Teacher Training vs. Trainer Training in Education

Although people outside the education field may use teacher education and teacher training interchangeably, education theorists distinguish the terms clearly. In the context of teacher preparation, training corresponds to learning real-life classroom skills while education refers to more abstract knowledge about modes of learning and instruction. When referring to the process of preparing future teachers, education specialists find “teacher education†more consistent with the idea of developing versatile, reflective practitioners with a wealth of professional knowledge. In education theory, training refers to acquisition of concrete skills for meeting specific goals in a real-life, applied situation. This often includes “closed skills,†like typing or juggling, that have absolute ceiling on mastery or where the only way to improve the skill is to do it faster or while multi-tasking. For teachers, training might include how to maintain a grade book or calculate reading fluency scores. In contrast, education focuses on more abstract knowledge and open-ended concepts, like the ability to design factory equipment or write poetry. Open skills rely on abstract understanding and have no absolute ceiling on performance. Examples from teaching include how to design an original lesson plan or promote critical thinking. This distinction is subtle since abstract concepts can empower students to meet real-life goals, similar to training. Furthermore, training in concrete skills can foster understanding of an underlying concept, similar to education. Some theorists distinguish education from training based on intention. Education aims to improve the mind while training aims to improve performance. In many cases, education and training go hand in hand. This paper, attempts to critically analyse the similarities and differences of teacher training and trainer training in various domains. To attain this objective, the paper is divided in to five main parts. Firstly it helps the reader understand some key concepts in the field, namely, student; teacher; teacher trainer; trainer trainer/educator. Then a distinction between teacher training and trainer training settings in various domains is presented. After that some approaches to training that can be used in both contexts will be discussed. Next, two distinctive ways of reflection used in each of the contexts are highlighted and finally, some ways each context conceive knowledge, and how they apply in practice.