The Professional Development of Educators – A Challenge for Pedagogues
Abstract
Continuous development of everyday educational kindergarten practice places a complex task before pedagogues who need to encourage, motivate and guide other experts on their professional development path. Pedagogues are expected to posses numerous professional competences that rely on modern pedagogical principles, as well as to know and apply modern types and methods of work. Their communication skills are also very important for establishing quality communication and relationships with all of the participants who are involved in the educational process. The pedagogue’s readiness for self-evaluation and the evaluation of various aspects of the educational practice is of significant importance. An adequately trained pedagogue is aware of the context and the needs of the community in which they work, and they possess knowledge of institutional education systems. By observing the educational practice and the direct work of the educators, the pedagogue can spot the discrepancy between what the educator advocates and what they manage to achieve in practice. In this sense, it is the task of the pedagogue to consistently raise the research and reflective competences of educators necessary for eliminating the discrepancy between proclaimed and achieved goals. Practice is the best measure of the success, failure or sustainability of existing theories. In our paper, we will describe the pedagogue’s development path and their professional competence which is crucial to their work with educators. We will reflect on the approaches to improving professional work and we will mention certain forms of professional development for educators, as well as the importance of action research and the role of the educator as the reflective practitioner. At the end of the paper, we will also state the challenges that pedagogues most often face in professionally developing educators.
Authors: Edita Slunjski, Ivana Lisak
Published in: London International Conference on Education (LICE-2022)
- Date of Conference: 14-16 November 2022
- DOI: 10.20533/LICE.2022.0028
- ISBN: 978-1-913572-52-5
- Conference Location: Virtual (London, UK)