TEACHERS’ SELF-EVALUATION OF GENERIC AND DIDACTIC COMPETENCIES

Competent teacher is one of the most important factors contributing to the quality of education especially in the context of constant changes in the educational environment and role of the teacher. Competencies are characteristics that individuals have and use in appropriate, consistent ways in order to achieve desired performance (Dubois et al., 2004). According to the contemporary practice applied in many institutions, human resources are managed on the basis of competencies’ models. School is not an exception. Lithuania has officially defined the competencies necessary for the teachers of general education schools. However systematic models does not exist and assessment of the teachers’ competencies is not performed. Therefore, the purpose of this research was – evaluation of level of teachers’ generic and didactic competencies and circumstances (context) of their development from the perspective of the teachers themselves. Quantitative methodology – representative survey of the teachers was carried out. 865 teachers representing Lithuanian general education schools participated in the survey. Didactic competencies were defined according to the official legal documents and definition of generic competencies was based on Hay/McBer dictionary of the competencies (Raven, 2000) taking into consideration legal regulations. The main results of the research indicated that the most developed competencies were considered to be schoolchildren achievement and advancement recognition, assessment and provision of support in learning and schoolchildren motivation. As it was established the weakest teacher competencies from the teachers perspective were career development (professional orientation) and professional action research competencies. Future Lithuanian teacher competencies development must take into consideration the findings of the research.