Abstract:

The competency profile of the teacher is represented by a set of requirements related to his/her professional educational activities and the level of their mastery represents the potential of teacher's professional performance. In the context of creating a teacher's professional competency profile, the team of experts from Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra (the Slovak Republic) conducts a research project Evaluation of teacher competences. The project is aimed at identifying a set of criteria for evaluating teacher's professional competences and creating relevant evaluation tools in order to improve the quality of education. The project focuses on three areas of teacher competences: pupil-related competences, education-related competences, and competences related to the development of teacher's personality and professional skills. A part of the project is research aimed at verifying the designed evaluation tools and their subsequent modification or correction.

The paper clarifies the nature and key aspects of the competence to design and plan education process in the context of pupil's key competences. The main focus of the paper is, however, to present the results of the research aimed at piloting the designed evaluation tools for assessing the competence. It provides the objectives, hypotheses and methodology of the research. The research was carried out in the period of November 2017- May 2018 and it was focused on verifying the accuracy and effectiveness of the instruments developed to evaluate the educational work of the teacher, monitoring the range and quality of the competence of designing and planning the educational process using a number of tools. In the paper we provide the analysis of the results collected from the pilot research dealing with the use of the assessment sheet, which was implemented using the identified evaluation criteria and indicators. Another tool used for examining and evaluating the ability of teachers to design and plan the teaching process, was self-assessment sheet, designed on the basis of the assessment sheet and the need for self-reflection of the teacher in the competence. The last tool has been the post-observation interview and its record, which has provided some space for the exchange and balancing of the opinions and attitudes of the evaluator and the evaluated teacher.

The research results have shown the need for a minor revision of the piloted assessment tools. At the same time, it has confirmed the validity and correctness of the new approach to the form and methodology of evaluating the teacher's professional performance.

Keywords:

Teacher competence, planning and projecting education, competence assessment, research.