Vol.

II (LXIV)
No. 1/2012

52 - 56

Teachers perception on the categories of competences

considered important in initial and continuous training
Crisan Alinaa*, Enache Roxanab
a

Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, street C-tin Daicoviciu, 15, Cluj, Romania

Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti, Bucuresti Blvd., 39, Ploiesti, 100680, Romania

Abstract
Starting from the concept advanced by futurists that human kind has experienced and learned the shock of
the future and nowadays it has to learn future projection, and from the words of Jacques Delors in his
famous report, that it is more important to learn how to learn, to know how to search and retain what is
really meaningful, useful and applicable and know how to put things in practice, we have captured in the
current paper the perception of 1000 teachers by the focus group method regarding the importance of
certain competences in training programs according to their professional development level, their
experience, subjects taught, age, gender and background.
Keywords: competences; teacher perception; initial training; continuous training

1. Introduction
We have analyzed the basic concepts we would operate with throughout or research an
the main delimitations are:
Competence represents the structured complex of knowledge and skills acquired
through learning; they materialize into intellectual capacities that require transfer,
applicability and operating various contents; they allow identification and solving in
various contexts of problems specific to a certain field; proven ability to suitably select,
combine and use knowledge, abilities and other acquisitions (values and attitudes) in
view of successfully solving a certain type of work-related or learning-related issues as
well as for an efficient and effective professional and personal development. As different
from performance, competence is achievable during longer periods of time and involves
skills and mental operations. General competences are defined by field categories, have a
higher degree of generality and complexity and have the role of orienting the training of
specialists for the respective activity field. Specific competences belong to the
professional area, being related to each job in particular and are developed through
specialty subjects. Cross - competences are common to all jobs and have a generally valid
character.
The communication skills that we related to in our research are: the use of concepts
and theories of modern communication, empathic behavior, using various information
sources (media, internet, etc.), accomplishing teaching from a communicational
perspective, educational projects in collaboration with other schools, parents, the
community, etc. The activities through which teachers practice these skills are lessons,
extracurricular activities, methodological committees, meetings with parents, training
programs.
* Corresponding author:
E-mail address: alina_n_crisan@yahoo.com

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The evaluative skills considered are: the use of concepts and theories of modern
evaluation, evaluation design (teaching, objectives, students knowledge and skills etc.),
the use of effective assessment strategies, development of assessment tools, the
achievement of fair, objective and scientific measuring and assessment, the development
of a sense of observation, of critical thinking, of voluntary attention etc. Activities that
develop these skills are mainly the development of assessment items, of assessment tools,
the assessment and evaluation of the school results (knowledge, skills, abilities, attitudes,
behaviors and values) of students.
The managerial skills of the teachers we have related to are: perseverance, self-control,
acceptance of change, assuming various roles (examiner, examined, competitor,
supervisor, designer, performer, coordinator, organizer, counselor, etc.), the adoption of
effective behavior to overcome crisis situations, etc. These skills are practiced by the
continuous updating of knowledge and by improving professional skills, by learning and
observing professional ethical principles, by showing specific behavior in situations of
competition, contest, test etc.
The pedagogical skills to which we have referred in our discussions with teachers are:
appropriately using pedagogical concepts and theories of learning and assessment, their
application in consolidating skills, abilities, knowledge, content design, teaching and
extra-curricular activities, use of appropriate teaching strategies according to persons
involved, use of effective teaching materials, manifestations of creativity and innovative
behavior in the workplace, accomplishing educational activities etc. Activities in which
these skills are formed, trained and developed: selection and processing of contents,
design and planning teaching activities for short (units, lessons), medium (semesters) and
long (school year) durations, development of school curriculum, participation in
scientific-methodological and research activities etc.
Psychosocial skills: adaptation, flexibility, responsibility, involvement in developing
and carrying out cooperation projects with other schools, with family and community,
developing effective strategies in school-family partnerships, knowledge and use of
motivating strategies for students, application of methods and techniques of
psychological knowledge of students profile. Activities involving these skills are: artistic
performances, methodical and scientific activities, counseling, project coordination and
monitoring, planning and implementation of extracurricular activities and school
activities, school-family and school-community partnership activities etc.
Technical skills: design, implementation and use of materials / resources for learning,
training, practice and improvement of practical skills, selecting teaching strategies in
order to effectively use teaching resources in the educational process, using new
information technologies in teaching (computer, projector, audio systems, video systems,
etc.). These skills are formed and practiced through the following activities: design and
implementation of technical activities, practicing practical skills and motor skills (using
computers, laboratory experiments, practical work).
Other concepts teachers have related to in their assessment are:
Ability, a concept that teachers perceive as synonymous with learning ability, skill,
dexterity, highlighting the ease, speed, high quality and precision with which man carries
out certain activities; method, working model or behavior applicable to specific tasks; not
to be confused with learning, based on neuro-psychic plasticity, and not limited to
knowledge as it represents a prerequisite for the formation and optimal use, in new
situations, of current skills and knowledge.
Teaching ability is a skill that manifests itself in the educational field; it is a complex
of features, specified and developed in a sound pedagogical culture; it results in the
individual transformation capacity. Teaching ability does not correlate with the
educational ability (for example educator J. J .Rousseau is not cited as a good teacher).
As features in the structure of teaching ability we mention: thinking system, capability to

