Pre-Service And In-Service Training And Professional Evaluation Of Teachers In Romania

Abstract

In Romania, there have been some successes in recent years in the conceptualization, construction, development and evaluation of curricula for primary and secondary education. There is a contradictory situation: the training of trainers in university and the pedagogical education is isolated from the process of conceptual and curricular renewal of primary and secondary education - a field for which teachers of pedagogical education are prepared.. In Romania, lack of rigorously developed professional standards, professional evaluation of teachers who start their careers are deficient. Currently, qualification standards are rudimentary and often contradictory; they do not guarantee consistency in the content covered during the training. It can be said, however, that considerable efforts are being made to legitimize teacher professionalization, in line with European and international requirements. We are also seeking to redefine the professional identity of teaching staff. To eliminate evaluation issues and to design and develop effective evaluation standards, two important components will be developed: as a first step, the guiding principles and specific criteria that will serve as the basis for the elaboration professional standards and the development of assessment tools to be administered at the national level; in a second step, a central document that will be known to teachers and which will identify the skills to develop (professional standards). In this paper, it is proposed to present the steps followed, or to follow, to implement the expected changes.

Keywords: Pre-service trainingin-service trainingprofessional evaluationteachersprofessional standards

Introduction

The creation of a unique academic educational space, starting from the Bologna Process (1999), poses new challenges for the professional training and evaluation of teachers. The aim of this action is to preserve the cultural richness and linguistic diversity of Europe, as well as to enhance the potential for innovation, economic and social development, through full cooperation between European higher education institutions.

Professional training of teachers in Romania

In Romania, the teaching is in a process of reformation, in which all the components are subjected to the transformation: the institutional organization, the relational aspects, the contents conveyed, the system and the modalities of evaluation, the teacher training.

The way in which the initial training of the teacher is carried out is very important, because this profession is not easy at all. The complexity of the teaching profession stems from the following specificities:

- the nature of the profession claims both academic skills in a particular specialty (or several) but also psychopedagogical skills;

- the teaching profession requires the updating of skills, but the initial selection does not consider these aptitudes; progress in the profession is based on cognitive and non-relational skills and abilities;

- The teaching profession is deployed in a tension generated by the direction imposed by the Ministry of Education, the School Inspectorate, etc. and the autonomy dictated by the valorisation of the psychological personal resources and adaptation to the collective of pupils,

- the presence, at the level of the training system, of the dilemma: is the purpose of school education informative or formative?

- the gap between formal education and non-formal and informal hypostases;

- the gap between the economic (disadvantageous) status and the cultural status of the profession.

Socio - economic reform involves the reform of education. The latter determines a change in training - teacher development. The need to transform the school teacher / teacher as quickly as possible into a prospective factor and propel the development of the younger generation is becoming more and more important.

Problem Statement

The main qualities / skills of the teacher's personality

Researchers Negura, Papuc and Pâslaru (2000) have the following skills for the teaching profession:

2.1.1. Competence for the effective fulfilment of a social role

2..1.2. Skills for the teaching profession:

A. The basic skills of the teacher.

B.1. The skills in the specialty.

B.2 Psychopedagogical and methodical skills.

B.3 Psycho - relational competence.

The distinctions between these categories of competences are not seen in a sharp way, they interact in the teacher's behaviour, manifesting themselves in a unitary way in the teaching style. Also, between the theoretical, operational and creative plan the delimitations are relative, they are manifested in various connections, at different moments of the initial and continuous vocational training, in different educational situations.

The skills identified are not hierarchical and do not exhaust the sphere of the field, being the expression of an option related to the context of the current teaching, being presented in a synthetic way.

These competences can be specified according to certain variables (stages of the teaching, the object of teaching, the studies of psychic development etc.), requiring the assimilation, in this case, of a specific curriculum.

Bontas (2001) mentions among the qualities / the main competences of the personality of the professor: the careful preparation of specialty (specialist of high qualification and competence); the capacity for scientific (scientific) creation; vast cultural horizon (man of culture); preparation, competence, tact and psychopedagogical mastery, concern and capacity for continuous professional and psychopedagogical development; moral profile - worthy civic (man of high moral profile) and managerial ability.

Popovici (1998) divided the essential personal characteristics of the educator into three directions:

a) treatment capacities that determine the quality of human relationships: we ask the educator for positive behaviours that demonstrate the formation of the following attitudes: passion, objectivity and justice, optimism, patience, responsibility and equity, understanding, serious, punctuality, professional love for those he educates.

b) processing capabilities related to the specialty, absolutely necessary, because the activity of the educator is complex, bringing together the dimensions: the supply of information; the offer of formative information; the methodical method to realize the offer. In order for this complex act to be effective, the educator must accumulate at the same time: general spiritual horizon; mastery of the field of the specialty through which he does education; mastery of the fundamental interpretations of the human processology of information, of the general processual - organic pedagogy and of the methodical of the specialty by which it makes education.

c) relations with the person who will be educated. The following characteristics are requested of the educator: spirit of cooperation, sense of help, rational requirement, democratic spirit, participation, cognitive opening, exigency, intolerance to deviations, understanding of the characteristics and manifestations of the age of the educated, fairness in the appreciation of facts, paternal, collegial or friendly spirit, benevolence, emphatic spirit, affective openness.

