Abstract:

Importance of competences in performance of pedagogues is emphasised by future-oriented teaching programmes because a competent pedagogue is able to make rational decisions concerning organisation of teaching, improvement, optimisation of curricula or quality management. Grounding on this approach, pedagogues’ competences and manifestation of them are the most important resources determining efficiency of curricula being implemented in comprehensive education schools. Significance of teachers’ managerial competences demonstrates that they have quite an important role in a set of competences which helps to constructively achieve learning outcomes. The competences which were considered as important by pedagogues for a long time may remain no longer important today; therefore, managerial competences are often linked to the competences attributed to managers of institutions, and pedagogues have initial predispositions and pay insufficient attention to development of this competency. This creates preconditions for formation of a scientific aim of the research: what managerial competences are the most important for primary form pedagogues in the education process in their point of view and how much attention is devoted to the development of them?

Research instrument:
The questionnaire was designed on the ground of the model of managerial competences systematised by G. Filipowitz (2016). Social, personal, professional, strategic thinking, leadership and managerial competences related to the content and environment of education were included. The internal validity of the questionnaire was tested by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, the value of which was higher than 0.8 in each block of questions; therefore, internal reliability of the scales is good.

Research sample:
348 pedagogues from Lithuanian comprehensive education schools took part in the present investigation and filled in the survey questionnaires. Two demographic variables were relevant for the research: work experience in school and gender. 20 per cent comprised a group of the respondents who had work experience less than 3 years; the same amount indicated that their work experience was 4–6 years (20 per cent). Majority of the respondents have been working in school for 15 years and more.

Research results:
All groups of managerial competences: personal, leadership, strategic thinking and professional, are exclusively important in implementation of comprehensive education programmes. Manifestation of them helps to develop a comprehensive school student’s personality, student’s ability to work independently and in groups, improves students’ learning results, facilitates students reaching their goals. Seeking to implement efficient and high quality comprehensive education programmes, a pedagogue should follow major strategic aims in his/ her fields of performance, ensuring cohesive implementation of the (self-)education process, compliance with common philosophy, school culture and value attitudes; also, to systematically carry out monitoring of school performance, using the results to perfect the performance. However, even though pedagogues have positive attitudes towards significance of managerial competences for education and share common understanding, only one third of the pedagogues who took part in the survey developed their knowledge and improved skills in the field of management.

Keywords:

Pedagogues, competences, primary school.