by Jeffrey Ober

Created on: November 23, 2009   Last Updated: November 25, 2009

Teachers can certainly learn and develop by spending time in teacher training in other nations. This can help both teachers from developing nations and teachers from developed nations. While teachers from developed nations may feel that they have the best training, they can always learn more, and there are things they can learn from developing nations that will help them, their classrooms, and their students.

While a teacher from a developed nation may have the best academic education, they may not have the experience and knowledge that comes from seeing and working in different environmental conditions. Sending these teachers to a developing nation can quickly immerse the teacher in an environment just plain different from their own experience.

These teachers can have their eyes opened to a different classroom and different types of students. These teachers can see how people from developing countries use their own limited resources to overcome the same problems that teachers from developed countries face.

In a developing country, technology and cash are usually not available to solve any classroom problems - but these classrooms and teachers are often going to face quite similar problems as those faced by teachers in developed countries.

Teachers from developed countries can also benefit from simply seeing the process used by teachers in developing countries. They may be able to learn teaching methods that are used in developing countries to help children learn who might be disadvantaged in different ways from those in the developed countries. Students are students around the world, and learning new ways to solve different student problems can help any teacher.

At the same time, there are disadvantages to sending teachers from developed nations to developing nations for teacher training. One of the primary barriers is cost - the cost of the transportation to and from the countries is often quite expensive. In addition, the teacher from the developed country will need to take time off and time away from their regular teaching duties.

They will need to have contacts in the host country, and that will take time and resources away from the developing country where they often need it the most.

The effects on the developing country teachers must also be taken into consideration. The teacher from the developed country may bring ideas and processes that they will share with the developing country that are simply not possible in that country.

They could bring influences and suggestions to the developing teachers that are not possible and could eventually de-motivate the developing country's teachers and impact them in a negative way.

However, overall, the benefits of sending a teacher from a developed country to a developing country for short-term teacher training far outweight the drawbacks, and such activities should be strongly encouraged to help everyone expand the global classroom.

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