Professional Training and Professional Deficits of Teachers: a comparative study

Abstract

Teachers with similar qualification, experience and other professional characteristics still may teach their pupils with quite different results. It is supposed that there are some connections between the results of teaching and the measures of improving professional conditions of teachers. The aim of the research is to analyze the indices which characterize the quality of teaching staff in order to offer the measures which could help to improve economic and normative regulations of additional training and professional development of teachers. The data analysis is based on the conception of the third Teaching and Learning International Survey. The research was done in 2019–2021 in the Kirov region (a region of the Russian Federation). The work of 1146 teachers from city and village schools was considered in the research. Data collection by means of a questionnaire-based survey of teachers is the leading method of the research. The main need of teachers’ professional development is connected with individual teaching, with the issues of individual education of pupils with special needs and with using digital technologies at work. The share of teachers with the basic education on the subject taught by them is 65% in city schools and 51% in village schools. The main trends of developing school education are considered lessening the “bureaucracy” load on teachers by means of taking on additional staff, as well as special support of pupils with special needs and investments in digital technologies.