The idea of competence is widely discussed in education, accompanied by fierce controversy, when it is strictly associated with work training and, therefore, is criticized. This process of seeking solutions to problems reveals someone’s competence. In light of this, the competence of modern educators should deserve to be treated with more attention than a research topic. It is crucial because teacher competence is fundamental to developing student competence which should be the school’s priority function. Having as a premise the controversies that involve the concept of competence, the relevance of developing competence in a humanistic perception, and also the centrality of the Attitude dimension (values) in education, we set out to reflect on how teacher competence influences the development of the student’s competence. The methodology involved was bibliographic research. The results indicate that the association of the competence concept with the corporate world and the lack of a clear and shared definition of competence need to be overcome to favor that it could be developed.
Keyword(s) : values
Teacher Professional Development and Media Education in a Virtual Learning Environment
The digital and media environment has brought new challenges that demand the development of specific skills to face them. Teachers are aware of the importance of using technology and social networks in educating new generation. However, they do not feel prepared to provide media education. The issue of education in values still receives less attention than necessary. The aim of the study is: to develop a Teacher Professional Development (TPD) program that allows participants to be better prepared to work with media education, focused on the Ideology and Values dimension. Research methods: to develop the TPD in the LMS it will be necessary: 1st. definition of educational objectives related to media education, focused on the Ideology and Values dimension; 2nd. To carry out a survey of media products that can promote reflection, analysis, synthesis and discussion that will be transformed into Digital Learning Object-DLO, instructional components that can be reused in different contexts and accessed through the Internet; 3rd. selection of didactic strategies, using the DLO, to be developed to reach the objective. Conclusions and recommendations: The design of the TPD program, in the LMS, with a playful perspective and active participation of teachers, enables the organization of classes and activities online using various resources in the form of a learning object.
Characteristics of Schools for Girls: A Case Study
Single-sex schools account for a minimal percentage of alternative forms of education in Poland.
Debates around such institutions focus on the issues of work efficiency in the context of academic
achievements and dilemmas related to the social functioning of students. Most research on singlesex
education is based on the positivist paradigm and uses quantitative methods. However, there are
no monographic descriptions that consider the interpretative paradigm. In response to this gap, the
author conducted a study of the culture of the girls’ school using qualitative methods – a case study
based on the method of ethnography.
The aim of the research was to conduct an in-depth study of a selected institution and describe
its culture applying anthropology-based concept. I was interested in what image of the institution
emerged based on individual interpretations of its members.
The aim of the study. The main research questions concerned the specificity of the functioning of
the staff in particular – the relations and key program assumptions. I tried to find out which aims
are declaratively important and which are implemented by members of the school community. An
important topic was also their perception of social relations and the style of working of the staff. The
next task was to analyse and interpret the meanings that my interviewees attached to selected aspects
of the school’s operation. The actions taken can be defined as constructing and reconstructing the
model of the studied reality. The main aim of the analysis was to hear the “voice from the field” in
order to understand better the meanings that the interlocutors attach to the everyday life at school.
Research methods. The basic procedure for collecting data were interviews, partially structured and indepth,
as well as observations of various school situations (both formal and informal). I interviewed
parents, teachers, representatives of the board, and other school employees, I conducted focus group
interviews (FGI) with students, I shadowed the headmaster, and analysed the documents. I used
Atlas.ti software for the data analysis, which facilitated assigning and classification of codes and then
combining them into broader categories.
Conclusions and recommendations. Research has shown that adult respondents interpret the school
reality in a similar way. Both parents and school employees emphasized the importance of values in
constructing the school’s working style and the unique climate of families connected with the school.
Social relations and emotions accompanying them were a significant problem, which on the one
hand was a challenge for everyday work, and on the other hand, the expected style of functioning.
The female character of the school manifested itself mainly in these dimensions. To a lesser extent, it
was reflected in the style of work that would be in line with the stereotyped interests of the students.
The results of the study apply to the specific case of the studied school. The methodology can be used
many times in relation to any institution of this type.
Values, Imaginaries and Policy-Making for Teacher Education: insights from researching the Russian Federation context of reform, 2000-17
The paper presents insights drawn from researching the discursive construction between 2000 and
2017 of new values-systems that guide, and force, change in Teacher Education within Higher Education
in the Russian Federation. It considers particularly the imaginaries and values that underpin
official policy documents related to Higher Teacher Education within the broader field of educational
policy across this time scale of almost two decades. The central focus rests on the challenge of
researching the construction of a driving discursive context for change, subsequently consolidated
through the activities of the Modernisation of Teacher Education Project (MoTEP) which was officially
launched by the Ministry of Education and Science in 2014. It is not the intention of this
paper to discuss in any great detail the nature and practice of Russia’s Teacher Higher Education in
itself; for this we suggest Sobolev’s (2016) excellent account. Rather, we focus on what can be learnt
from researching an aspect of one of the most intriguing and grand-scale policy-led projects of our
time; the rehabilitation of Russia as a global power. The research underpinning the paper draws on
Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) to explicate the nature and detail of the changes being promulgated
and the construction of these through policy work. It does so by evaluating a series of key policy
documents and discursive events that seek to redefine discursively the values-base of teacher education
in the Federation. For this, a discourse historical approach (DHA) is used, drawing primarily
on the ideas of Krzyżanowski (2010) and Reisigl and Wodak (2001; 2017). Sitting within the critical
discourse studies tradition this approach provides our guiding theoretical perspective and informs
the research methodology. Our analysis suggests that the values-system and imaginaries of teacher
education are strongly reliant on a unique and highly contextualised discursive construction and a
legitimation of policy-actions by means of references to strategies and visions for the ‘competitive,
innovative and leading economy’, and that the imaginaries and values that underpin Higher Teacher
Education in the Russian Federation, are challenging to research because they are considerably more
complex and multifaceted than much of the reform activity assumes.