Abstract:

This study aimed to explore how student teachers assess the cross-curricular competencies they have acquired during their studies and the need for further acquisition of these competencies, and to determine the relationship between their academic success and their actual educational needs. There are few empirical studies on the educational needs of student teachers in the field of cross-curricular competencies, and the self-assessment of student competencies during their studies is an indicator of the quality of the study programme. The focus of this preliminary study is to identify and analyse the educational needs of student teachers based on a self-assessment of their acquired and necessary cross-curricular competencies in the areas of self-reflection and professional development, information and communication technologies, communication, ethical commitment, and research in education. The questionnaire was designed based on the theoretical construct Global Teachers' Key Competencies Framework [1] in the area of cross-curricular competencies, which consists of 32 items. In the newly constructed instrument, the area of research in education was added. The decision to add the mentioned area was based on the contributions of educational science and the context and findings from educational practise. The research was conducted on a purposive sample of N=26 student teachers in the final year of their Teacher Education programme at the Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Rijeka, Republic of Croatia. The results of the descriptive analysis made it possible to measure educational needs from two aspects: acquired and necessary cross-curricular competencies. On average, student teachers gave a higher rating of acquired competencies to the area of ability related to ethical commitment and professional responsibility for student learning and improving the quality of teaching. Although students rated their competencies in the area of research in education as average, the results indicate that these competencies are rated the lowest. The self-assessed competencies of student teachers indicate that there is a very high need for further acquisition of cross-curricular competencies in all competency areas, especially in planning their own professional development, participating in research projects, and writing professional and/or academic papers. The results indicate that the need to acquire cross-curricular competencies, especially in the application of a systematic research approach, is a basic prerequisite for professional development and the improvement of one's own practise. Teachers should, therefore, be trained for research in education in order to create new foundations for professional knowledge and contribute to the development of educational sciences. The results of this preliminary study show that it is justified to include the field of educational research in the upcoming research priorities and that it is important to analyse the educational needs, conditions, and opportunities related to students' acquisition of cross-curricular competencies during their studies.

Keywords:

Student teachers, educational needs, cross-curricular competencies, professional development.