Session Information
SES B 06, Paper Session
Paper Session
Contribution
Teacher education institutions in Europe and internationally restructure their programmes with a view towards setting competences as the aims of new curricula. For the implementation of the competence-oriented change we need to understand its substantial implications for curricular goals and contents, and learning experiences within the programmes (Darling-Hammond, 2006). For an evaluation of such change we need to consider its contribution to resolving enduring challenges of teacher education, such as issues of linking theory and practice (Korthagen, 2001; Verloop et al., 2001) and balance between accountability and broad preparation of teachers for complex moral issues in education (Carr, 1999; Day, 2002).
In the Western Balkans the change in teacher preparation, inspired by the Bologna process and countries’ aspirations to join the European Union, is driven by setting competencies as the aims of curricula. The main novelty in this approach is that it seeks to pre-define the outcomes of learning as teacher competences. Goal-setting and evaluation of the degree to which goals have been reached is underlying the Curriculum theory. Therefore, the curricular change might represent a shift from the German tradition of Didaktik inherent in continental Europe to that of Anglo-American Curriculum tradition (Westbury, 1998; 2000).
In Didaktik the state curriculum (the Lehrpaln) is understood as an authoritative selection from cultural traditions that are to be interpreted by teachers as professionals who autonomously construct their lessons and teaching approaches for their classrooms. A teacher starts by looking at the object of learning and asking what it could or should signify to the learner. The goal is the formation of the student self and linking it to the world (Bildung).
In the English-language Curriculum theory curriculum-making is largely seen as a responsibility of each school or school system to decide what the larger national curriculum means for this place in the light of its circumstances. Considering the tradition of the public control of the schools, this means that once the curriculum is developed for a school system a teacher is expected to ‘implement’ the system’s or district’s curriculum decisions. Curriculum is seen as an objective, rational framework for planning, instruction and evaluation of effectiveness of ‘service delivery’. A teacher starts by asking what a student should be able to do or know as set in the curricular objectives.
A study of perceptions of teacher competence in five countries the Western Balkans (Pantić, 2008) suggests that teachers and teacher educators understand teacher competence to involve four domains of competence relating to 1) self-evaluation and professional development; 2) subject knowledge, pedagogy and curriculum; 3) understanding of the education system and contribution to its development; and 4) values and child rearing. In this paper we explore how and to what extent the elements of Didaktik and Curriculum traditions are reflected in teacher educators’ and teacher students’ understanding of/utterances about the four groups of teacher competence with the view towards establishing whether the change involved with setting competencies as the aims of curricula can be interpreted as a shift from Didaktik to Curriculum tradition.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Carr, D. (1999). Professional Education and Professional Ethics. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 16 (1), 33-46. Darling-Hammond, L. (2006). Constructing 21st Century Teacher Education. Journal of Teacher Education, 57, 300-314. Day, C. (2002). School reform and transitions in teacher professionalism and identity. International Journal of Educational Research, 37, 677-692. Korthagen, F. A. J. (2001). Linking Practice and Theory: The Pedagogy of Realistic Teacher Education. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum. Pantić , N. & Wubbels, T. (2009.) Teacher competencies as a basis for teacher education – Views of Serbian teachers and teacher educators, Teaching and Teacher Education (2009), doi:10.1016/j.tate.2009.10.005 Verloop, N., Driel J.V., & Meijer, P. (2001). Teacher knowledge and the knowledge base for teaching. International Journal of Educational Research, 35, 441-461. Westbury, I. (1998). Didaktik and Curriculum Studies. In B.B. Gundem and S. Hopmann (Eds.) Didaktik and/or Curriculum: An International Dialogue: Vol.41. American University Studies, Education Series XIV. New York: Peter Lang Publishing. Westbury, I. (2000). Teaching as a Reflective Practice: What Might Didaktik teach curriculum? In I. Westbury, S. Hopmann & K. Riquarts (Eds.) Teaching as a Reflective Practice: The German Didaktik Tradition. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.
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