Kompetencje nauczyciela edukacji elementarnej

Abstract

The competencies required of teachers working in elementary-level education are shown here against the background of an understanding according to which adaptive and emancipatory forms of rationality furnish two dimensions of the teacher’s personality. The potential competence of the contemporary teacher is determined by his/her personal competence and methodological, social and communication skills. Teacher competences have already been examined in the context of contemporary social and educational challenges. Such explorations place elementarylevel teachers in several roles: seeker of optimal solutions, active researcher, reflective ‘man (or woman)-of-action’, strategist for the actions of others, and architect of children’s knowledge. In conclusion, what is emphasized is that the overall competence of an elementary education teacher is developmental in character: the teacher is a person who has the ability to improve himself/herself, and his/her practices, in a changing environment. What is especially important in early-childhood education are those personal competencies which, for teachers, will subsequently be the source of their professional competencies. A recognition of the child’s own space for living and learning is a prerequisite for the educational activities of the teacher. It is a necessary condition for determining the direction in which their education should go, and for designing educational situations – activities which require one to take into account the individual (personal) learning environment of the child. In addition, it must be stressed that the teacher’s interactions with their natural and artificial environment require that they acquire the relevant sorts of functional competence (communication and media competences), in order to facilitate understanding of the environment by others and just to keep up with changes themselves. Social competencies and communication skills are useful when establishing interpersonal relationships, dialogue and understanding with the child. Indeed, these are the basic categories of education.