PERCEPTION OF TEACHER-EDUCATOR TOWARDS TWO YEARS B.ED. PROGRAMME

1. PhD, Research Scholar, Department of Education, Seacom Skill University, West Bengal. 2. Professor & Former, Hon’ble Vice-Chancellor, Seacom Skill University, West Bengal. 3. Associate Professor in Education, Aliah University, Kolkata, & Former Principal in M.Ed. College, Murshidabad. ...................................................................................................................... Manuscript Info Abstract ......................... ........................................................................ Manuscript History Received: 05 August 2020 Final Accepted: 10 September 2020 Published: October 2020

The present study investigates the perceptions of teacher-educators towards two years B.Ed. programme, which introduced according to NCTE 2014, norms and regulations. The study investigated the perceptions of teacher-educators towards two years B.Ed. programme considering gender, locale & experience variations of the participants. By using selfdeveloped standardized tool,in which 136 items in a five points scale, for the study. Where sample of the studywere 150 teachereducators from 10 B.Ed. colleges of Murshidabad district of West Bengal participated. The participants were selected by using simple random basis technique. Descriptive survey method was applied for conducting the present study. The present studyinvestigated delimiting toteacher-educator's perceptions towards two years B.Ed. programmefrommurshidabad district of WestBengal only. Another delimitation of the study is teacher educator's perception analysed in the context of, B.Ed. programme as professional course, generates motivation for teaching, develops professional acumens, provides essential of child psychology,B.Ed.programme influences the personality of the teacher and perceptions about two years B.Ed. course only. The obtained data were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings revealed that,significant impact existed on the opinion of teacher educator's perceptions as they are agreed mostly for positive impact of secondary teacher education programme. That is mixed perceptions towards secondary teacher education programme by the teacher educators.The present findings of the study is matched with i.e. confirmatory study of Adhikary (2017) in a study where found that teacher trainees mixed perception towards the two year B.Ed. programme in Assam.
The revitalization and strengthening of the teacher education system is, therefore, a powerful means for up-liftment of education standards in the country. The success of any educational process depends on teacher's effectiveness, teaching aptitude, attitudes, perceptions of all the members of the stakeholder towards teaching and professional education and training, personality of teachers, their acumens and many more factors.
To improve secondary teacher education programme, role of the teacher educators, is very important. Their perception towards education is always vertical upwards. Perception is defined as perceived views, it is also the synonym word with acceptance(Liu and Gentle,2005).Teachers' professional development and education both of which play important roles in teachers' effective performance and in learners' success in the classroom. As Seyoum(2016) states, continuing professional development is directly related to high quality teaching and learning. Professional development programmes are an effective way to enhance teachers' performance in the classroom and improve their practice through an enjoying process, the role of teacher education programme should not be overlooked. In fact, those programmes Act as the building blocks of teachers' knowledge in respect to their understanding of teaching and learning process.
There have been many previously conducted research studies which in reveal meaningful findings that if perceptions about the secondary education programme by the teacher-educators as well as other members of the stake-holders, if it is in right way than whole higher education programme of the society will be largely benefitted.Because secondary education is the gateway of the higher education of any society. Peacock (2009) argues that teachertraining programmes must involve internal evaluation systems those internal evaluation systems, is to increase the accountability of the programme to the stake holders.White, (1998),& Lynch, (2003), says that, secondary teacher education's stakeholders through good management can empower professional educational programme, in order to develop a better quality educational process healthier teaching/ learning environments and improved students outcomes. Sushma (2015) in her study through inferential 't' test analysis of the null hypotheses about the teacher educators' attitude towards two years B.Ed. programme due to gender variations, revealed that, two years B.Ed. programme it enhances teaching ability, teacher educator get more time to mould the students perfectly, students get more time to learn more teaching skills at training. But due to experience variations, Sushma found that, most of the teacher educators denies two years B.Ed. programme, as they opine that whatever students able to learn they may learn in one year also. Barua (2015) in the study on quality of public and private funded B.Ed. programme in northeast region of India revealed that favourable response of students towards learning enhancement through 2 years B.Ed. programme. Public-funded trainees from rural background, and economically weaker sections of society had favourable perception regarding learning enhancement. Public-funded institutions students expressed more favourable perceptions than that of their private founded institution counterparts. Nataraja (2016) in the study found that most of the student teachers of Karnataka gave favourable opinion on two years B.Ed. He also found that the teacher trainees' competencies improved by two years B.Ed. programme. Adhikary (2017) in a study found that teacher trainees mixed perception towards the two years B.Ed. programme in Assam.Sahoo and Sharma (2018) in their study on student-teachers perception towards curriculum reform in teacher education programme in Odisha, found that student teachers appreciations of teacher education, except B.Ed. students reserved notes about two years duration.
Professionalism in any field of work is a necessary condition for success. The two years Secondary teachers education programme and the role of the teacher educators, their perceptions towards these programme is very essential for promoting conducive environment for professionalism. The perceptions of the teacher educators as well as other members of the stake holders towards two years secondary teachers educationprogramme is important for improvement of classroom process also, to ensure quality education.The present study intends to explore the proper information for educational planners and administrators for further investigation and information about teachereducators perceptions on the two years secondary teacher education programme. This investigation will help stake holders to maintain good conduct and make the required reforms in relation to both curricula coverage and students' acquisition of professionalism to improve the secondary teacher education. Actually, no attempts have been made in this region to investigate and analyse on such a burning issue.
Based on the above viewpoints, the present study is a sincere steps by the investigator to answer to the following research questions: 125 Do the teacher educators have clear perceptions towards the two years Secondary teacher education programme as a professional course, generate motivation for teaching, develops professional acumen, provides essentials of child psychology, influences the personality of the teachers and about 2 years B.Ed. course due to their gender, locale and experience variations?

