In recent years, there has been radical changes in Turkish Education system. A new  “curricula”  was developed in 2004, with a constructivist approach.  During the preparation of new curriculum, General Directorate of Teacher Training started to develop generic competencies for teachers.

The Professional activities that teachers have to play cover a broad area. The most primary responsibility rests on teachers in effective and efficient implementation of the curriculum. With the new curriculum it is not possible for our teachers to fulfil their tasks and responsibilities without identifying “professional competencies”.

The “Generic Teacher Competencies” developed and tested under the coordination of General  Directorate of Teacher Training during meetings and workshops with participation of  many experts and teachers . Generic competencies consist of six main competencies,  “Personal and  Professional Values-Professional Development”,  “Knowing the Student”,  “Learning and Teaching Process”,  “Monitoring and Evaluation of Learning  and Development”, “School-Family and Society Relationships”, “Knowledge of Curriculum and Content”. All together “Generic Competencies” composed of  6 main competencies, 31 sub-competencies and 233 performance indicators.The Ministry of National Education (MoNE, 2006) stated to purpose of developing teacher competencies as;

Teacher competencies” is a document which states transformations to beimplemented with a holistic approach in;

Identifying policies for teacher training,

Pre-service teacher training programmes of institutions of higher education for teacher training,

In-service training of teachers,

School-Based Professional Development of Teachers,

Selection of teachers,

Evaluation of teacher performances,

Self-knowledge and self-development of teach (p.İV).

As can be seen from the above quotation “teacher competencies” can be used for different purposes.It is expected that Teacher Competencies will provide a common understanding and consensus of objective among the Ministry of National Education, Board of Higher Education, Institutions of Higher Education for Teacher Training, Non-Governmental Organisations, Democratic Organisations, Teachers, Parents and all sections of the society.

While the General Directorate of Teacher Training was  developing teacher competencies, on the other hand, Board of Inspectorate has already launched a project called “E-Performance Management System”. This was highly based on “Generic and Subject Competencies”. Performance of the teachers are planned to be evaluated by asking the perceptions of different stake holders  including the headteachers, deputy head, colleagues, students, parents and inspectors.

In order to get the best use of “Generic and Subject Competencies” it should be valid and reliable. In order to see validity and the reliability of the current “Generic Competencies” the Board of Inspectorate implemented a “e-performance management system” in 14 pilot provinces.

The primary purpose of this study is to provide empirical evidence for teachers’ competencies identified by commissions and statistically test relationships among the components of teachers competencies determined based on literature and expert convictions. 

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