Abstract
Teacher’s professional competencies have been discussed extensively in the literature, often linked to educational policy discourses, teaching standards, student learning outcomes, or the intended outcomes of teacher education. Extensive, but fragmented and loosely theoretically or empirically based lists of teacher competencies are provided without much clarification of how, when, and why teachers learn and identify the competencies they need. Teacher competencies and how they are related to the core of their work as thinking practice have been discussed extensively by a range of stakeholders. However, what is actually needed in order to attain such competencies has been less studied. This paper contributes to the gap in the literature on active and intentional learning of teacher competencies by elaborating the relationship between teacher competencies and professional agency for learning. Through this, our aim in this article is to provide a better understanding of the topic, both theoretically and empirically. Drawing on earlier research, we have elaborated on the relationships between a teacher’s professional competencies and agency for learning among pre- and in-service teachers. We also aim to answer the question: what characteristics of teacher education lead to student teachers becoming competent and agentic? Why should we focus on those features during pre-service teacher education and as part of a teacher’s career?
Highlights
Teacher agency has been highlighted, in the literature on school development, with teacher learning as a key to enhancing teacher commitment to continuing professional development and school development [8]
Student teachers’ sense of professional agency in the classroom consists of learning in terms of reflection, modelling, building a collaborative learning environment, and competence, which are shown to be firmly related to and dependent of each other [53]. These modes of a teacher’s professional agency change in the different phases of teacher education [53], meaning that they are in a reciprocal relationship with each other, and their role is different in different phases of their studies
A teacher’s professional agency is a fundamental capacity for teachers and necessary to learn during teacher education
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Competent and agentic teachers are expected to enhance instructional quality, meet students’ needs, promote positive educational trajectories, school development, and pedagogical innovations [1,2,3,4]. In line with research on the ‘reflective practitioner’, they both emphasize continuous consideration of one’s own and others’ thoughts and behaviours as a key activity for developing in the teaching profession Both professional competencies and professional agency are dynamic and constantly constructed [15,16]. Drawing on the socio-constructivist view on learning, in this article, our aim is to provide a better understanding of learning of teacher competencies, both theoretically and empirically by analysing their relationship These constructs have been elaborated theoretically and investigated empirically in earlier research, but they have not been systematically analysed together before. Drawing on earlier research and empirical evidence, the relationship between a teacher’s professional competencies and agency for learning during teacher education and in the profession is highlighted in this article, with focus on the former
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