Professional competencies of future pedagogues

Abstract

The worldwide expansion of higher education introduced the problem of quality of knowledge that graduate students possess, as well as question whether they are competent to fulfill the requirements of their future profession. Education and training for professional work, in our educational system, is realized in various ways: through lectures, exercise classes, seminar paper writing, research projects, consultative work and practice in educational methodology. These are only some of the key themes concerning university education of pedagogues-to-be that should be considered if we are to train them to perform a high-quality educational work. The purpose of this research is to construct an evaluation scale that will examine the importance of competencies the future pedagogues are acquiring during studying. It is constructed on the basis of different classifications of competencies of a pedagogue. The research has shown that the students highly value professional knowledge that is necessary for a high-quality educational work, and that they are familiar with the area of work and the requirements of their future profession. They also acknowledge the importance of acquisition of competencies in scientific and professional research. All of the statistical parameters give quite encouraging and affirmative data, since the purpose of university education, after all, is to train the future pedagogues for high-quality educational work and to develop their personalities so that they can manage a variety of situations. Particular significance of this paper resides in the fact that the research performed was conceptualized in such a manner as to emphasize the analysis of the pedagogy studies program from the students' point of view. Timely information regarding the profession's requirements and encouraging interest in research of educational practice can encourage further development of young pedagogues' professional competencies as well.