pedagogy and andragogy. Kraków: Uniwersytet Pedagogiczny w Krakowie. DOI 10.24917/9788394156893.2
Katarzyna Potyrała Pedagogical University of Cracow, ul. Podchorążych 2, 30-084 Cracow, Poland katarzyna.potyrala@up.krakow.pl Karolina Czerwiec Pedagogical University of Cracow, ul. Podchorążych 2, 30-084 Cracow, Poland karolina.czerwiec@up.krakow.pl Emanuel Studnicki Pedagogical University of Cracow, ul. Podchorążych 2, 30-084 Cracow, Poland
emanuel.studnicki@up.krakow.pl Wioletta Skrzypek Pedagogical University of Cracow, ul. Podchorążych 2, 30-084 Cracow, Poland
wioletta.skrzypek@up.krakow.pl
on a diagnostic survey carried out using the Likert attitude scale among 586 teachers from different levels of education. The results of the research allow the development of proposals for the teacher trainings in the field of the research methodology.
Keywords: teachers, methodology of the research, pedagogy, competences
Introduction
The idea of motivating teachers to conduct research in their own schools is not new. In 1950 there was a strong research movement in the United States in the field of teachers’
participation in research conducted by universities and the independent organization of the research process by teachers in order to improve their own educational and work tech-niques (Corey, 1949). In this context, quantitative research based on an experiment aimed at solving various types of educational problems was usually used. In addition, both the teacher and the researcher testing various educational theories should be more and more often present in various educational institutions (Hodgkinson, 1957, pp. 138–9) due to the fact that, as Santa (1990) claimed in the 1990s, conducting educational research „is our key to educational change and authority.” and teacher research is the surest way to achieve change leading to school improvement (Hopkins, 1993; Hollingsworth & Miller, 1994), as well as teacher research is the best way to achieve lasting change in education (Olson, 1990). Buckingham (1926, p. 379) claims that “the field of educational research should not be viewed as the exclusive domain of research professionals: the field of research has no limits other than those of education itself. Indeed research is not really a field at all. It is a method; it is a point of view”, then Wolfe (1989) adds that “teachers often leave a mark on their students, but they seldom leave a mark on their profession”. Through the conducting of the process and using products of several actions, research teachers will do both.
The development of research in the field of pedagogy has an impact on stimulating edu-cational practices and didactic innovations. Getting to know new research procedures in empirical research is a part of the teacher’s work on every level of education. According to Olson and Wyett (2000), the school’s aim is both efficient control of the teaching-learning process and upbringing, also, teachers are obliged - apart from improving pupils’ knowl-edge and skills - to motivate students to develop social competences and the ability to interpret the surrounding reality. Therefore, teachers’ attitude to developing their own pro-fessional competences should be based on the conviction that there is the need to initiate changes in their work and permanent substantive, didactic and educational development (Colbert et.al., 2008; Shagrir, 2011; Pitsoe and Maila, 2012; Marshall, 2014). Contemporary times generate the need to improve competences which will enable teachers reflective par-ticipation in the construction of the educational process and undertaking such activities that will broaden the perspectives of considering many phenomena that are important in terms of education and pedagogy, especially among members of society directly connected
with the education of the young generation (Petress, 2003, Saunders, 2009, Soponaru et.al., 2016). Initiating changes in the students’ and teachers’ ways of thinking is related to the ac-tive participation of the latter in improving educational practices, understanding the social and pedagogical circumstances which are the elements of school functioning, assessing individual and collective aspects forming the personality of the educational process partici-pants (Petress, 2003; Saunders, 2009; Ghamrawi, 2013; Marshall, 2014; Pella, 2015).
Moreover, as Gaysina (2015) and Collay (2006) claim, professionalism at work is re-flected in openness to transformations of reality and new ways of development as well as involvement in the organization of the teaching-learning process and development of research attitude that allows to perceive scientific problems in the field of pedagogy and willingness to participate in the initiation of activities for the responsible improvement of their workshop and the organization of the teaching-learning process.
Teachers, in order to meet the requirements of the 21st century, must develop their skills and broaden their knowledge in a given field of science, and thus develop their own tools to support the course of the teaching-learning process. This is often caused by techno-logical progress, constantly developing school infrastructure and the necessity to use innovative teaching methods (Schleicher, 2012; Dumont et all, 2010). If the 21st century requires new skills from students, then as a consequence, teachers should also broaden their skills, strive for continuous personal development, which is possible, among oth-er things, by conducting research, the results of which guide furthoth-er development and the course of the teaching-learning process. As a consequence, improving the quality of teaching is still one of the main goals of education (Vaillant, 2009).
It is worth paying attention to the necessity of a multi-dimensional approach to the teach-er’s qualifications and competences because their collective approach will always not be sufficient enough due to the evolutionary scope of socio-professional requirements for teachers. Therefore, it is necessary to disseminate the results of pedagogical research covering the issues of prospective qualifications, which will give teachers the possibil-ity to take up and implement forthcoming educational tasks in a modern school (Sikor-ski, 2006). According to Eurydyce Raport (2016), the needs of the pedagogical environ-ment could be determined in a more precise way by taking into account opinions of the teachers. Therefore, an irreplaceable role in this process is played by pedagogical research which aim is to listen to the opinions of teachers and schools in the process of identify-ing educational needs. As Efron (2005) writes, it is important that teachers are inclined to get to know themselves by asking questions about their work, scientific cognition and the importance of objective measurement. On the other hand, research is a practical tool that allows practitioners to research in action. According to the Report on the state of educa-tion (Paczuska and Szpotowicz, 2014: 218), a good teacher is an innovator, researcher and reflective practitioner. He/she is an educator who is able to follow his/her actions with evaluation, interpretation and critical insight into their determinants, as well as maintain interest and skilfully perform analysis of these changes by the means of research in action.
The teacher-researcher is a participant of the study, together with his students develops and implements the subsequent stages of the research, draws conclusions and gathers data for undertaking further activities aimed at modernizing the didactic process.