The Professional Competencies of the 21st Century Teacher

Abstract

According to the demands of many educational reforms, a teacher should not only be a provider of knowledge and skills, but also have a positive attitude towards innovations, feel the necessity for self education, and adopt a student centered teaching approach. Teachers are expected to develop professional skills and always try to be “an effective model of competence” (Bruner, 1976). For example, an examination of education students found that the main emphasis in their preparedness was subject area knowledge. Students did not report a focus on the personality traits. This study reports data gathered from education graduates about their perceptions of the level and extent of professional competence experienced during their preparation. This study has been carried out to reveal the interaction quality between the professionally valuable competences and the consequences of teaching process.
Key words: pedagogy, teacher preparation, teacher professional competences, teacher training.