Mgr. Martin Skutil Dr. Martina Manenovä, Ph. D. What should a lower primary school teacher be like from a school management's point of view? Original scientific article UDK: 37.011.3-051:373.3 ABSTRACT Current society requires a high level of performance from teachers. There are some ideas about ideal teachers concerning either their professional and didactic skills or personality. This article presents some partial results of our research in which we wanted to find out the ideas that school leaders have about primary school teachers. This project was based on empirical research that was done qualitatively and quantitatively and is generally divided into two phases. Combining both approaches seemed to be a convenient research strategy with the first phase, being a quality-based interview followed by a quantity-based study. The results show that school leaders mostly expect their teachers to have the following personal characteristics: emotional stability, resistance to stress, tolerance, openness, a sense of humor, ability to be self-critical, compassion as well as being skilled in didactics. The most important professional competence school leaders chose was psycho-di-dactical competence. Managerial and normative competences were set back. Keywords: key teacher-competences, requirements of teachers, profession standards Kakšni bi morali biti učitelji na razredni stopnji z vidika vodstva šole? POVZETEK Današnja družba od učiteljev zahteva nastop na visokem nivoju. Obstajajo ideje o idealnih učiteljih glede na njihove profesionalne in didaktične sposobnosti ali glede na osebnost. Članek predstavlja delne rezultate raziskave o predstavah, ki jih imajo ravnatelji šol o učiteljih v osnovni šoli. Projekt temelji na empirični raziskavi, izpeljani kvalitativno in kvantitativno, in je na splošno razdeljen v dve fazi. Priročna raziskovalna strategija v prvi fazi je bila kombinacija obeh pristopov, intervjuju, ki temelji na kvaliteti, je sledila študija, ki temelji na kvantiteti. Rezultati kažejo, da večina ravnateljev od učiteljev pričakuje naslednje osebnostne značilnosti: čustveno stabilnost, odpornost na stres, tolerantnost, odprtost, smisel za humor, sposobnost samokritike, sočutnost in hkrati didaktične sposobnosti. Za najpomembnejše kompetence so ravnatelji šol izbrali psiho-didaktične kompetence. Vodstvene in normativne kompetence pa so bile malo zapostavljene. Ključne besede: ključne učiteljeve kompetence, zahteve od učiteljev, profesionalni standardi Introduction One of the main goals of a primary school teachers' training is to provide a teacher with key professional competences which are understood as complex psycho-di-dactic skills enabling a teacher to solve complicated pedagogical problems. The key trend from a curricular point of view is to focus on primary school teachers' education. According to V. Spilkovä (2004, p.107), five basic tendencies of primary school teachers' preparatory education can be identified. These are based on the following different professional profiles of teachers: a child focused teacher, a curriculum focused teacher, a socially focused teacher, a teacher as a »technologist«and a multi-profiled teacher. Nowadays, there is a trend in primary school training to build curriculums that focus on the children. Primary school teachers study either a one-phase parallel program (academic and professional studies are proceeded together) or an integrated program (theoretical subjects and teaching practice are integrated). A specific feature of professional primary school teachers' training is their continued contact with real schools from the beginning of their studies. The Primary School Teaching Curriculum is designed as a five-year unstructured Master's degree program, which considers new tasks (rising heterogeneity among pupils, increasing psychological and health problems etc.) Contextual frame Teaching profession The teaching profession has been described as »a social role connected with a group of activities with the aim of influencing pupils' behavior, opinions and feelings and teach them in the field of knowledge, skills and habits created by previous generations« (Walterovä, Prucha, Mareš, 1998, p. 272). Teaching practice is based on the existence of systematic pedagogical theory, which is necessary for the teaching profession. Its formal requirements are a university education, specific social needs to educate and bring up young generations, teacher-authority, teacher-associations with an aim to maintain »professional« honor and the development of behavior rules and professional ethics for teachers, i.e. the ethics of the relationships between teachers and pupils and their parents and society as a whole (Walterovä, Prucha, Mareš, 1998). Some authors consider the teaching profession as a mission. The statement that some people are born good teachers cannot be agreed on. Every teacher needs to get plenty of professional competences and irreplaceable practical experience to reach his or her professional goals. Teachers' professionalization The main changes in the conception of the teaching profession are in its professionalization (Kota, 1994). For example, Kurelovä (1997) works with a more exact description of the teaching profession, which comes from the range