Enhancing Professional Development of Education Practitioners and Teaching/Learning practices Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, November 2006

Teachers career development and in- service training Tunde Kovacs-Cerovic Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade Roma Education Fund, Budapest

1 st topic: Purpose -View from teacher educators perspective? -View from teachers perspective? -Any other perspective?

Social benefits Personal benefits teachers efficient and effective ? equitable ? measurable and accountable ? regulated ? open and participatory ? textbooks curriculum finansi ng management assessment evaluation SCHOOL

Social benefits ? Personal benefits ? teachers open and participatory = rigid and closed equitable = preserving monopoly measurable and accountable = accountable to US, not THEM Regulated = Inspected, controlled efficient and effective = who pays / who gets what textbooks curriculum finansi ng management assessment evaluation SCHOOL

effective ? open and participatory ? equitable ? measurable and accountable ? efficient? regulated ? Teacher carreer development and in-service training system

2 nd topic: Content what is the teaching profession about?

Teachers competencies… Communication Child development Psychology of learning Teaching methods Curriculum design Assessment Subject knowledge Education management Etc How to best organise INSET to develop all competencies?

Rethinking the teaching professions most complicated aspects: –Balancing between: Own and others understanding of the subject area Caring for different needs of different children and for the need of creating joint meanings Supporting development and steering development –Being influenced in (often) contradictory ways by 2 types of knowledge about education, upbringing, the nature of being a teacher : formally gained scientific, explicit knowledge and informally gained culturally constructed and idiosyncratic implicit knowledge –Solving multiple problems in ill-defined problem spaces immediately, transparently, simultaniously; INSET fitting to this?

3 rd topic: Subject The teacher as a human being

3 examples Can a teacher act in counterintuitive ways? Can a teacher refrain from having emotions? Can a teacher recognise own bias? and Human dilemma: should I say that I need INSET or that I do not need it?

4 th topic: Context policy context education reform agenda

Uniform plan and programm inspection Uniformi textbooks Centralized Teacher training Outcome moni- toring Central steering framework Support to teachersSupport to schools

PILOTPROGRAMMES INNOVATION PILOTSCHOOLS Teacher Professional Development Accountable Management TrainingInforming CONSTRUCTION COMPETENT,RESPONSIBLE, FREE CHILDREN Activity ASSESSMENT & EVALUATION SCHOOL NETWORK Licence Advancement Professional Development School development Quality assurance New Management EIS N E W CURRICULUM & TEXTBOOKS

Lay views on the education system Everybody has his own perspective based on: incidental knowledge particular experience own success story and of course, interests

Importance for TE/INSET Incentives: –What kind? –How much? –Which mechanism? How to be fair? –How to know that incentives support quality? Training offer: –How to broaden the offer? –How to know what is missing? –How to address missing areas? –How to balance the offer? Choice of training –Who should choose? –How do we know what should be chosen? (people usually choose what they like, people usually dont like what they dont know) –Free choice? Forced choice? –Can the final recipient have a say?

Workshop plan Next steps maybe Incentive: Career development Inset structure, Organisation, content Broaden inset offer and choice: Case multiculturalism recommendations

Enhancing Professional Development of Education Practitioners and Teaching/Learning practices Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, November 2006

RECOMMENDATIONS Group B

INSET/PRESERVICE INTRODUCE NEW COURSES IN UNIVERSITIES –Children With special needs, –CR, tolerance –Multicultural education –Classroom management –ORGANISE MA FOR THE TEACHING PROFESSION LINK FACULTIES WITH PRACTICE –More time in teaching practice for students INSET COURSES SHOULD BE –Interactive –Based on the needs of teachers –Connected to real life problems ?

INSET CHOICE –TEACHER HAS TO BE PROVIDED WITH MORE CHOICES –Find good balance –Use self-assessment of teachers as input –Use parents and community view as input –Better flow of information on INSET –Evaluation from other teachers, etc… –Modernisation of topics SELECTION OF TEACHER STUDENTS

CAREER DEVELOPMENT DEFINE CLEAR LEVELS OF PROGRESSION, IF NOT YET DONE ATTACH FINANCING I.E. SALARY INCREASE PRECISE INSTRUCTIONS FOR PROGRESSION (IN TERMS OD COMPETENCIES & PROCEDURES) CREATE MOTIVATING PROCEDURES (IN ORDER TO REWARD BEST TEACHERS) CONNECT MA IN TEACHING PROFESSION TO CD ENSURE EQUAL ACCESS FOR ALL TEACHERS

DIVERSITY AND TEACHER EDUCATION/continuous professional development INCLUDE NEW TRAINING TOPICS: –Communication with parents –Multicultural education –Bilingual education –Respecting social diversity in classroom (incl. poverty) –CR, Tolerance,,,…

DIVERSITY NEEDS TO BE A WIDER, GOVERNMENT INITIATIVE CAREER DEVELOPMENT REQUIREMENTS NEED TO REFLECT THE NEED FOR TEACHING IN DIVERSITY