Objectives of the Study:-
The present study was focussed keeping in view of the following specific objectives: To assess the perception of the B.Ed. teachers (secondary teacher educators) in totaland component wise towards two years secondary teacher education programme due to gender, locale, and experience variations.

Hypotheses of the Study:
Basing upon the research question and objectives of the study, the following null hypotheses are framed for statistical interpretation: 1. H 01 : Perception of the teacher educators toward secondary teacher education programme is not normally distributed in total. 2. H 02 : There does not exist any significant difference of the mean score of the teacher educators' perceptions towards secondary teacher education programme due to gender variations. 3. H 03 : There does not exist any significant difference of the mean score of the teacher educators' perceptions towards secondary teacher education programme due to locale variations. 4. H 04 : There does not exist any significant difference of the mean score of the teacher educators' perceptions towards secondary teacher education programme due to experience variations. 5. H 05 : There does not exist any significant difference of the mean score of the teacher educators'perceptions towards secondary teacher education programme due to component wise. 6. H 06 : There does not exist any significant impact on the opinion of teacher educators' perceptions towards secondary teacher education programme.

Scope and Delimitations of the study:
The scope and delimitation of the present study were as follows: 1. The study was delimited to Murshidabad district of West Bengal only. 2. The study was delimited to 150 teacher-educators from ten different B.Ed. college of Murshidabaddistrict only. 3. The study was delimited to explore the perceptions/views of the teacher-educators in the context of six dimension only. 4. Another important delimitation of the study was to explore the perceptions/views of the teacher-educators towards secondary teacher education programme i.e. towardstwo years B.Ed. programme according to 2014 NCTE norms and regulation, for successful implementation of the said programme.

Research Method:-
As the main purpose of the study was to investigate the perception of the teacher educators who are involved in the two years teacher education programme according to 2014 NCTE norms and regulations, their views about the successful implementation of the said programme at present context, that is why descriptive survey method, ex-postfacto in nature was undertaken for conducting the present research.

Participants:
Depending upon the feasibility, ten different B.Ed. colleges of the Murshidabad district of West Bengalwere purposively selected, which constituted the population of the present study. From the selected college, 150 teachers were selected randomly which constituted the sample of the present study.

Instrumentations:
The following tool was developed and standardized in the local population; according to the rules and regulations of the standardization of a tool: Perceptions of the Stake-holders towards two years Secondary Teacher Education Programme(PSTTSTEP), 2020. The tool was based on five points, such as; Strongly Agree(SA), Agree(A), Undecided(U), Disagree(D), Strongly Disagree(SD).Scoring of the tool for positive staements,5, 4,3,2, & 1; and for negative items just in reverse. 126

Statistical Technique:
In order to analyse the obtained data both descriptive and inferential statistics were considered and graphical presentation of the data also used.

