TEACHER TRAINING AND STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT IN LESS DEVELOPED COUNTRIES.

AFTER NOTING THE CURRENT TENDENCY IN INDUSTRIALIZED WESTERN SOCIETIES TO QUESTION THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHER TRAINING FOR STUDENT ACHIEVMENT, THE STUDY RE-EXAMINED THE QUESTION BY ANALYZING 32 EMPIRICAL STUDIES IN THE LIGHT OF 16 TEACHER-RELATED VARIABLES. THREE PRINICPAL CONCLUSIONS ARE DRAWN. (1) TEACHER QUALIFICATIONS, AMOUNT OF EDUCATION, AND KNOWLEDGE ARE POSITIVELY RELATED TO STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT. (2) POSTIVE EXPECTATIONS OF STUDENTS CAN OVERRIDE NEGATIVE STUDENT SELF-IMAGES. THE NOTION THAT STUDENT ACHIEVMENT CAN BE IMPROVED BY ADDITIONAL STUDENT OR TEACHER WORK IS ONLY MODERATELY SUPPORTED. (3) WHILE DEMOGRAPHIC AND SOCIAL VARIABLES (SEX, AGE, SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS), HAVE MIXED EFFECTS, MAKES SEEM TO BE MORE SUCCESSFUL FOR SCIENCE/MATH TEACHING AND OLDER TEACHERS SEEM TO BE MORE SUCCESSFUL WITH SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS. THE NOTION THAT HIGHER STATUS MAKES A TEACHER MORE SUCCESSFUL IS ONLY SLIGHTLY SUPPORTED. THE REPORT CONCLUDES WITH POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH. WITH RESPECT TO POLICY, TEACHER TRAINING SHOULD BE UPGRADED IN LDC"S, WITH A FOCUS ON IMPROVED TEACHER KNOWLEDGE AND POSITIVE TEACHER ATTITUDES TOWARDS STUDENTS. SOME ALLOCATION OF TEACHERS ON THE BASIS OF SOCIAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS IS ALSO RECOMMENDED. FUTURE RESEARCH SHOULD EMPLOY AN EXPERIMENTAL, MULTI-VARIATE DESIGN, WITH ATTENTION TO THE INTERACTION BETWEEN TEACHER VARIABLES, TO FIND OUT HOW AND UNDER WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES TEACHERS IN LDC"S ARE MOST EFFECTIVE. REPLICATIONS CONDUCTED IN DIFFERENT TYPES OF SOCIETIES, DIRRERENT SUBJECT AREAS, AND DIFFERENT GRADE LEVELS ARE STRONGLY ADVISED.