3. Why certification forms are provocative
What are the options? Certification of a teacher by students, in a number of schools – by parents and colleagues (there are special questionnaires, once a year). Student performance in the subject. Passing advanced training. Participation in social activities in connection with the tasks of the school (projects, trips with schoolchildren, etc.). A number of schools take into account the competitions of students, teachers … Certification is an internal matter, it does not affect wages. It depends on education, work experience, workload. But on the basis of the certification of teachers, then the certification of the school takes place, and this is already external.
In Germany, there are compulsory and voluntary continuing education, but everything counts. Mandatory – centralized, for the most important problems existing at the state and / or federal level, paid not by the teacher himself. The teacher visits, completes assignments, receives and provides the school with a certificate of completion. Desirable – by choice. Typically paid by the school (if paid), but not always.
Estonia
Olga Anisimova, a teacher at the Jykhvi gymnasium, says:
As such, we do not have certification where you have to confirm something. All information about the advanced training courses taken and other things immediately fall into the state register. Everything else is at the mercy of the administration. Somewhere according to the template, they write self-analysis as a report on activities, merits and plans (once a year). Plus a developing conversation with each director individually about problems and suggestions for the next year. A few years ago, the categories were canceled and now everyone is just teachers, there are not even subject students. There is also a category of young teachers, “first 5 years” and honored ones. There is the concept of “teacher-methodologist”, there is attestation upon application and twice a year. This requires achievements at the republican level, publications and an excellent knowledge of the Estonian language.
We gathered in the editorial office and discussed the process of introducing the new certification system, read the comments on the publications on the site in order to form an editorial position. As a result of the discussion, we realized that there are several fundamental questions, without an answer to which we cannot come to a common opinion. Therefore, they decided to publicly ask the authors of the new certification system. If this material gets at least 100 “thanks” and / or 100,000 views, we, using the Law on Mass Media, will make an official request to the Ministry of Education and Science, Rosobrnadzor and all other involved departments with a request to formulate answers to them.
1. Why do you need certification?
Almost nowhere in other industries (except medicine) there are similar, multi-stage certification systems. The decision on hiring is made by the manager based on a combination of factors, taking into account the reputation and experience of the applicant. In the future, the continuation of cooperation is based on the results of the work and taking into account the opinion of the collective or an elected representative body.
If none of the teacher appraisal systems could satisfy a variety of requests, and had to change its format over and over again, then why is the question of its expediency not raised?
2. Why is it impossible to replace certification of teachers with certification of leaders?
A competently working director cannot have incompetent and unskilled employees, since a professional leader will establish a system of mentoring and mutual training, self-education of teachers in the school. Otherwise, the head is incompetent himself, which means that it is enough to certify the head of an educational organization to make sure that the school teachers are fully competent in their activities.
3. Why are the forms of certification provocative?
The new model of attestation presupposes procedures that are rather humiliating for a teacher: a test for knowledge of a subject, solving pedagogical problems, video filming a lesson. The very existence of these certification procedures speaks of distrust of the teacher and his professionalism. Even the knowledge of the subject is questioned. Moreover, any teacher is a certified specialist who has passed state exams and defended a diploma.
4. Why are trade unions not involved in certification?
It is declared that it is the professional union of educators who is engaged in the protection of the rights of teachers; the very logic of the activities of this organization presupposes its participation in certification activities in order to control whether the rights of teachers are violated. So why does the union stay away from appraisal?
5. Why is there no estimate of the cost of introducing a new certification system?
The experience of the Unified State Exam has shown that the construction of an independent state assessment system does not lead to a decrease in conflicts, an improvement in the quality of education, and even more so to a decrease in the costs of administering the system itself. The costs of holding the Unified State Exam are growing every year, does not the new certification system expect the same consequences ?
6. Why is it impossible to replace certification with a guaranteed quality improvement of the qualifications of each teacher?
As far as we understand, the purpose of the certification of teachers is to make sure of their high professional qualities, a level of knowledge and skills sufficient for teaching. Accordingly, passing by teachers of refresher courses aimed at acquainting teachers with new, proven teaching methods, modern scientific discoveries in the fields of teaching, would serve the purpose of attestation no less than attestation itself, but at the same time would reduce the degree of discontent among teachers and reduce by load them.
We gathered in the editorial office and discussed the process of introducing the new certification system, read the comments on the publications on the site in order to form an editorial position. As a result of the discussion, we realized that there are several fundamental questions, without an answer to which we cannot come to a common opinion. Therefore, they decided to publicly ask the authors of the new certification system. If this material gets at least 100 “thanks” and / or 100,000 views, we, using the Law on Mass Media, will make an official request to the Ministry of Education and Science, Rosobrnadzor and all other involved departments with a request to formulate answers to them.
1. Why do you need certification?
Almost nowhere in other industries (except medicine) there are similar, multi-stage certification systems. The decision on hiring is made by the manager based on a combination of factors, taking into account the reputation and experience of the applicant. In the future, the continuation of cooperation is based on the results of the work and taking into account the opinion of the collective or an elected representative body.
If none of the teacher appraisal systems could satisfy a variety of requests, and had to change its format over and over again, then why is the question of its expediency not raised?
2. Why is it impossible to replace certification of teachers with certification of leaders?
A competently working director cannot have incompetent and unskilled employees, since a professional leader will establish a system of mentoring and mutual training, self-education of teachers in the school. Otherwise, the head is incompetent himself, which means that it is enough to certify the head of an educational organization to make sure that the school teachers are fully competent in their activities.
3. Why are the certification forms provocative?
The new model of attestation presupposes procedures that are rather humiliating for a teacher: a test for knowledge of a subject, solving pedagogical problems, video filming a lesson. The very existence of these certification procedures speaks of distrust of the teacher and his professionalism. Even the knowledge of the subject is questioned. Moreover, any teacher is a certified specialist who has passed state exams and defended a diploma.
4. Why are trade unions not involved in certification?
It is declared that it is the professional union of educators who is engaged in the protection of the rights of teachers; the very logic of the activities of this organization presupposes its participation in certification activities in order to control whether the rights of teachers are violated. So why does the union stay away from appraisal?
5. Why is there no estimate of the cost of implementing a new certification system?
The experience of the Unified State Exam has shown that the construction of an independent state assessment system does not lead to a decrease in conflicts, an improvement in the quality of education, and even more so to a decrease in the costs of administering the system itself. The things fall apart tragic hero essay costs of holding the Unified State Exam are growing every year, does not the new certification system expect the same consequences ?
6. Why is it impossible to replace certification with a guaranteed quality improvement of the qualifications of each teacher?
As far as we understand, the purpose of the certification of teachers is to make sure of their high professional qualities, a level of knowledge and skills sufficient for teaching.