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present the content for the understanding level of the collective, distributive attention,
openness to new, selflessness, dedication, humility, patience etc.
Uniformly perceiving these concepts, teachers that have been included in the target
group of the research prioritized core competences. Depending on several variables, in
the first place have emerged as important the psycho-pedagogical and psycho-social
competences for secondary level teachers.
2. Methodology
2.1. Objective
The objective of our research is to list the most important competences a teacher needs
to develop in the initial and continuous training programs; to rank these skills according
to their importance for teachers; to determine according to what variable some are more
important than the others; to correlate variables with the first five most important
competences.
The working hypothesis is that if they take interest in their professional development
then teachers will focus on specific skills (methodological, evaluation, psychoeducational skills), and if they have superior training (higher education, professional and
pedagogical training, continuing education) then they will focus on the cross
competences (psychosocial, self-management, networking competences).
2.2. Participants
Participants in our research are 1,000 teachers in undergraduate education, distributed
as follows - 400 from Prahova County, 400 from Braila County and 200 from Cluj
County. Of these, 70% are from urban areas, 85% are women, 23% are aged between 20
and 25 years old, 55% are aged between 25 and 50, and 22% are over 50 years old; 9%
have experience in education between 1 and 3 years, 22% between 3 and 10 years, 45%
between 10 and 20, and 24% more than 20 years in education; 56% teach humanities and
97% hold permanent positions in education; 84% are college graduates and 16% have
only secondary education; 13% teach at pre-school level, 40% teach at primary level and
47% at secondary and high school level; 94% have specialist training and teach subjects
in compliance with the specialty they graduated from, the rest teach in pre-school and
primary level lacking higher education. Most teachers who participated in research have
graduated from higher education institutions, 96% have pedagogical training, and all
participate in continuing education programs (teachers were selected from a target group
that were in that moment attending at least one continuing education program).
2.3. Instrument
The research methods used were focus group, observation and conversation, and as a
tool we used the systematic observation checklist, questionnaire and the skills check-list
detailed and divided by category. The categories of skills that teachers made reference to
were: cognitive skills, language skills, professional skills, methodological skills,
communication and networking skills, assessment skills, psychosocial skills, career
management skills, information technologies user skills, management and resource
management skills, skills that aim at institutional development, self management skills.
2.4. Procedure
Teachers first responded to the questionnaire and based on their responses a check list
was established for the competence categories important to them, then based on the focus
group, observation, conversation and systematic observation grid these skills were

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prioritized by all the 1,000 teachers. Depending on different variables (personal data age, gender, seniority in education, background, education, concern for professional
development) we found that prioritization differed.
2.5. Data analysis
Teacher answers to questionnaires were centralized and the most common categories
of skills were retained and then brought to the attention of teachers who have ranked
them according to their importance. The relevant observation grid applied focused on the
frequency with which teachers used (in spoken language and / or applied in practice)
different competences to confirm the importance they give to those categories. These data
were analyzed and correlated with all variables that influence the education process and
which can then be used for a quality analysis.
3. Results
Our hypothesis - if teachers take interest in their professional development then they
will focus on specific skills (methodological, evaluation, psycho-pedagogic skills), and if
they are highly educated (higher education, professional and pedagogical courses,
continuing education) will then focus on cross-competences (psychosocial, selfmanagement, networking) - was confirmed as most teachers in our target group said they
are interested and would attend a continuous training course after five years and
considered the specific skills important (they appreciated, but also implemented them in
their classes and training program applications), and those with higher education, those
who are enrolled or attending a training program, focus on cross-competences.
Respondents from rural areas, women, aged over 50 years, with experience in teaching,
holding permanent positions in education, teaching at preschool and primary level and
who did not graduate from higher education institutions have the highest percentage
(78%) at ranking specific skills at the top. Respondents in urban areas, women, aged
between 25 and 50 years, with experience in education between 10 and 20 years, teaching
humanities, holding permanent positions in education, teaching at secondary level and
who graduated from a higher education institution have had the highest percentage (86%)
at selecting cross skills as more important.
We observe that variables like gender, category of subjects taught, seniority in
education and holding a permanent position do not influence the choice of some
competences over the other. Feminization of education is a feature that has a say in our
research and that is why it represents a variable that does not change the results.
According to the curriculum the number of hours, and therefore the number of teachers
teaching humanities is higher, so this variable is prevalent in both cases. Experience in
education is a feature that indicates professional maturity, so orientation towards specific
skills, and towards cross-competences that can be applied in personal development not
only in professional life.
Teachers, as well as the whole society, are living a time of change, questioning the new
meanings of existence. Transformation of the individual in various fields - cognitive,
social, cultural, and global is emerging in education (be it initial, continuous or
permanent education) as values of primary importance, trying to formulate answers to the
vital question: how can education, through the training programs it offers, to ensure
integration, adaptation and constant up-grading of the individual in such a world?
What is the knowledge and skills teachers must have? Can one develop real skills
through teaching approaches acquired in training programs?
What kind of skills can be developed and at what level of complexity, since they call
into question associated concepts such as knowledge, skills, abilities and last but not
least, experience that is gained through action / exercise. This brings another question: to

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what extent, given the constraints of resources and time, has education the capacity to
exercise a certain acquisition of the teacher long enough so it translates into a skill?
Macro design (at the level of education systems, education programs) based on skills,
became in our postmodern society, not only an imperative, but especially a challenge.
Therefore, rational design of any training program must have as its starting point a
relevant analysis of the national and international socio-economic reality, mainly the
knowledge needs (including skills).
4. Conclusions
In conclusion, our research can be useful for educational policy planners in the field of
teacher training, for curriculum designers leading to an innovative approach to course
design, with emphasis on the early stages of identifying and analyzing beneficiaries
requirements. Further interventions of societal needs in the required skills of a teacher
and then in the structure of programs, courses and teaching strategies should ensure that
the final product meets those needs.
Trends in teacher training demonstrate societys interest to have teachers who possess
both solid specific skills and cross-skills (teamwork, leadership, communication skills,
etc.).
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