard to describe the smaller parts of the problem and also to understand why someone does not understand it. A very common question among pupils is "why do we have to learn this?" When a teacher get that question I think it is important to be able to explain the issue from a greater aspect and show the pupils that the things they are learning will be useful for them the rest of their lives. One more important issue of this is that the more you know about something the more self-secure you feel and if pupils can feel that you are secure about yourself the more they trust and listen to you. Another way of getting that self-confidence is through experience.
	 This new compact version of the teacher training program does not only contain less specialising it also contains less practical experience. The new idea is that future teachers only have to be out in a real school environment as teachers ten weeks all together during the whole period of education. Society is constantly changing and so are the schools. A person that went to school a few years ago does not really know what it is like to go to school today. Therefore, it is very important to go out and see what it is that is expected of you when you come out as a teacher for the first time. It is also very valuable to try the role as a teacher while someone is watching you and giving constructive criticism. A real classroom situation can never be simulated is a correct way. You can never foretell how pupils are going to react to something you say or do. It is also hard to know how you will react in certain situations and what would be the best solution to a problem. I do not say that twenty weeks of practical experience will give you all the answers but at least it will prepare you for some of it and help you become the kind of teacher you want to be.
	 Experience, knowledge and a good self-confidence are very important when it comes to being a good teacher. All these three things hang together and effect each other. The goal must always be to become the kind of teacher who can bring about knowledge to pupils. If you take away the knowledge from a teacher there will be nothing to teach. If you instead take away the experience or the self-confidence the teaching will not be as good as it could and ought to be. You cannot remove one piece and expect to maintain the same standard as before. The teachers that are teaching in schools in Sweden today have specialised in a few subjects and therefore have a deep knowledge in that special area. If the suggestion goes through there will not be the same depth of knowledge and I think that that will lower the standard in our schools.
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