Research Questions

The question we are trying to answer in this article is: What are the components that contribute to the training and evaluation of teachers' professional competences?

Purpose of the Study

Roles and functions of the teacher in relation to professional didactic competence

In the opinion of the researchers Hartley and Hartley, the role is an organized model of expectations regarding tasks, behaviours, attitudes, values ​​and reciprocal relationships that must be maintained by individuals occupying specific positions as members and performing functions that may to be defined in a group (as cited in Peretti 1996). Researcher Danny Saunders defines roles as socially defined positions and patterns of behaviour that are characterized by specific sets of rules, norms and expectations: they serve to guide and regulate interactions, behaviours and practices. individuals in certain social situations (O'Sullivan et al., 2001). Allport (1991) points out that a role is a structured way of participating in social life and represents what society expects from an individual who occupies a particular position in a group.

The roles of the teacher, where he must skilfully solve various situations, are manifested in society as well as in educational institutions - these being the didactic roles.

Morine and Morine consider that the teacher can be and has been interpreted as a unitary role with several functions and a set of behaviours and distinguishes the following main didactic roles: from provider of information, of model of behaviour, teacher of educational situations, counsellor and director, evaluator and therapist, organizer and leader (as cited in Jinga & Istrate, 1998 )

Narly (1996) characterizes the roles of the educator: ”innovator, farmer, artist, art lover, man of taste, aesthete, scientist, philosopher, organizer, leader, reformer”.

In this context, Gondiu (1997) emphasizes as main functions of the professors, the following: of planning and projection, of orientation or supervision of the activity of the pupils, of organization and coordination, of communication (transmission) of new knowledge, of direction stimulation and control of learning, evaluation and improvement of teaching and learning processes, research and renewal of the teaching process.

Researcher Stukat of the Swedish School of Education, synthesizing numerous studies, has derived a number of recommendations, both positive and negative, about educational roles. It has been established that we expect, on the one hand, that the teacher / teacher is much more involved in: individual contacts; diagnostic activities and evaluation; recommendations regarding learning activity and materials needed; the planning and organization of the activity; the preparation of the instruction; cooperation with other teachers; student counselling and guidance; the management of independent activities; organization of activities in small groups; stimulation, student motivation and the organization of positive feedback; the promotion of higher cognitive learning, of heuristic education. On the other hand, the teacher should be less engaged in: contacts with the whole class; exposure of factual information and training of students in repetitive activities; routine administrative tasks; negative feedback; dominant verbal discourse and more verbal interventions than those of students (as cited in Toroiman, 1993 ).

Another way of interpreting the teacher's roles, proposed by Gaston Mialaret, identifies eight functions around which any professional training program would gravitate. Thus, the teacher should assure students: the culture of attitudes conducive to learning; the development of their intellectual abilities; the transmission and acquisition of information; the formation of habits and habitats, the assimilation of practical habits and models of action; the development of transfer capacity; stimulation of creativity; the triggering of affective resonances in the assimilation of knowledge. (as cited in Toroiman, 1993)

The teacher's main roles highlight the skills and abilities that are subsumed to them, which can project a proficiency profile of the teacher.

Of these roles (which, of course, are not the only ones attributed by researchers, by school managers, by students and their families), are the dimensions of the professional competence of educators: competence in the specialty, psychopedagogical competence and psychosocial and managerial competence.

Teaching aptitude and professional didactic competence

Apart from professional competence, the success of a teaching process also depends on the teaching ability of the teacher.

Ability is defined as the natural and acquired disposition to perform certain tasks. (Larousse - Dictionary of Psychology, 2002 )

Mitrofan (1988) defines aptitude as: a complex psychological formation at the level of the personality which, based on a certain level of organization and functionality of the processes and psychic functions - modelled in the form of a system of actions and operations internalized, genetically constituted in accordance with the external model of a certain kind of activity - and on a specific dynamic of its component elements, as a result of the continuous interaction with the system of demands of the activity, facilitates an efficient behaviour of the individual as part of this activity.

According to Cristea, (1998) the pedagogical aptitude represents a set of psychosocial qualities, general and specific, necessary for the projection of the activities which have for objective the formation-the permanent development of the human personality, activities that can be realized in different institutional environments, under relevant conditions at the product level (results obtained, valued) and processes (internal resources committed, valued).

