Abstract:

Evaluation of teachers` professional competence should be focussed on those aspects of teacher pedagogical practice which are a precondition for achieving stated learning objectives in terms of students` learning outcomes. The evaluation process, trying to measure in some way a level of teachers` professional competence, is very difficult. There are different ways based on which the evaluation can be done (e.g. portfolios, teacher`s written preparations to the lessons) but actually teachers` professionality can be demonstrated and proved only in a practical way, in practice. And independently on the real level of a teacher`s pedagogical mastery, the outcomes of his/her teaching are uncertain. Uncertain they are in two respects. The first is the fact that instruction always brings some unexpected situations, which cannot be planed. A teacher can plan his/her teaching very carefully but there is unpredictability of student behaviour, classroom discourse, failing of technical supports of teaching, etc. And the second is the fact, that learning is a mental process with no guarantee of its results (students` learning outcomes), moreover significantly depending on a very broad scope of different factors. In general professional practice of teachers is characterized by a lack of standardization, broad scope of nonroutine situations and a high level of the uncertainty of success.

Currently three of five faculties of Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra (Slovakia) are participating in a national research project Evaluation of Teachers` Competences (2015-2019), the main aim of which is to develop a set of tools for evaluation of teachers` pedagogical competences according to teacher professional standards. In the paper the preliminary results of the project will be presented.

The starting point of the project has been identification of a general set of competences necessary for a teacher career qualified performance. The key competences have been identified in three basic dimensions:
1. competences focused on the learner,
2. competences focused on the educational process,
3. competences focused on the professional self-development of a teacher.

In the second phase of the project within the above-mentioned three dimensions all together 10 competences have been specified as the most significant ones and particularly these are the following ones:
1. competence to identify student development and individual features,
2. competence to identify student learning psychological and social factors,
3. competence to develop student`s personality development and student`s competences,
4. competence to create a positive climate in the classroom,
5. competence to plan and carry out his/her professional development,
6. the subject content knowledge and the subject didactics knowledge,
7. competence to plan and design the teaching process,
8. competence to choose and carry out the teaching forms and methods,
9. competence to use the material and technical teaching means in teaching processes,
10. competence to assess the teaching results and students` learning achievements.

Currently the project team is designing a set of evaluation tools relevant to the above-mentioned competences. A draft of their design together with a plan of the next steps of the research will be included in the paper, too.

Keywords:

Professional development, teacher`s competences, teacher`s professional profile, evaluation of teachers, assessment tools.