Teacher Training System in U.S.A. is not very old. The suggestion of teacher training was put forward in the middle of the nineteenth century and provision was made by some States for it. Earlier the status of the teacher was not very high in the eyes of the public. So learned persons were not attracted towards this profession.
No learned person was prepared to join the teaching profession on such low salary and without any social status. Only people from the low strata of society took up teaching. In fact, it was not considered a good profession.
With the awakening for education, shortage of teachers began to be felt. Realising the seriousness of the art of teaching and its importance, there arose a demand for a system which could prepare skilled and capable teachers. Consequently, in Massachussets State a Government Teachers’ Training Institution was established in 1839, for the first time.
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With the establishment of this institution, some other States, too, began to feel the need of one year Teacher Training Schools. In 1857, State Normal School at Lexington in Illinois State was established. The curriculum of this training school aimed at the training of teachers of both primary and secondary levels.
In 1860, the one year course of Lexington Normal School was changed to two years course. By that time, mostly teachers for the primary level were trained and there was no prescribed qualification for admission. So the educated and eager persons were selected.
So far, teacher training was conducted by Normal Schools. Colleges of higher education and universities could not make any provision for teacher training. But with the awakened desire for education and the need of the time, the need for professional training for teachers began to be stressed. Consequently, the want of teacher training system was fulfilled by establishing education departments in the following universities:-
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In 1873, short-term and part-time courses were started in the Educational Training Department of Iowa University. In 1879, the University of Michigan did praiseworthy work by organising full-time teacher training course.
In 1887, Columbia University in New York, not only provided teacher training programme but also organised training for school managers. This provision proved very useful and this Teacher Training College made significant contribution for the development of teacher training.
During the second decade of the twentieth century, efforts were made by the educationists to give a technical shape to teacher training. Thus education was now treated as a subject of teacher education and it was compulsorily included in the curriculum of teacher training for making the teachers more capable and qualified.