of difficulty of the work. This range has nine categories - from the first (the lowest difficulty professions) up to the ninth (the highest difficulty professions). Primary school teachers belong to the seventh category-a highly difficult and qualified work that has limited independence. The other professions belonging to this category are large organization managers, human resources staff, legal advisors and professional athletes. The foundation of this professionalization can be seen its emphasis on pedagogical-psychological skills. It is described as a transition from competences in handing particular disciplines of knowledge to competences in making models of a »wide professionalism«, focusing on the teacher's taking part in a child's socialization and his or her complex cultivation (Spilkovä, 1997). Nowadays, this would require every teacher's active role in the transformation of internal education. It is important to point out the key points in the current understanding of the term teachers' professional ization as a general resource for current changes (see the scheme). Professional ization can be described on two related levels: ideas of a teacher's performance (the teacher as a professional expert) blended with opinions about the teachers' professional ization as an action which leads towards a pedagogical profession. The process of professionalization is still a little unclear (Štech, 1994), which has been expressed by the question of future teachers' qualification, their competences and professional qualities. Scheme 1: Basic features of teachers' professionalization (Svatoš, 1997) It is probable to expect that the current undergraduate training of future teachers will reflect an aspect of individualization. That is why inner changes of the college student's roles in becoming a teacher should be studied more carefully as well as the possibilities of them taking part in his or her own professional development (applica- tion of the selective and reflective competence principle - Nezvalovä, 1993; Švec, 1996 and others). Everything should take place in a socially and communicatively friendly atmosphere with a general effort for mutual dialogue. Professional competence of teachers A teacher's professional performance is defined by the working conditions as well as his or her professional competence level created during their professionalization. It is the centre of the process of designing educational programs (Vašutova, 2001). Defining the terms competence, key competence, and teacher's professional competence have not yet been established and unified. Pedagogical competences and skills-these terms can sometimes be interchangeable or even identical to each other. Nevertheless, pedagogical competence is a wider term. Mareš (1991) understands pedagogical competence as the general value of a pedagogical professionalism. Švec (1999) describes it as a group of competences which a teacher should have in order to be able to teach effectively and to educate and improve his or her pedagogical activity. The term »teacher-competence« itself is often described as a complex profile of certain characteristics and skills that consist of partial or special competences. These are the abilities and competences needed for a successful career (Walterovä, Prucha, Mareš, 1998, p.110). The competences include attitudes, values and personality characteristics. Emphasis is put on the concept of dynamic competences, which initiate movement, direction and the desired standards for the teaching profession. The concept of dynamics leads to an openness towards changes, flexibility during the many years of teaching and an ability to find new solutions for unusual pedagogical situations. Vašutova writes about professional competences: »A competence represents an integrated file of knowledge, skills, attitudes and experience which are necessary for the qualified performance of certain activities, operations and decisions that are displayed in a professional performance« (2001, p.30). Slavfk and Sinor (1993) define competences as a teacher's ability to be ready to cope with the requirements, professional role and authenticity of his or her own ability (p.156). It is possible to find different classifications of key professional competences in our literature as well as foreign sources. According to Belzand Siegriest (2001) key competences were first described by Mestens in 1974 in relation to the labor market. They did not enter the area of education until the end of the 1990's. Besides the term itself, there are some nuances of it in European curriculums (for example, Germany and Austria), threshold and final competences (the French community in Belgium), basic competences (Germany, Portugal, Luxemburg), key qualifications (Germany) and key skills (Great Britain). Švec (1998) outlined these basic groups of pedagogical competences for future teachers: 1. Teaching and education competences, i.e. mainly: - diagnostic competences based on the fact that a teacher can diagnose not only his or her pupils' knowledge and skills but also their learning approach (preconception), learning styles and other pupil's potentials and relationships among pupils and the classroom atmosphere - psychopedic competence focused on projecting