A theoretical and practical study on the development of elementary school teachers' competencies: focusing on the explicit and tacit aspects of their competencies

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The purpose of this study is to identify the explicit and tacit images of the teaching profession held by elementary school teachers in Japan. The major research questions are as follows: 1) What are the core elements (competencies) of the teaching profession as perceived by elementary school teachers in Japan? 2) On what basis are some competencies considered more or less important than others? We identified commonalities in the participants’ opinions on teacher competencies. They are summarized as the following. The teachers listed more than two meanings for the core competencies of the teaching profession. The participants (teachers) perceived their role as teachers and the needed skills for teaching professionals in terms of their relationships with others (children, parents, colleagues, etc.), and considered that such relationships provided the teachers with the situations in which they could deal with problems irrespective of their own carrier.