Innovative Aspects of the PROFILES Professional Development Programme Dedicated to Science Teachers

Abstract

A major direction of the educational reforms made in the last 20 years in Romania - same as in other countries from the European Union - was the restructuration of the initial and continuous training of the didactic personnel. In this respect, nowadays, the teacher must see and act beyond the horizons of the taught discipline, in order to form pupils’ competences which are necessary for life as a whole. Reported to the multiplication of the roles confined to those who embrace a didactic career, a corresponding psycho-pedagogical and methodical reformation must be made. This implies a demarche of redefining the necessary competences for the exertion of the didactic profession and an identification of new curricula resources, which are to be used as a support, in order to obtain those competences. At the same time, all those changes made in the field of initial and continuous training must be regarded in the context of unitary learning strategies, along the entire life. This paper proposes an analysis concerning the way in which the continuous professional development programmes are held in Romania, especially those dedicated to Science teachers (Chemistry, Physics and Biology). At the same time, in this context, it is presented the innovative aspect supposed by the CPD programme “PROFILES - Education through Sciences”, where the target group has been constituted of Science teachers from secondary schools of Dâmboviţa, Buzău and Teleorman Counties.