The Change of Teacher Training in Lithuania

The present paper makes an overview of the Lithuanian educational reform since the restoration of the country’s independence. The educational reform has been performed in a goal-orientated way, following the principles of humanity, democracy, rationality and renewal. Since the beginning of the reform, the legislative framework of the educational system has been subject to improvement, having regard of the national needs, EU requirements and international commitment. The educational reform has brought about changes in the highest and the most complex level of the educational system, higher education. Developments included amended legislation of higher education, legally-based autonomy of higher education establishments, a three-tier system of university studies similar to Western countries, and a binary system of higher education, consisting of universities and colleges. The latter two are the focus of the present paper. After the Law on Higher Education of the Republic of Lithuania set the grounds for the system of higher education and higher non-university studies, polytechnics were transformed into vocational colleges and colleges were set up on the basis of special secondary schools. The key development factor and the actor is the teacher who is in charge of the educational process. Therefore, teaching quality and attainment of the goals of the educational reform largely depends on the teacher working at school; hence new developments set new requirements for the teacher and teacher training. The paper looks at the changes of the teacher training system: amendment of the legislative framework, institutional change of higher education establishments that train teachers, with a special focus on a non-university type of higher education schools. The key document, forming the basis for the teacher training reform, is the Teacher Training Concept Paper of 2004. It provides for the fundamental reform of the system of teacher training and a new procedure of granting professional qualification to teachers. The latter document introduces quite a few novelties in the teacher training process. Therefore, to ensure successful implementation of the principles laid down in the concept paper it is essential to bear in mind not only the approach of its authors but also the attitudes of higher teacher training education establishments towards the planned change. The last chapters of the present paper describes the attitude of teacher training colleges towards certain provisions of the new concept paper identified by the survey The Change of Teacher Training.Švietimo akademijaVytauto Didžiojo universiteta