Characteristics and competencies for teacher educators : addressing the need for improved professional standards in Turkey

Although a great deal of attention has been given to the nature of teaching and the qualities a good teacher ought to possess, there has been little emphasis on the specific characteristics and competencies that teacher educators should have. This paper discusses whether setting explicit standards for teacher educators would help or hinder efforts to improve the quality of teaching about teaching, touching on the viewpoints of student teachers versus professional organisations regarding standards of quality and exploring the implied and explicit standards of academic institutions for language teacher educators in the US and Australia, in comparison with the less-defined standards currently present in the Turkish educational system. [Author abstract]