Empirical evidence reveals that portfolios show promise as a tool for stimulating teacher’s reflection and professional development. However, very few Slovene teachers have any experience in using this valuable instrument for teaching purposes. In response to this weakness in the system, the teacher’s portfolio was included in a national research study investigating the best possible way(s) of introducing foreign languages in the first cycle of the primary school. The main goals of using the teacher’s portfolio were: (1) to actively monitor the implementation of the foreign languages, (2) to develop an appropriate foreign language teaching approach through critical professional reflection, and (3) to evaluate the teaching process. The research results confirm the triple tool effect of the portfolio whereby the teachers were able to recognise its value. However, they also perceived some difficulties in the portfolio management process, such as the lack of use of their own learning strategies and superficial understanding of self-regulation. This finding underlines the importance of extensive teacher preparation prior to the use of teacher portfolios in future.
COBISS.SI-ID: 9948745
The profound economic, social, technological and cultural changes throughout Europe represent a real challenge to teacher education. The teacher's role is getting more complex and demanding while the expectations of the society are raising. All this requires qualitative changes in pre-service and in-service teacher education. In this regard, especially the transition from school/university to professional life - the induction period and early career years - require special attention. In this phase, a fruitful synthesis of theory and practice can happen, in case novices are systematically introduced and supported by good mentoring in the transition from study to school life and culture, but also a »practice shock« is possible, during which many positive effects of pre-service education get lost. Buchberger et al. (2001) mentioned a certain »blind spot« in this area and stressed the need that we pay more attention to this issue by researching and building good models of induction. In our contribution, we are going to present and compare different existing concepts and models of induction in various European countries, together with their critical analysis. Our aim is to identify some principles and optimal solutions that would foster teacher's professional development in this important phase of their career.
COBISS.SI-ID: 10046793
Modern art curricula derive from the assumption that visual arts education can be of a high quality only if productive and receptive artistic activities are implemented. In art education practice, we are able to follow incentives for artistic expression but pay less attention to developing art appreciation that is based on developing as subtle perceptions of artwork as possible. Students have few opportunities to observe, enjoy and understand artwork. This discussion presents the results of a study that monitored the development of art appreciation abilities of 11-14 year-old students in Slovenian compulsory education. The level of art appreciation abilities is rather average and more developed with older students and girls. There were no statistically significant differences with regard to school stratum.
COBISS.SI-ID: 20779784
The study deals with material support for practical work in science classes in Slovenian primary schools (grades 1-5). It answers the question of why there are differences in national tests in terms of socio-economic development of the environment, despite the fact that schools are equally well equipped. There are two groups of teachers: in less-developed regions (N=337) and in more-developed regions (N=160) – the criterion is the “the development risk index.” Material research equipment in Slovenian schools is poor. Socio-economic development does not affect the perception of problems such as: the lack of materials and equipment, oversized groups, poor spatial conditions, and the absence of an assistant. Equipment is provided by schools, while material is brought by the pupils themselves. Comparison has shown that students in more developed environments bring their own material more frequently, which enables more research activities. It was concluded that despite the fact that the material conditions in all Slovenian schools are similar, there are differences in the development level of inquiry skills. In more-developed regions, students compensate the lack of material by providing aids from their home environment.
COBISS.SI-ID: 20824072
School environment is discussed as a physical area for learning and teaching, but also as an additional factor of instruction. When planning new or renovating old school buildings, architects should consider the needs and wishes of the school's users and include pupils and other stakeholders in consensual planning. In presented research, we found out the teachers' attitudes about the internal and external school environment. The research also included an analysis of pupils' drawings, which has revealed that we have to include teachers and pupils in consensus design, in order to make the schools more innovative - more useful, comfortable, eco friendly and connected to nature.
COBISS.SI-ID: 1536678596