Abstract:

The presentation describes a complex model of support for professional development of pre-school and primary school teachers which is targeted to teachers of all stages of their professional careers. It spans from beginning teachers to expert teachers and mentors. The project is subsidised by the Fund of educational policy of the Ministry of education, youth and sports of the Czech Republic. Since 2014, it has been managed by the Faculty of humanities, Tomas Bata University in Zlín.

The project supports the improvement of the quality of education by introducing new methods of school evaluation and innovations in instruction. It coordinates the efforts of lifelong education of practicing teachers and supports improvement of instruction in a number of curricular areas. An important feature of the project is that it is aimed at both municipal schools and schools located in border areas of the region. All activities are performed in cooperation with instructors of the university.

The target groups are novice teachers in pre-schools and primary schools, advanced beginners, competent teachers, and proficient teachers. The latter can acquire the role of mentors for novice teachers. In 2014, professional development modules were developed for each teacher group which were then introduced into practice. The project includes also networking of schools which entered the project. A special module has been produced for teachers in one-room schools in rural areas of the region.

In 2015, instructional materials were developed for all modules and professional education was launched. Each module has 90 hours of contact instruction and 40 hours of individual teacher reflective tasks. The performance of five modules has already been evaluated and the evaluation findings will be presented in the conference presentation.