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Textbooks and other printed materials will be ever present, in the foreseeable future, as major aids for teaching and learning processes. New textbooks imply new guidelines for teachers, and the ways to handle such guidelines demand teacher training. This paper explains some links between inservice teacher training programs and the development of textbooks. Some basic points related to the production of textbooks include the following: (1) teachers' opinions (at least a sample of teachers) should be consulted in order to design or develop textbooks; (2) the development of textbooks should be adequate and relevant to the local needs; (3) curriculum innovations may fail if textbooks or their respective guidelines are not fully understood by their users, both teachers and pupils; and (4) any mistake or misconception in designing a textbook will have a multiplicative effect, which is why those in charge of designing textbooks must act with a high sense of social responsibility. The paper concludes with a discussion of some concepts and methodolgies of program evaluation and curriculum development as they relate to inservice teacher training. (Author/NQA)

Everyone concerned with educational systems performance agrees that the improvement of teaching qualities is a high priority in any educational effort. Teachers are assigned the role of change agents and are presented with new challenges, e.g., to make education global and permanent, flexible enough to serve in any environment (in or out of the classroom) for life, and reflective of the community. Teachers have to learn to adapt creatively to changes in science and technology and to prepare generations who are universal, critical, and creative and who have firm identities with their sociocultural background. However, a realistic approach to inservice teacher training should consider that teachers are ordinary human beings with their virtues, defects, duties, and rights. Providing some reflections on inservice teacher training, this paper discusses the rationale for and gives a definition of inservice teacher training. Some characteristics of managers in charge of teacher training programs, the criteria for evaluating the qualities of a training program, and some considerations on suitable methods for teacher training are also provided. A diagram of a learning model based on experience and a chart of 16 steps for learning to learn are included. (NQA)