Geografijos mokytojų požiūrio į studijas bei profesinių kompetencijų suvokimo tyrimas
Research of Geography Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Studies and Perception of Professional Competence

Summary/Abstract: Pedagogical activities have been meeting a lot of high requirements in our developing society. A pedagogue does not only teach, but learns himself, participates in various project activities, combines social changes with his daily duties and responsibilities. He is now considered to be not only a subject teacher, but also an information provider, a consultant, a social pedagogue, a class leader and an elder friend, a researcher, a collaborating colleague, an innovator, an organizer and accelerator of the teaching and learning process. To be and maintain such a many-sided personality, it is not enough to apply certain professional knowledge gained at the university. The objectives of the up-bringing process must also include independence, problematic and critical thinking, social competence, the ability to raise questions and find answers to these questions, plan one’s own time, analyze and evaluate various situations and etc. Thus the competent professional training of teachers is one of the most discussed issues today. The Lithuanian documentation on education claims: “ the government should pursue the objective, claiming that well-prepared, highly competent and virtue-oriented pedagogues are needed to democratically raise and nurture the country’s youth, to cherish the cultural maturity of our society”. However, the analysis of scientific literature has shown that the training of teachers in Lithuania still continues to be one of the most up-to-date and frequently discussed issues. Many scientists claim that the present training of teachers does not correspond to the requirements set by the society and the reform of the educational system. They point out certain disadvantages of teachers’ training programmes (training aimed at theoretical knowledge, lack of the system of licenses, fragile relations between colleges, universities, other high schools and secondary schools, current curriculum pays little attention to the cultivation and cherishment of new abilities and competence, etc.) and highlight the necessity of changes in teachers’ training paradigm. In accordance with the mentioned above issues, it is necessary to reassess the curriculum of the teachers’ training programme and establish whether it meets the requirements set by educational documents and the society. However, it is equally important to conduct a survey of working geography teachers’ opinions on the geography studies, as, with the experience they have, they are able to define the most appreciated and necessary abilities, knowledge, skills, personal qualities and characteristics in pedagogical activities as well as to indicate all the gaps they had at their starting point. In addition to that, it is also essential to survey geography teachers’ opinions on the issues of competence in terms of well-known and differently interpreted notion of “pedagogue’s competence”. Having analyzed the data gained, it became obvious that geography teachers rather clearly comprehend the esse

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