Teacher education systems and models of teachers' professional development - a comparative analysis of Serbia and Greece

Abstract

The thesis discusses the characteristics of the system of teacher initial education and professional improvement in two countries – Serbia and Greece. Comparison of the two systems serves to explore the contextual framework in which teacher professional development occurs and to obtain insight into the solutions implemented in other areas. Teacher professional development has been studied comparatively by a theoreticalempirical approach, with exploration of reasons for vocational choice of teachers, main characteristics of their initial education, peculiarities of their professional improvement. And it has been described by the formulation of models of professional development, specified through the current status of teachers’ professional behaviour. Upon the completion of this stage, it has been checked whether there is a correlation between biosocial characteristics of respondents: age, gender, marital status, years of service, and their professional behaviour. It has also been analysed whether the type and level of formal education and the manner of non-formal professional improvement correlate with professional behaviour, and how these correlations are established in the two countries where respondents fulfil their professional roles. The theoretical background of the study are phase theories of professional development of the two renowned American authors – Donald Super’s general theory of vocational choice and development and Ralph Fessler’s theory of teacher professional development. The data in the non-empirical part of the study have been collected by analysis of relevant documents, and in the empirical part by the PRN-11 questionnaire, constructed for the purposes of this research. The sample was convenient and comprised 116 teachers of lyceums from the territory of Greece and 118 secondary school teachers from the territory of Serbia. The comparative analysis of the two systems, among other things, showed that the indicator on which differences were the most striking comprised further pedagogical training programmes – a one-year pedagogical and psychological training for teaching after the completion of studies, accomplished at the faculties for pedagogical and technical education in Greece. Such a programme has not been implemented in our country so far. Further, the results indicate that the principal determinants of vocational choice (both of studies and the profession) in both subsamples are personal, which is in keeping with the assumptions of Super’s theory. Further on, we could not confirm that higher levels of formal education do facilitate professional development, and this finding is valid in both subsamples. In Greek subsample the area of education was proved to be a correlate of some professional development indicators. However, this correlation was not confirmed in the Serbian subsample, too...

U radu se razmatraju karakteristike sistema inicijalnog obrazovanja i profesionalnog usavršavanja nastavnika u dve zemlje – Srbiji i Grčkoj. Poređenje dva sistema je u funkciji sagledavanja kontekstualnog okvira u kojem se odvija profesionalni razvoj nastavnika, i upoznavanja sa rešenjima aktualizovanim na drugim prostorima. Profesionalni razvoj nastavnika proučava se komparativno, korišćenjem teorijskoempirijskog pristupa, uz sagledavanje razloga profesionalnog izbora ispitanika, osnovnih karakteristika njihovog inicijalnog obrazovanja, osobenosti profesionalnog usavršavanja, i opisuje se formulisanjem modela profesionalnog razvoja određenih na osnovu aktuelnog statusa profesionalnog ponašanja nastavnika. Nakon toga, provereno je da li postoji povezanost između bio-socijalnih obeležja ispitanika: starost, pol, bračni status, radni staž, i njihovog profesionalnog ponašanja i utvrđeno da li vrsta i nivo formalnog obrazovanja i način neformalnog profesionalnog usavršavanja koreliraju sa profesionalnim ponašanjem, i na koji način se ove povezanosti uspostavljaju u dvema zemljama u kojima ispitanici ostvaruju svoju profesionalnu ulogu. Teorijski osnov israživanja čine fazne teorije profesionanog razvoja dva poznata američka autora – opšta teorija profesionalnog izbora i razvoja Donalda Supera i teorija profesionalnog razvoja nastavnika Ralfa Feslera. Podaci u teorijskom delu istraživanja prikupljeni su putem analize relevantne dokumentacije, a u empirijskom delu upitnikom PRN-11, konstruisanim za potrebe ovog istraživanja. Uzorak je prigodni i čini ga 116 nastavnika liceja sa teritorije Grčke i 118 nastavnika srednjih škola sa teritorije Srbije. Utvrdili smo, između ostalog, na osnovu komparative analize dvaju sistema da indikator na kojem se javljaju najizraženije razlike čine „programi nadgradnje” – celogodišnja pedagoškopsihološka priprema za nastavni rad nakon završetka studija koja se realizuje na fakultetima za pedagoško i tehničko obrazovanje u Grčkoj, a do sada nije realizovana u našoj zemlji. Dalje, rezultati ukazuju da su osnovne determinante profesionalnog izbora (kako studija tako i profesije) u oba poduzorka personalne, što je u skladu sa pretpostavkama Superove teorije. Takođe, nismo našli potvrdu podsticajnog delovanja viših nivoa formalnog obrazovanja na profesionalni razvoj. Ovaj nalaz važi za oba poduzorka. Na grčkom poduzorku se pokazalo da područje obrazovanja predstavlja korelat nekih indikatora profesionalnog razvoja, međutim, ova povezanost nije potvrđena i na srpskom poduzorku...