approaches that stimulate learning, the realization of these projects and the educational influence it has - communicative competence that enable an effective communication with pupils in different pedagogical situations 2. Personal competences that are necessary for maintaining successful pedagogical influence, especially including the teacher's responsibility for his or her pedagogical decisions as well as their realized results in pedagogical communication, flexibility, empathy, authenticity, ability to accept themselves as well as other people (pupils, parents, colleagues) etc. 3. Developing competences which consist of: - adaptive competence: enables a teacher to be well-informed about social changes and to teach this skill to their pupils - information technology competence: to be informed about modern technologies - research competence: enables a teacher to solve pedagogical problems with the help of scientific methods and research from their own pedagogical activities - self-criticism competence: enables a teacher to think about his or her pedagogical activities and make changes to them - auto regulative competence: consisting of regulating a teacher's pedagogical activity and improving his or her teaching styles and pedagogical skills. These pedagogical competences fade into one another in practical pedagogical activity and are based on personality competences, which, together with the development competences, influence the formation of teaching and education competences. Teacher's professional standard »The term teacher's profession as a qualification is described by the so called professional standard. It is mainly conceived as a normalization technique for setting professional competences that are necessary for a standard qualified professional performance based on the activities, duties and responsibilities of the profession. The term graduate's profile (so called education standard) can also be derived from this same normalization. This term can direct a profession, better a career or set teachers' and educational program evaluations too« (Vašutova, 2004). The profession standards include the setting of qualification requirements necessary for starting this profession. It defines necessary (key) teacher-competences (a teacher - a pedagogical worker) that define their competence in the appropriate category of their profession and in their implementation (for example - kind and range of education, practice). If this system is accepted, profession standards will unify future teachers' undergraduate education criteria. Vašutova introduced a proposal for teacher's key competences in 2001 which was adjusted and reduced so as to form the college graduate's profile for education (Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, 2003). A student should acquire the following competences during his or her studies: - subject competence - didactic and psycho-didactic competence - general pedagogical competence - diagnostic and interventional competence - social-communicative competence - managerial and legislative competence - profession self-criticism competence Methodology Research aims The primary aim of our research was to find out, describe and analyze school management requirements for lower primary school teacher competences. Secondary aims: • To intensify cooperation with primary schools • To develop students' skills necessary for research projects (social psychological skills needed for surveying the cognitive skills needed for information processing) Description of research methods This project was based on empirical research done qualitatively and quantitatively. It is generally divided into two phases. Combining both approaches seemed to be a convenient research strategy with the first phase being a quality interview followed by a quantity study. Both phases are combined and later extended towards the end to complete the gathered data. The advantage of this combination can be seen in recognizing the core problems in the first phase, which were then used to devise a questionnaire dealing with the basis of a given problem in pedagogical reality. This would probably be difficult to express for academic workers. The result is a realistic picture of a researched situation based on the profound recognition of the problem both qualitatively and quantitatively, in which the research sample needed to be big enough to guarantee a certain objectivity in the gathered information, which is in relation to its high informative value for further use - in our case, the possibility of modifying the studies at ÜPPE. Thanks to this, a high validity was achieved guaranteed by the qualitative analysis of the data together with its high reliability and generalization, which on the contrary, was enabled by quantitative methodology. This project dealt with the school management requirements expected from the graduates of The Faculty of Education, specifically lower primary school teaching graduates. The interviews were conducted with headmasters of chosen schools in the first, explorative phase. Our aim was to get more specific information about the requirements for future teachers and further information which would help us to clarify a research problem. The gathered data was evaluated and a