Teachers’ competencies and their preparedness to new approaches in education

Brze promjene u društvu razlog su osuvremenjivanja odgojno-obrazovne prakse. Težište svih obrazovnih politika razvijenih zemalja je na pripremanju novih generacija za život u promjenjivom i dinamičnom svijetu današnjice. Promjena, kao jedina konstanta koja se provlači kroz sve sfere čovjekova života, zahvatila je i odgojno-obrazovne sustave gdje se uviđa važnost odmicanja od tradicionalnog pristupa nastavi, koji više ne odgovara zahtjevima suvremenog svijeta u kojem živimo. Nova je uloga učitelja definirana i istaknuta kroz kompetencijski profil te se temelji na odgovornosti pripremanja učenika za učenje, napredovanje i življenje u suvremenome svijetu. Sve se više ističe nužnost novog kompetencijskog profila učitelja koji predstavlja odgovor na promjene koje se pokušavaju provesti u obrazovanju. Sukladno toj činjenici, javlja se sve veći interes za istraživanje i definiranje kompetencijskog profila. Većina tih istraživanja daje prikaz navedenog profila današnjih učitelja temeljenog na osobnoj procjeni učitelja. Rezultati takvih istraživanja upućuju na to koje kompetencije učitelji procjenjuju važnima za udovoljavanje zahtjeva suvremene odgojno-obrazovne prakse te koje su kompetencije kod njih osobno više ili manje razvijene. Stoga je cilj ovog istraživanja bio ispitati važnost pojedinih kompetencija za rad u suvremenoj nastavi, ispitati percepciju razvijenosti vlastitih kompetencija učitelja te ispitati koliko se učitelji osjećaju spremnima za reformu školstva koja se pokušava provesti. Provedeno je anonimno anketiranje učitelja razredne i predmetne nastave na području Splitsko-dalmatinske, Zadarske i Ličko-senjske županije. Rezultati provedenog istraživanja daju okvir učiteljskih procjena vezanih uz važnost i razvijenost kompetencija za rad u suvremenoj nastavi, a koje obuhvaćaju komunikaciju i odnose, poticanje mišljenja i rješavanje problema kod učenika, poznavanje i poticanje učenika, poticanje samoreguliranog učenja kod učenika te stručna znanja kod učitelja. Također, prema osobnoj procjeni učitelja, u rezultatima istraživanja prikazana je i njihova razina spremnosti za promjene u obrazovanju.Rapid changes in today's society are the reason why educational practices are being upgraded. The focus of educational policies of all developed countries is on preparing new generations for life in a changing and dynamic environment of today’s world. The change, as the only constant that covers all spheres of human life, has also been implicated in educational systems where the importance of moving away from a traditional approach, as a way of teaching that no longer meets the demands of the modern world we live in, is being recognized. Teacher’s new role is defined and highlighted through the competence profile that is based on preparing students for learning, striving and living in a contemporary world. There is an increased importance for implementing a new teacher's competence profile that has became an answer to the changes that are being endeavored in education. According to this fact, there is an increasing interest in researching and defining the competence profile. Most of these researches provide a description of today's teachers' competence profile based on a teacher's personal evaluation. The result of such researches show what competencies teachers evaluate as important for meeting the demands of modern educational practice and which competencies they themselves find more or less developed. Therefore, the aim of this study has been to examine the importance of individual competencies in contemporary teaching practice, to examine a teachers’ perception of the development of their own competencies and to examine a level of teachers’ preparedness for a change to a new approaches in education. An anonymous survey was conducted for teachers of class and subject teaching in SplitDalmatia, Zadar and Lika-Senj County. The results of the research carried out provide a framework of teacher assessments related to the importance and development of competencies for contemporary teaching, which include communication and relationships, encouraging thinking and solving problems, knowing and encouraging students, encouraging self-regulated learning in students and professional knowledge of teachers. In addition, according to the teachers’ personal evaluation, the results of the study reveal their level of readiness for new approaches to education