Evaluation of Iranian Teacher Education Programmes for EFL Student-Teachers

Despite the importance of Iranian teacher education programmes at Teacher Education universities for preparing EFL teachers in terms of effective teaching, no research has surveyed the role of these programmes in preparing effective teachers. This crosssectional study was conducted to evaluate Iranian Teacher Education universities programmes for EFL studentteachers regarding five areas of teaching knowledge which conform to California Standards for the Teaching Profession (CSTP) that are stated in Commission on Teacher Credentialing (2009). This study employed a mixedmethod design in which 126 inservice EFL teachers from six cities and 212 EFL student-teachers from six Iranian Teacher Education universities participated in a survey; then interviews were conducted with 12 selected volunteers from participants. The studentteachers’ expectations of TEPs at the beginning, their evaluations of the programmes at the end, and inservice teachers’ evaluations after years of teaching in terms of their preparation for teaching were compared. The results of Mixed Betweenwithin (Repeated Measures) ANOVA as well as interview analyses and interpretations showed that there was a difference between the firstyear group’s expectations and the lastyear group’s evaluations. The difference was significant between female first and lastyear groups, female inservice and lastyear groups as well as male inservice and male first and lastyear groups. Both male and female inservice teachers acknowledged the effectiveness of their four years of education at Teacher Education universities. Implications for providing more effective teacher education programmes are discussed.