Teaching Practice Benchmarking Methodology: The Way to Teacher Education Professionalism in Kenya

Abstract

Benchmarking in Teaching Practice (TP) is the process of identification of "best practice" in relation to quality of teachers produced. It involves assessment of the processes by which teachers are trained and posted to various institutions for Internship. The objective of benchmarking in TP is to understand and evaluate the current position of the organization of teacher education process in relation to "best practice", and to identify areas and possible means of performance improvement. The purpose of this paper was to assess how Kenyan teacher education institutions in general and university of Nairobi in particular could position themselves compared to teacher education institutions globally, in the professional management of TP. The paper proposes a benchmarking methodology which the authors believe will be appropriate for professional teaching attachment and to which the various teacher education institutions in Kenya could adhere. Key words: Benchmarking, professionalism, Cooperating Teachers, supervision, placement