Review article
Teachers' Initial Education and Professional Improving Directed Toward Training for Promotion of Education for Sustainable Development
Vesna Kostović-Vranješ
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Split, Split, Croatia
Abstract
The effectiveness of education at all levels of formal education depends on the quality of the teacher, who is the main creator, organizer and activator of the teaching process as well as the main instigator and partner of students in acquiring knowledge and developing skills. The quality of the professional activities of teachers is based on competences they gained during their initial education and teaching practice during their studies and internships but also depends on teachers’ involvement in various forms of lifelong education and professional development. A contemporary teacher must be able to harmonize her/his professional activities with the changes and demands of modern society, whose main imperative is sustainable development, in order to train students for their personal and professional work in the 21st century in a sustainable way. Unfortunately, the education records show an insufficient amount of pedagogically competent teachers for integrating education in sustainable development in the current curricula. Practicing teachers attribute this to the inadequacies in the initial training for the teaching profession and insufficient professional training organized by the Agency for Education. This paper thus aims to emphasize the need for modernization of the initial curriculum for the teaching profession and the need for raising awareness of the importance of integrating education for sustainable development into the teaching process. At the same time, the purpose of the paper is to stress the need and importance of creating a curriculum of thoughtful and systematic professional training to be realized by university teachers, but also the need for creating special postgraduate studies programs aimed at training teachers to promote education for sustainable development.
Keywords
education for sustainable development; training students; pedagogical competence; professional development; teacher
Hrčak ID:
154589
URI
Publication date:
15.3.2016.
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