Original scientific paper
COMPETENCES OF PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS FOR EFFECTIVE SCIENCE AND SOCIETY TEACHING
Alena Letina
; Učiteljski fakultet, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Hrvatska
Abstract
For adaptation to new circumstances in education and acceptance of new roles which brings the student oriented teaching, teachers need an increasing number of different competences. Because of the efforts that the future teacher should become qualified for all these roles, into the teacher education were implemented some changes. Educational goals in teacher education started to formulate in terms of competences and learning outcomes. Preferred competences indicate student teachers` knowledge, abilities, skills, attitudes, values and habits for professional teaching, and appropriate application of basic, pedagogical, didactical and methodological knowledge in everyday teaching practice. Documents that define the teachers` competence profile, are also the basis for defining the specific teachers` competences that student teachers acquire through different subjects during their study, including the competences that students acquire in the Didactics of school subject Science and Society. Development of these competences also means that student teachers` are qualified for high-quality and effective Science and Society teaching.
This paper present the results of the research which aim to determine the level of novice teachers` competences for effective teaching Science and Society, based on the curriculum requirements of contemporary teaching, and answer the question which competences teacher assessed as insufficiently developed.
The research detected competences for the effective teaching of school subject Science and Society which novice teachers assessed as insufficiently developed. Insight in those results allows us to take steps which will enable better student teachers` education and their preparation for the future work.
The study was conducted on a sample of 120 novice teachers in Zagreb area. For this research we used special designed teacher questionnaire for self-assessment of contemporary teaching competences of school subject Science and Society.
Based on the analysis of the results we formulated recommendations for the acquisition of appropriate competences in teacher education, related to the contemporary teaching of subject Science and society, as well as recommendations for the professional teacher training for development of those competences which are less developed. These results will also allow further discussion and definition of teachers` key competences in the Didactics of Science and Society that students acquire during their formal education, and that are essential for professional teaching of subject Science and Society.
Keywords
teachers` competences; Didactics of school subject Science and Society; contemporary teaching of Science and Society; teacher education
Hrčak ID:
121414
URI
Publication date:
13.6.2013.
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