questionnaire was developed based on this data and distributed by e-mail to the schools. The program NCSS was used to work out the quantitative results. Research file The research file for the qualitative survey was made up of 6 primary school headmasters in Hradec Krälove. This selection was made with the aim of covering as wide a range of school management as possible (a non-graded school, a school located in the block of flats estate, a smaller school on the outskirts). The basic file for the quantitative survey was made up of 3, 821 schools in the Czech Republic. The schools were sent an electronic questionnaire by e-mail. On the whole 471 respondents sent a completed questionnaire back, 19 did not properly complete the questionnaires (which were excluded from the survey results). We ended up working with 452 fully completed questionnaires. The return was 11,8%. Research results The respondents rated the importance level of a given characteristic for a successful teacher's performance in a range from 0 to 10 points (10 = the most important, 1 = only a small importance, 0 = no importance). Table 2 summarizes the basic parametric values. The characteristics are ordered according to all the ratings received in the order of the highest scored to the lowest: didactic skills, fairness, patience, consistency, communicativeness, emotional stability, education, self-criticism, cooperation ability, decisiveness, optimism, sense of humor, being logic, openness. Table 1: Evaluation of Teachers' Characteristics Variable Average Standard deviation Min. Max. Median Modus Amount emotional stability 7,66 2,59 0 10 8 10 3461 didactic skills 8,96 1,90 0 10 10 10 4049 consistency 8,40 2,40 0 10 9 10 3796 empathy 7,93 2,55 0 10 9 10 3586 communicativeness 8,38 2,36 0 10 9 10 3789 cooperativeness 7,24 2,59 0 10 8 8 3273 creativity 8,11 2,28 0 10 9 10 3664 being logical 6,65 2,56 0 10 7 8 3008 stress resistance 8,07 2,51 0 10 9 10 3648 optimism 7,73 2,59 0 10 8 10 3493 openness 6,49 2,61 0 10 7 8 2935 general knowledge 7,14 2,61 0 10 8 8 3229 decisiveness 7,18 2,68 0 10 8 8 3244 self-criticism 7,43 2,54 0 10 8 8 3357 self-education 7,76 2,52 0 10 8 10 3506 sense of humor 7,04 2,62 0 10 8 8 3181 fairness 8,67 2,43 0 10 10 10 3921 tolerance 7,82 2,62 0 10 9 10 3535 patience 8,66 2,29 0 10 10 10 3913 education 7,60 2,77 0 10 8 10 3434 There were seven competencies which respondents matched the order to: subject, didactic and psycho-didactic, pedagogical, diagnostic and interventional, social and communicative, manager's and normative and profession cultivating. Parametric data for every competence is provided in table 4. It can be seen that the average order of competencies is as follows: 1. psycho-didactic 2. pedagogical 3. social and communicative 4. subject 5. diagnostic and interventional 6. profession cultivating 7. manager's and normative. Table 2: Profession Competencies Variable competence Average Standard deviation Minimum Maximum Median Modus Amount subject 4,44 1,60 1 7 5 5 2008 psycho/didactic 2,32 1,36 1 7 2 1 1047 pedagogical 2,41 1,36 1 7 2 2 1089 diagnostic and interventional 4,49 1,34 1 7 4 4 2029 social and communicative 3,08 1,65 1 7 3 1 1393 manager's and normative 6,14 1,46 1 7 7 7 2776 profession cultivating 5,12 1,61 1 7 6 6 2314 The list of mentioned orders is described in graph 1. Graph 1: Absolute frequency of single competencies order O A □ * ♦ We compared the evaluation of single characteristics of an optimal teacher from the headmasters' (363) and deputies' (89) point of view within the frame of the second order analysis and non-parametric tests mentioned above. The evaluation revealed significant differences between these items: emotional stability, didactic skills, optimism, openness, general knowledge, decisiveness, self-criticism, tolerance and patience. These items were highly rated by deputies based on the statistics. Table 3: Characteristics of an optimal teacher (differences according to position) Characteristic Gender Average Median Mann Whitney U W Amount and Order Z P B01 emotional stability headmaster/ headmistress 7,52 8 14186 80252 1,8221 0,034224 left-sided deputy 8,20 8 18121 22126 B02 didactic skills headmaster/ headmistress 8,26 9 13784,5 79850,5 2,2664 0,023428 deputy 8,97 10 18522,5 22527,5 B10 optimism headmaster/ headmistress 7,59 8 14019,5 80085,5 1,9770 0,048040 deputy 8,28 9 18287,5 22292,5 B11 openness headmaster/ headmistress 6,29 6 12416 78482 3,4269 0,000610 deputy 7,30 8 19891 23896 B12 general knowledge headmaster/ headmistress 7,00 8 13812 79878 2,1524 0,031366 deputy 7,73 8 18495 22500 B13 decisiveness headmaster/ headmistress 6,99 8 12936 79002 2,9600 0,003076 deputy 7,93 8 19371 23376 B14 self-criticism headmaster/ headmistress 7,28 8 14034,5 80100,5 1,9521 0,050927 deputy 8,04 8 18272,5 22277,5 B18 tolerance headmaster/ headmistress 7,67 8 13725,5 79791,5 2,2502 0,024437 deputy 8,43 9 18581,5 22586,5 B19 patience headmaster/ headmistress 8,51 9 13572 79638 2,5285 0,011456 deputy 9,25 10 18735 22740 We analogically proved the influence of the work position on the choice of order suggested by the seven competences. Nevertheless, the choices seem to be independent of the respondents' working position. We also compared the evaluation of the particular