Abstract:

The topic of the paper is the quality of the (Slovak) teacher in the context of the ongoing curricular reform of education, the success of which directly depends on the key factor - a quality teacher. Its goal is to present the results of qualitative research aimed at determining the social representations of a quality teacher from the perspective of future teachers - teacher students through the Q-methodology. We compiled 60 ecologically valid items representing important characteristics of a quality teacher from the point of view of pre-service teachers - student of teaching programs at the teaching faculties of Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica. Up to 186 respondents - 52 were men and 134 were women aged 21 to 29 - participated in online classification of quality teachers' characteristics. Based on their answers, we identified several dominant ideas about a quality teacher:
(1) an accepting role model,
(2) a facilitator of professional growth and practice,
(3) a supportive and challenging teacher, and
(4) a charismatic teacher as a paternal authority figure. The most represented models are analyzed in the context of the basic socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents. We interpret the results in more detail in the context of basic pedagogical disciplines and educational practice.

Keywords:

Teacher qualities, teacher students, Q-methodology.