Abstract:

Professional standards are key requirements for the implementation of the teaching profession. In pedagogical literature, and not only of Slovak origin, professional standards refer to some norms that cannot be overlooked and which should be given sufficient attention in the performance of the teaching profession. The aim of this paper is to present a theoretical excursion to the issue of self-reflection or self-diagnosis, which takes in relation to the professional development of teachers an important role. Within the theoretical analysis, we present the definition of professional standards from the perspective of several authors, with particular focus on the issue of professional development of teachers. Then we draw attention to self-reflection, which is not only one of the starting points for improvement and efficiency of the pedagogical work of a teacher, but it also becomes crucial for his professional development. Finally, we analyse the issue of the self-diagnosis of the teacher's style of teaching. Given that the application of the teaching style is linked to teacher’s daily educational activities, we consider it important for the teacher to re-evaluate and analyse his / her activities, behavior and practices. In this paper, we therefore pay attention to selected methods and techniques which can be used for targeted optimizing the teaching practices, and hence they create opportunities for professional development of teachers. The paper is an output from the research project VEGA no. 1/0637/16 titled Development of a Diagnostic Tool to Assess the Level of Phonemic Awareness of Children in Preschool Age.

Keywords:

Teacher profession, professional standards, teacher competency profile, teacher's professional development, self-reflection, self-diagnosis, teaching style, pedagogical activity of the teacher.