It is emphasized the fact that the pedagogical aptitude, synthesis of innate and acquired factors, natural, but also of social nature, is a special aptitude, depending on the history of the individual's involvement in the system of the didactic activity. What attracts attention is its complexity, being based on operations of integration, organization and generalization of the relations between the simpler elements. It is a strong variable depending on the specificity of the didactic activity, its objectives, instructions and conditions of operation, operations and actions that constitute it. The pedagogical aptitude thus appears as an individual peculiarity which surprises and transposes in practice the optimal modality in accordance with the peculiarities of the pupils of transmission of knowledge and formation of the interests of knowledge, of the whole personality.

The pedagogical aptitude is concretized by the ability to make the information accessible to the students, by creativity in the work, by pedagogical tact, the capacity to be a good organizer, power of work, empathy etc. One can speak of pedagogical aptitude when the teacher obtains in his work performances which are above the average achieved by the other colleagues of the department.

Educational style and professional didactic competence

Another category of conditions that influence the didactic act is represented by the educational style. The teacher's way of behaving, his attitude towards the didactic profession, the manner of mastering and applying the methods and techniques of learning, the aptitudes, the character form the educational style. The most efficient style is that which considers the given conditions: the learning tasks, the configuration of the group and the individual psychic peculiarities of its members etc.

Educator, by his profession a permanent example, must always manifest himself exemplarily, by suppressing his defects, by cultivating his qualities, and even making shortcomings that he has served for a greater efficiency of his action. In the process of becoming from individuality to personality, style is a normal occurrence. The educator's style is the result of the coordination and prioritization of interests, for maximum achievements of the dominant interest (Narly, 1996).

Educational vocation and professional didactic competence

Another concept sometimes implicated in the description of the competence is that of vocation, concretized in feeling called, elected, for a task and able to accomplish it.

In relation to aptitudes, the vocation appears as a coherent synthesis of instrumental forces and moral and social values, an optimal interaction for something and attitudes towards the same object in the framework of an axiological high consciousness and based on a rigorous tendency of self-overrun. It is a penchant, a social predisposition, manifested as a strongly felt need to perform a certain type of activity, involving rational and impulsive - affective processes that contribute to the vocational decision (Marcus et al. 1999).

The ethics of the teacher and the professional competence didactic

The ethical point of view imposes itself whenever it is an action, an idea or a science that considers man. Ethics concerns the filtering, from the point of view of value, strategies, techniques, by their connection with moral references, beneficial to humanity.

Didactic deontology defines what can be taught, under what conditions education can be done, and, lastly, does not establish permitted slips or unauthorized practices. Didactic ethics is about the conditions that must be fulfilled in the transmission of knowledge. Didactic ethics exclude the approximation of political or religious doctrines or cyclical administrative regulations. Education should not be an opportunity to inoculate ideas or to incite actions that undermine dignity. Ethics requires impartiality and neutrality in the transmission of knowledge, relations between educators, relations with the authorities, the way of exercising one's profession, communication with students, etc.

Ethics of education excludes any commission for education, material basis, related costs, adjacent education. Acceptance of any form of gifts, gifts, exchange of advice, appreciations, recommendations or notations is strictly prohibited (Cucos, 2002).

Research Methods

Our study was based on the qualitative analysis of national and international documents and publications.

Findings

The objective of a real professional training and evaluation should be to make future teachers acquire solid academic knowledge in contact with the places where we develop these knowledge and skills corresponding effectively to the concrete activities that they will have to assume in the different educational institutions where they will be sent. It is only with this condition that they will be able to follow the increasingly rapid evolution of knowledge and contribute, in the efficient and flourishing exercise of their profession, to the achievement of both quantitative and qualitative objectives. qualitative aspects of national education policy.

Conclusion

Even if one criticizes, quite often, their competence and their professional conscience, at the same time the tasks and the responsibilities of the professors only multiply and diversify. So, to name just a few, they must:

• pay more attention to the emotional development of their students;

• be able to diagnose students' learning difficulties and seek authoritative advice from colleagues or outside specialists or from each other;

• develop curricula and teaching methods that are appropriate for each student and the entire class at the same time;

• identify the specific objectives of their institution, organize the study program, develop plans for resource use and time use, develop teaching methods, and finally, evaluate the results of their students, in collaboration with their colleagues, and, in the case of a failure, with outside specialists and train and instrumentalize with them what might be called the didactic team;

• collaborate with students' parents, community representatives and other socio-cultural activities for all issues related to educational work;

• maintain a constant dialogue with their students, not only to get to know them better, but also to make them understand their curricula and the teaching methods used;

• be able to objectively analyse their teaching methods and student results and propose solutions to problems that may arise.

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Publication Date

15 August 2019

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978-1-80296-066-2

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Future Academy

Volume

67

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Subjects

Educational strategies,teacher education, educational policy, organization of education, management of education, teacher training

Cite this article as:

Miron, M. F., & Petrovici*, C. (2019). Pre-Service And In-Service Training And Professional Evaluation Of Teachers In Romania. In E. Soare, & C. Langa (Eds.), Education Facing Contemporary World Issues, vol 67. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 2033-2040). Future Academy. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2019.08.03.251