Data Analysis, Results & Discussion:-
In the present study, the tabulation were made of the collected data from the sample group and study of normality of the scores were analysed and graphically presented. So, both descriptive as well as inferential analysis have been done for the analysis of sub-samples and graphically also presented in the following: H 01 :Perception of the teacher educators toward secondary teacher education programme is not normally distributed in total.
In order to test the distribution of the scores along with lines of normality, the measure of central tendency, Sd, quartile deviation, percentile, skewness and kurtosis have been computed and presented in The descriptive measure of stakeholder score received that sample, mean, median and mode were found to be 426.7, 424.714 and 420.742 respectively. The quartile range being 15.4 and when added to the median gives a value 440.114 and when Q was subtracted from median 409.314. The third and first quartiles of the distribution 441.5 and 410.7 respectively. If the sum and difference between the median and quartile range becomes same with the third and first quartiles of the distribution, they gives evidence toward normality in distribution of scores, but in the present case they are not same. Therefore the distribution could not be confirmed to be normal.
Measure of the skewness and kurtosis are 5.740 and 0.232 respectively giving the indication of positively skewed and Leptokurtic in nature, from the facial expression of data it is observed.
So, in this study the results revealed that NPC is not normal, may be due to sampling error. Sampling error may be occur during data collection due to response given by the respondents. H 02 : There does not exist any significant difference of the mean score of the teacher educators'perceptions towards secondary teacher education programme due to gender variations.  Therefore the hypothesis is accepted.Then the final hypothesis is, There does not exist any significant difference of the mean score of the teacher educators' perceptions towards secondary teacher education programme due to gender variations.  It means that male and female teacher educators' have same perceptions towards secondary teacher education programme due to advancement in their thought process. This finding is matched with i.e. confirmatory study with Sushma(2015) where she found thatattitude towards two years B.Ed. programme due to gender variations revealed that, two years B.Ed. programme it enhances teaching ability.
H 03 : There does not exist any significant difference of the mean score of the teacher educators' perceptions towards secondary teacher education programme due to locale variations.   It means that rural and urban teacher educators have same perceptions towards secondary teacher education programme due to advancement in their thought process. This finding is not exactly matched with i.e. little bit differences study withBarua (2015) in the study on quality of public and private funded B.Ed. programme in northeast region of India revealed that favourable response of students towards learning enhancement through 2 years B.Ed. programme. Public-funded trainees from rural background, and economically weaker sections of society had favourable perception regarding learning enhancement.
H 04 : There does not exist any significant difference of the mean scores of the teacher educators'perceptions towards secondary teacher education programme due to experiences variations. (2-tailed) value is 0.849 which is greater than 0.05 such that 0.849 > 0.05. So the test is not significant at 0.05 level.
Therefore the hypothesis is accepted.Then the final hypothesis is There does not exist any significant difference of the mean score of the teacher educators' perceptions towards secondary teacher education programme due to experience variations. It is revealed that same perceptions of the teacher-educators' due to experiences variations towards two years secondary teacher education programme which assessed in the context of, B.Ed. programme as professional course, generates motivation for teaching, develops professional acumens, provides essential of child psychology, B.Ed. programme influences the personality of the teacher and perceptions about two years B.Ed. course.
H 05 : There does not exist any significant difference of the mean score of the teacher educators'perceptions towards secondary teacher education programme due to component wise. There exist any significant difference of the mean score of the teacher educators' perceptions towards secondary teacher education programme due to component wise. It happens the differences of perceptions, because each and every teacher educator has their own interest area.This finding is matched with i.e. confirmatory study withAdhikary (2017) in a study found that teacher trainees mixed perception towards the two year B.Ed. programme in Assam.
H 06 : There does not exist any significant impact on the opinion of teacher educators'' perceptions towards secondary teacher education programme.

Suggestions or Recommendations:-
It is observed that there are gap between members of the stake holders. Everybody should give much more importance. As quality of education depends upon the quality of the teacher. So quality improvement of the teachers depends upon the active involvement of all the concerned in the system.
To avoid any kind of deficiencies, conducting of more awareness programme for the members of the stake holders is necessary. As because attendance in the seminar, workshops, orientation programme even conducting awareness programme means a chance to exchange own stagnant views with high level thought process and ultimately responsibility of the concerned members will be developed.
It is observed that through NCTE 2014 norms and regulation, NCTE restructured teacher education programmes to strengthen the base of school education. NCTE has rightly emphasised the process dimension of above areas of curriculum to develop professionalism among student-teachers of different stages of school system. It insisted on longer duration and a holistic perspective of teacher education programme. So, for the successful proper implementation of such a high level programme, active involvement, proper coordination, positive perceptions, positive attitude, and spontaneous accomplishment of responsibility among all the members of the stake holders to be developed. And it is strongly recommended that only conducting of frequent fruitful awareness programme and participation of all the concerned and exchange of their views with high level thought process, no doubt will help to develop positive perceptions among all.  133 4. In other districts of West Bengal same research work can be carried out considering large number of participants to know the level of perceptions of stake-holders for generalisations of the findings regarding successful implementation of such a important teacher education programme. 5. Other related psychological variables may be considered to check the effectiveness of two years secondary teacher education programme, such as attitude of the stake-holders, intra-variables effects of Personality Traits, Teaching Aptitude, Teacher Effectiveness and Attitudes towards Teaching etc. 6. A comparative study may be conducted on secondary teacher education programme in India and with other countries.

Conclusion:-
From the present research investigation, it can be concluded that, the results of the present study revealed that mixed types of perceptions prevailed among the stake holders about the two years secondary teacher education programme which introduced according to NCTE 2014 regulations. But it is true that during introduction and implementation of any new programmes or systems attitudinal as well as perceptions related problems arises. How concerned members of the stakeholders perceived the programmes, how they viewed, opine all these related variable to be investigated and analysed properly. But it is also true that to confirm both qualitative and quantitative expansion and successful implementation of such type of important programmes positive perceptions and active involvement of all the concerned is need of the hours. And moreover it is the duty and responsibility of our state as well as central authority to minimise the gaps and eradications of any types of hurdles for successful implementations of such type of important professional development programme. As we know in efficient physician is dangerous for the health care and life of the people exactly inefficient or half minded and lacking of proper professionalism minded teachereducator is dangerous for whole society. As quality of education depends upon the quality of teacher education and its successful implementation within stipulated time period.