SELFEVALUATION OF COMPETENCES OF THE SPECIAL EDUCATORS AND REHABILITATORS IN THE SPECIAL INSTITUTION

Abstract

Received: 15. 05. 2009 Accepted: 10. 06. 2009 Best practice article Abstract The primary goal of this empirical research was to determinate how much has current education helped special educators and rehabilitators in forming separate competences, and if those competencies correspond to the desired ones, which are necessary for the work of the special educators and rehabilitators. The results have shown that one type of the competences in the program had been neglected up to now. Therefore, it is necessary for this fact to be taken into consideration when designing the new study programs. Key words: competences, selfevaluation, special educators and rehabilitators. Introduction More than one decade, the education in the Republic of Macedonia is going under big changes. At first they started in the regular preelementary and elementary education, and then in the special education. At the same time, together with these changes there have been informal changes in the education of the teaching staff. The Declaration of Bologna presents just one logical consequence of the formalization of these changes. Upon designing the modern university study programs, it is necessary to definite specific competences, which students should acquire during their studies. In the literature, there are a number of definitions for the term competence. According to Perrenoud (1999) competence is ability for effective functioning in numerous situations, which is based on acquired knowledge, yet not limited to that knowledge only. (1) Competences of the educator are his abilities, knowledge, skills and qualifications, which are useful for realization of the goals of the subjects he teaches. The same ones could be ranked in five mutually connected unities (2): 1. Personal competency, which includes decisiveness, self-confidence, intelligence, initiative, responsibility, honesty, trust, communication and diligence of the teacher. 2. Developmental competencies, which enable successful leadership of the educational process, innovation and creativity, utilization of the latest inventions in the professional field upon the teaching and recognizing of the students' needs. 3. Professional competency includes special educators and rehabilitators, pedagogic, psychological and other knowledge, which is necessary for work in classrooms, creative use of the time and realization of the goals of the subject. 4. Social competency includes knowledge for communications, interactions, familiarity with the techniques for problem solving and the ways of motivation of children for teamwork. 5. Action competency includes practical activities both, in the school and out of school. Materials and methods In order to determine how the special educators and rehabilitators (practical people) assess their self-professional capabilities, we have conducted a survey. The questionnaire consisted of 14 questions, for the acquired and desired competences, which are essential for a special educator and rehabilitator. The survey covered 42 special educators and rehabilitators, namely: * 15 special educators and rehabilitators from Special Primary School (SPS) Maca Ovcharova - Veles; * 12 special educators and rehabilitators from SPS Dr. Zlatan Sremac - Skopje; * 9 special educators and rehabilitators from SPS Idnina -Skopje, and * 6 special educators and rehabilitators from the special class of the regular primary school Vancho Prke - Stip. The answers we have received were divided in 2 groups, i.e. one group of what had been learned during the studying (I have learned), and the other of what was needed (it is necessary). Since the questions were of the open type, in the tables we have shown the most frequent answers. To part of the questions, the special educators and rehabilitators did not give their opinion. Further on, we have presented and analyzed the results for only 7 questions from the original paper. …