DefinePK

Abstract

In 2009, the Pakistan government developed and campaigned for ten detailed Professional Standards for teachers. By incorporating national professional standards of teaching in their teaching, teachers can become professionally competent enough to teach all their students well. The study was designed to examine to what extent these 10- prospective teachers have achieved national professional standards for teachers at the teacher education program in Pakistan. The study was descriptive. Further, it was a comparative study in which the professional competencies of prospective teachers at regular and distance learning teacher education programs were evaluated and compared on the said national professional standards specified by Govt. of Pakistan. For the study, a Sample of 120 Participants by Using a simple random sampling technique, M.Ed. Level prospective teachers from Pakistan's regular and distance teacher education systems were taken. The teachers' professional competencies on ten National professional standards were evaluated through a self-developed Professional competencies scale (PCS). The collected data was analyzed through mean and t-test statistics. Data analysis revealed that the prospective teachers at regular teacher education programs showed better achievement on ten national professional standards for teachers in Pakistan and possess better professional competencies than the prospective teachers at distance learning teacher education programs in Pakistan. The study implies handy suggestions for improving teacher education programs, especially at Distance learning Teacher education, to make teachers more professional and competent on national professional standards of teaching.||Keywords: Teacher Education, Regular Teacher Education, Distance Learning Teacher Education, National Professional Standards, Professional Competencies.