Conception of the Competent Teacher According To the First-Year Physical Education Students of Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences

Abstract

Article presents conception of competent (university) teacher according to the first year physical education students of Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences (LUES). By analyzing the concept of quality studies of first year PE students of of LUES, eight qualitative categories have been singled out: study outcomes, the structure of study programme, study process, a favourable educational environment, material and methodical resources, lecturers, the accessibility of studies and a possibility to be employed, prestige of institutions and studies. However, we still don’t know who is “qualified teacher” in the eyes of our students. Also we shouldn’t forget that PE students are future PE teachers. So it’s really important to analyze who are qualified teacher and what students are thinking about it, because it’s could be their, as future teacher’s, vision. Article identifies some problems as who is qualified teacher in students eyes, what level of excellence qualified teacher must demonstrate and what skills he must have etc. The purpose of the article was to reveal the qualified teacher conception of the students of the first year of studies of PE at Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences. Research methods applied were as follows: analysis of scientific literature and documents, students’ answers to open questions: ”what is qualified teacher of university for you personally?”, quality content analysis. Students’ conception of qualified teacher of university was analyzed relying on traditional qualitative content analysis; the text was studied by singling out keywords and phrases and forming them into subcategories and categories. The categories were grouped by attributing them to separate areas. First year PE students of LUES were surveyed in spring of 2014. 46 first year PE students of LUES participated in the research. The scope of the research was a comfortable one, because the chosen students attend lectures, do not have previous experience of studying in other higher education schools, study programmes and therefore it was easy to find them at their study places. Ethics of the research: the research was performed by following principle of voluntarism, in the environment of students’ studies and at the time that was comfortable for them. An agreement of the researched was also acquired as well as the permission of study programme leaders. There was a possibility given not to participate in the research. Conception of the qualified teacher according to the first year PE students is revealed via three elements: 1) professional recognition and expertise, 2) personal qualities and 3) competencies. Students are often associating teacher‘s professional recognition with non-formal recognition, image of an expert of certain area, but not with formal teacher’s qualities acknowledgment. Basing on students’ opinion, qualified university teacher must demonstrate competencies of didactics, of students’ motivation and support, of student awareness and recognition, of communication and cooperation. Good, friendly, objective, nice, creative, rigorous, without prejudices and honest, turned positive, or even a “super hero” – a competent teacher should have these properties. Some students have too high expectations towards competent teacher, imagining him as an expert of all areas, a person able to resolve personal motivation problems, a person able to directly feel, to see the mind, thus students may experience frustration and difficulties when shaping their future vision of himself as a physical education teacher. Keywords: first-year students of bachelor studies in physical education, competence, qualified teacher of university. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15823/sm.2017.3