Types and Contents of Teacher Education in Korea

Teacher education in South Korea mainly consists of the following two types: teacher preparation program for preservice teachers and professional development for in-service teachers. The former is part of undergraduate programs either at national universities of education or at the college of education within a university. Teacher preparation program includes student teaching experience and is subdivided into elementary and secondary preservice teacher education. Completing the teacher preparation program is a prerequisite to receiving a teacher certificate. The latter, professional development, is for practicing teachers who are working in elementary, middle, and high schools. In addition, there are different types of in-service teachers, such as preschool/kindergarten teachers, special education teachers, librarians, counselors, and nutrition teachers. Our interest here focused on classroom teachers of elementary schools (grades 1–6) and secondary schools (grades 7–12). This chapter describes three content areas of teacher education: the contents of teacher preparation program, the contents of professional development, and the contents of teacher education for Da-Mun-Wha education, which is the main focus of this book.