The expectations of teachers' role image have altered due to the quick changes in Estonian post-socialist society. Class teachers graduate from Tallinn University with a basic knowledge of teaching and readiness for continuous learning and self-development through daily work aimed at developing their professional competence. Teachers' 5th Professional Standard has been accepted to regulate teachers' work in Estonia. Participation in educational life fosters self-development and shapes professional and individual identity. Teachers' professional standard can guide teachers in assessing their own professional skills, including essential competence such as planning and guiding, creating the learning environment, motivating learning, co-operation, communication, and self-analysis. The research problem is: how do the teachers assess their professional skills? The data have been gathered using educational-ethnographic essay and a questionnaire clarifying the correspondence of teachers' professional skills to the standard of professional competence. The research is located within the qualitative paradigm. The highest value was attributed to the skill to consider the individual differences of each child and command of versatile teaching methods. The further development is needed in areas of sharing one's thoughts and experience with colleagues and parents' involvement in co-operation.
One of the key ideas of the language immersion methodology is to guarantee sustainable development for children from non-Estonian families in respect to their linguistic and social development. The most important conditions are creating flexible possibilities to participate in language immersion groups and classes and applying the language immersion methodology in everyday teaching process systematically. The present research seeks to highlight teachers' views on the sustainability of general competences of children who have completed the language immersion group in the kindergarten. The domain of general competences includes 32 sub-skills related to learning to learn and social skills, which were assessed by the teachers on a 5-point scale. For the sake of clear data analysis, the general competences have been divided into general competences fostering learning and learner-centred general competences. The present study showed that language immersion methodology favours applying child-centred pedagogy in the actual teaching process and supports the sustainability of children's linguistic and social development.
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