Practical training of the candidates for teachers in their own opinion (based on Polish researches)
Practical training of the candidates for teachers in their own opinion (based on Polish researches)

Author(s): Maria Kocór
Subject(s): Education, Pedagogy
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: school; teacher; practical education; competences;
Summary/Abstract: Effectiveness of the teacher’s work depends to a great extent on their competence gained during their initial and permanent education and improved while teaching. Practical training plays an important role in acquiring various types of competence. This article is an attempt to find out how the said education is appraised by students of teachers’ departments in selected schools in Poland. The researches have been carried out in a few stages since 2008. A group of a few hundred students was asked, among others, about: their satisfaction with selected studies, self-assessment as regards their preparation in various scopes, duration and usefulness of practical training and about their supervisors at schools and universities, about training schools, perceived problems and proposed changes. Students’ opinions were supplemented with my own observations and experience as a university teacher and supervisor of practical training. The collected data let us come to a conclusion that practical training of candidates for teachers in Poland is insufficient in many aspects. Most of all, there are no training schools, theory is not joined with practice and there are no researches carried out for the benefit of such schools with participation of university personnel, students and teachers. There is little critical reflection on practical training, little explanation and understanding of it to take effective actions. Universities offer less and less practical classes, tutorials, workshops, projects developing initiative, subjectivity, emancipation as well as critical and artistic approaches. There is little discussion about knowledge and results of scientific researches, experiments are hardly made and teams are rarely formed to look for changes. Students are often taught to follow orders, play roles, though they are not always convinced that it is needed in terms of factual knowledge. Thus, a reform of education provided for candidates for teachers is needed. I will present more in-depth arguments for the reform in the paper.

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