EDUCATORS OF ARTS TEACHERS: COHERENCE BETWEEN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TEACHING QUALITY

Abstract

Theprinciples of education for sustainable development implemented in Lithuanianeducation system shifted perceptions of teachers’ roles from disseminatingknowledge towards developing students’ competences of responsible, critical andcreative thinking and acting. Arts teachers’ competency to efectively implementgoals of arts education in schools is closely related to their education andits quality, which is mainly connected with competences of academic staff, i.e. educators. It is very important that teacher educators are engaged in thepermanent professional development closely connected with the area of theirsubject. The given reasearch aimed to examine coherence between professionaldevelopment and teaching quality of academinc staff of Department of ArtsEducation in Lithuanian University of EducationalSciences Faculty of Education. 90 students of dance pedagogy, theater pedagogyBA level and dance pedagogy, music pedagogy and visual arts pedagogy MA levelparticipated in the survey. The findings revealed that students have positiveopinion about high level of educators’ subject knowledge, but lower aboutvariety of teaching methods applied in study process and assessment objectivityin BA programmes.KEYWORDS:arts teacher, educator, teaching quality, professional development.