Course Tutors
The purpose of this course is to understand the value of continuous professional development of educators and to encourage them to adopt various forms and modes of professional growth, by seeking out and making use of the challenges and opportunities that arise both within and beyond their workplace.
Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:
Knowledge level
- Perceive and pursue professional development as a lifelong process that renews their interest in the profession.
- Understand the diverse roles of an early childhood educator working in a constantly changing environment.
- Keep up with developments in pedagogical science and adopt new trends in their practical applications.
- Organize their knowledge and synthesize it with a critical perspective during their professional practice.
Skills level
- Recognize forms and modes of work, relating them to the broader sociopolitical context.
- Discover the value of collective action and promote it.
- Communicate and collaborate creatively and effectively within their work environment, as well as with associated individuals, institutions, and organizations.
Competence level
- Engage with the literature in a research-oriented way in relation to their professional identity.
- Work autonomously and responsibly and be able to solve problems that arise in their workplace.
- Take initiative and implement innovative ideas individually and collectively to advance their pedagogical work.
- Monitor, record, and evaluate their work using diverse methods.
General Competences
- Searching, analyzing, and synthesizing data and information, using the necessary technologies.
- Adaptation to new situations.
- Independent work.
- Teamwork.
- Work in an interdisciplinary environment.
COURSE CONTENT
- Forms of professional development – Professional guidance/Mentoring.
- Professional Ethics – Codes of professional ethics.
- Professional development, safety, and resilience of educators.
- Communication and collaboration in educational organizations – Institutional communication.
- Listening skills for successful professional careers.
- Co-teaching and professional autonomy.
- Crisis management in early childhood education and care settings.
- The early childhood education unit as a learning community – Case study.
- Quality issues in early childhood education – Contemporary approaches.
- The pedagogical team and its functioning.
- The educator as researcher – Action research.
- Twinning initiatives of early childhood education structures.
- Professional training and research.