characteristics of an optimal teacher from point of view of men (154) and women (298). As the monitored variables did not show a normal lay-out (The Skewness' Normality Test and a modified version of The Leven's Test of Homogeneity of Variances were evaluated for each variable), non-parametric tests were used to compare two files: Mann-Whitney's U and Wilcoxon's Test Amount and Order. Their results proved that there exist differences between genders when evaluating all the items (all tests are valid on a 1 % importance scale). Women scored higher in every item except the cooperativeness. This fact can be explained in several ways, among others it could be the so called constant mistake or a mistake of benevolence (women generally over evaluate and men are more critical). These results proved the existence of differences between genders concerning their choice of preferences for these items: consistency (women), communicativeness (women), creativity (women), openness, self-criticism, self-education (women), fairness, tolerance. Table 4: Optimal teacher's characteristics (differences between men and women) Characteristics Gender Average Median Mann Whitney U W Amount and Order Z P B01 emotional stability men 6,92 8 16624 28559 -4 Q1 9? 0,000001 women 8,04 8 29268 73819 B02 didactic skills men 8,69 10 19822 31757 -2,6858 0,007235 women 9,09 10 26070 70621 B03 consistency men 7,78 8 16833 28768 4 qnf>4 0,000001 women 8,72 10 29059 73610 B04 empathy men 7,61 8 19954,5 31889,5 -2,3358 0,019501 women 8,10 9 25937,5 70488,5 B05 communicativeness men 8,06 9 20681,5 32616,5 -1,8018 0,035788 left sided women 8,55 9 25210,5 69761,5 B06 cooperativeness men 6,75 8 19230,5 31165,5 -2,8688 0,004120 women 6,50 8 26661,5 71212,5 BO 7 creativity men 7,64 8 18799 30734 -3,2389 0,001200 women 8,35 9 27093 71644 B08 being logical men 6,17 7 19529,5 31464,5 -2,6320 0,008487 women 6,91 7 26362,5 70913,5 B09 stress resistance men 7,57 8 17463,5 29398,5 4 0,000017 women 8,31 9 28428,5 72979,5 B10 optimism men 7,21 8 18350,5 30285,5 -3,5721 0,000354 women 8,00 9 541 72092,5 B11 openness men 6,05 6 19469,5 31404,5 -2,6745 0,007484 women 6,72 7 26422,5 70973,5 B12 general knowledge men 6,54 7 17973 29908 -3,8355 0,000125 women 7,46 8 27919 72470 B13 decisiveness men 6,37 7 16084 28019 -5,2967 0,000000 women 7,59 8 29808 74359 B14 self-criticism men 7,05 8 19740,5 31675,5 -2,4777 0,013224 women 7,62 8 26151,5 70702,5 B15 self-education men 6,99 8 16105,5 28040,5 -5,3079 0,000000 women 8,15 9 29786,5 74337,5 B16 sense of humor men 6,68 7 19815 31750 -2,4153 0,015723 women 7,22 8 26077 70628 B17 fairness men 8,45 9 20721 32656 -1,8537 0,031893 left sided women 8,79 10 25171 69722 B18 tolerance men 7,49 8 20095 32030 -2,2169 0,026629 men 7,99 9 25797 70348 B19 patience women 8,27 9 18003,5 29938,5 .4 nfil 7 0,000049 men 8,86 10 27888,5 72439,5 B20 education women 6,95 8 17471,5 29406,5 4 9 541 0,000021 men 7,93 9 28420,5 72971,5 Conclusion Current society requires a high level of requirements for teachers. There are some ideas of what ideal qualities teachers should have concerning their qualifications, didactic skills and personality. The requirements for teachers are formulated as the so called professional standards. In our research, we wanted to find out what specific ideas headmasters and their deputies have nowadays. We gathered their ideas and put them together into a file of required qualities for teachers. On the basis of a factor analysis, four primary school teacher-characteristics groups were created: • the first factor (the widest range): emotional stability, stress resistance, tolerance, openness, sense of humor, self-criticism, empathy, optimism, patience, fairness, decisiveness and being logic • the second factor: didactic skills as an independent factor (this item also achieved the highest point-scores) • the third factor: combining creativity, self-education and communicativeness • the fourth factor: combining consistency, education and general knowledge The respondents were asked to order the items according to seven competences: subject, didactics and psycho-didactics, pedagogy, diagnostics and intervention, society and communication, manager's and normative and professional cultivation. We can see an average order of the importance of the competences based on parametric data: 1. psycho/didactic 2. pedagogical 3. social and communicative 4. subject 5. diagnostic and interventional 6. profession cultivating 7. manager's and normative Finally, we would like to reveal that the partial results that we have gathered so far prove the importance of input on personality variables. We have found out that these are superior to the competences which are developed during a teacher's university preparation for their future teaching job. LITERATURE BELZ, H., SIEGRIEST, M. Klfčove kompetence a jejich razvijem. Praha : Portal, 2001. ISBN 80-7178-479-6. FABEROVÄ, M., BARTOŠOVA, I., PETRIKOVÄ, J., SKUTIL, M., VÄCLAVIK, V., VALTER, J. Požadavky vedoucfch pracovnfku škol na kompetence vyucujfcfch na 1. stupni ZŠ ŠZaverečna zpravaĆ. Hradec Krälove : ÜPPE PdF UHK, 2007. 34 s. KOTA, J. Učitel a jeho profese. In KASIKOVÄ, H., VALAŠIKOVA, A. a kol. Pedagogicke otäzky současnosti. 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