The present paper is the result of a reflection on the professional competences of early childhood teachers. It outlines the considerations on understanding the concept of competences, taking into account their ambiguity and varying semantic scope. The original understanding of specialised artistic competences of the early childhood teachers was presented in conceptual terms and an attempt was made to present the original model of the specialised artistic competences of early childhood teachers in the form of a three-segment structure, created by the distinguished areas of this competence, named by the author as domains of competence, together with their components and basic indicators. The study is addressed to researchers studying this issue and teachers of early school education, it is also supposed to be a voice in the discussion on shaping and development of the specialised artistic competences of early childhood teachers and, according to the author, to encourage reflection in this field.

The take & make method in performative education. Case study

The article is a report on the research carried out in a group of pedagogy students on the use of the take&make performative method in the subject of comparative pedagogy. The aim of the research was to learn about the experiences of pedagogy students regarding the implementation of an optional performative task within the subject of comparative pedagogy. During the research the case study method was used. The technique used in the study was the technique of analyzing documents, in this case entries on a didactic forum on an e-learning platform – their content and available information on entries, such as the date of entry and the average grade of the student entering the registration. The main strategy for data analysis was qualitative analysis and the complementary strategy was quantitative analysis. The qualitative analysis covers the nature of the responses to correctly completed tasks – the type of action undertaken by the students and its creative or imitative nature, as well as the strategies undertaken by students who failed the task. The quantitative analysis covered the number of submitted works, the number of passed works (performative solutions) and failed works (non-performative solutions), their correlation with the average grade for compulsory tasks and the time of submitting the work. The article points to the need to use performative methods in education that mobilize students to act, not only to plan their own actions.

Despite a lot of works on teaching and teacher education, little attention has been paid to the search for the essence, contents and conditions of the category of “responsibility” as presented by the contemporary philosophers. In this paper a variety of theoretical references to the approaches and traditions dealing with the widely seen field of responsibility in the philosophy is presented, and consequently an attempt to translate them into the problems of pedagogical responsibility, which amounts to resolving doubts inherent in the area defined by the question about relationships between the teacher’s responsibility and the social function s/he performs, is undertaken. The problems dealt with in my paper may constitute an important contribution to the development of our knowledge about the teacher’s profession. The obtained analytical results of the research prove the existence of the need for the educational sciences to solve a lot of significant problems. In order to deal with them the answer to the question “What teacher does the modern school need?” must be found. In connection with this the answers to the following questions should be given: What conditions teacher’s responsibility? Who does the teacher feel answerable to and how is (or will be) his responsibility evaluated? What or/and who is the teacher responsible for? Does the fact that the teacher’s work is monitored and assessed by the units of educational authorities mean that the teacher is answerable only to them? Do teachers focus only on carrying out orders and achieving their own goals and the goals of the “insiders” in the system? How do teachers perceive the contemporary world and its future? What tasks is the contemporary teacher assigned in the light of the demands of the changing world?

In the article the authors intend to pinpoint a variety of notions of teachers professional education and growth. The abundance of ideas can be attributed to different social needs and expectations. Political, economic and cultural changes in Poland resulted in growing attention in the area of education and teachers’ social role. The authors try to outline the latest tendencies in pedeutology, particularly concentrated on the models of teachers education.

A number of authors have looked into the problems involved in finding the most appropriate and fundamental competences and capablilities of a teacher that form the basis of his/her professionalism and are becoming more and more essential for changing attitudes towards requirements in the professional preparation and practice of a teacher. This trend has become evident since the 1990s with several overriding tendencies which can be easily identified. F. Oser’s model, which has been widely recognized across Europe, has been the main inspiration for the preparation of the Slovak approach towards teacher competences. The draft of the structure of a teacher competence profile in the Slovak Republic in accordance with European trends and documents is based on the teacher’s competence profile from the interactional model of education with the following three basic dimensions: the pupil, the teacher, and the teaching process which occurs between them. This is the basis for the teacher’s competence profile and it has now become a topic of public debate.

In the article the authors intend to refer to the empirical study concerning teachers’ perception of their education and needed competences. The surveyed group consisted of 72 teachers from different educational institutions (mostly primary and secondary schools). The first part of the article deals with the latest standards of teachers’ professional preparation based on legal regulations. The subsequent part is the analysis of the obtained data which contributed to important conclusions and practical indications.