{"id":671,"date":"2016-08-15T20:32:57","date_gmt":"2016-08-15T20:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timss2015.org\/encyclopedia\/countries\/croatia\/teachers-teacher-education-and-professional-development\/"},"modified":"2016-09-02T13:14:19","modified_gmt":"2016-09-02T13:14:19","slug":"teachers-teacher-education-and-professional-development","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/timss2015.org\/encyclopedia\/countries\/croatia\/teachers-teacher-education-and-professional-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Teachers, Teacher Education, and Professional Development"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"carouselwrap\"><div id=\"menu-croatia\" class=\"carouselmenu\"><a href=\"http:\/\/timss2015.org\/encyclopedia\/countries\/croatia\/\" class=\"menu-link main-menu-link menu-item menu-item-type-custom menu-item-object-custom\"><span>Introduction<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/timss2015.org\/encyclopedia\/countries\/croatia\/the-mathematics-curriculum-in-primary-and-lower-secondary-grades\/\" class=\"menu-link main-menu-link menu-item menu-item-type-custom menu-item-object-custom\"><span>The Mathematics Curriculum in Primary and Lower Secondary Grades<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/timss2015.org\/encyclopedia\/countries\/croatia\/the-science-curriculum-in-primary-and-lower-secondary-grades\/\" class=\"menu-link main-menu-link menu-item menu-item-type-custom menu-item-object-custom\"><span>The Science Curriculum in Primary and Lower Secondary Grades<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/timss2015.org\/encyclopedia\/countries\/croatia\/teachers-teacher-education-and-professional-development\/\" class=\"menu-link main-menu-link menu-item menu-item-type-custom menu-item-object-custom\"><span>Teachers, Teacher Education, and Professional Development<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/timss2015.org\/encyclopedia\/countries\/croatia\/instruction-for-mathematics-and-science-in-primary-and-lower-secondary-grades\/\" class=\"menu-link main-menu-link menu-item menu-item-type-custom menu-item-object-custom\"><span>Instruction for Mathematics and Science in Primary and Lower Secondary Grades<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/timss2015.org\/encyclopedia\/countries\/croatia\/monitoring-student-progress-in-mathematics-and-science\/\" class=\"menu-link main-menu-link menu-item menu-item-type-custom menu-item-object-custom\"><span>Monitoring Student Progress in Mathematics and Science<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/timss2015.org\/encyclopedia\/countries\/croatia\/special-initiatives-in-mathematics-and-science-education\/\" class=\"menu-link main-menu-link menu-item menu-item-type-custom menu-item-object-custom\"><span>Special Initiatives in Mathematics and Science Education<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/timss2015.org\/encyclopedia\/countries\/croatia\/use-and-impact-of-timss\/\" class=\"menu-link main-menu-link menu-item menu-item-type-custom menu-item-object-custom\"><span>Use and Impact of TIMSS<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/timss2015.org\/encyclopedia\/countries\/croatia\/suggested-readings\/\" class=\"menu-link main-menu-link menu-item menu-item-type-custom menu-item-object-custom\"><span>Suggested Readings<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/timss2015.org\/encyclopedia\/countries\/croatia\/references\/\" class=\"menu-link main-menu-link menu-item menu-item-type-custom menu-item-object-custom\"><span>References<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/div><\/div>\t<style>\n\t\t.carouselwrap{\n\t\t\tbackground: #e5eaef;\n\t\t}\t\t\n\t\t.owl-item a{\n\t\t\tbackground: #ffffff;\n\t\t\tborder: 4px #00b2cc solid;\n\t\t\tcolor: #000000;\n\t\t}\t\t\n\t\t.owl-item a:hover,\n\t\t.owl-item a:focus,\n\t\t.owl-item a.current-menu-item{\n\t\t\tbackground: #00667f;\n\t\t\tborder: 4px #00b2cc solid;\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tcolor: #ffffff;\n\t\t}\n\t<\/style>\n\t\n<h2>Teachers, Teacher Education, and Professional Development<\/h2>\n<p>Until the 2005\u20132006 academic year, the majority of higher education institutions offered four year undergraduate degree programs. Through the implementation of the Bologna Process at Croatian universities, degree programs are now structured as follows: a bachelor\u2019s degree comprises a three or four year program resulting in a diploma, and a master\u2019s degree comprises a further one or two years of study after the first cycle.<\/p>\n<p>The government is responsible for the professional, pedagogical, and psychological training of teachers and their preservice teacher education. The Department of Teacher Education of the Faculty of Teacher Education provides primary teacher education in a program that takes five years to complete (10 semesters, or 300 ECTS\u2014European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System credits), and results in a master\u2019s degree in primary education. At the end of the program, teachers are qualified to teach classes in all subjects in the first four grades of primary school, as well as English and German as a foreign language, if they opted for the language course of study at the time of enrollment.<\/p>\n<h3>Teacher Education Specific to Mathematics and Science<\/h3>\n<p>Specialist teachers in primary and secondary schools who teach biology, chemistry, physics, and geography must obtain a master\u2019s degree in their subject area in addition to completing requirements in pedagogical, psychological, and methodological skills.<\/p>\n<p>After completing their studies, all new teachers are required to complete a one year induction program under the supervision of a teacher-mentor. At the end of this period, beginner teachers must pass the state certification examination in order to become fully qualified and certified.<\/p>\n<h3>Requirements for Ongoing Professional Development<\/h3>\n<p>Teachers have the right and the obligation to pursue continual professional development through programs approved by the Ministry. Indeed, teachers and other educational staff are required to take part in professional development at the national level at least once every two years, and at the county level at least three times per year.<sup>9<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>A wide variety of courses and other professional development activities are available for primary and secondary teachers. The Education and Teacher Training Agency <em>(Agencija za odgoj i obrazovanje)<\/em> provides professional assistance and guidelines, and regularly organizes professional development activities for educational staff.<sup>10<\/sup> Individual and organized professional development opportunities are available in science content areas as well as in the fields of pedagogy, didactics, educational psychology, methodology, Information and Communications Technology (ICT), counseling, administration, educational policy, and other areas that support the effective and high quality education of students.<sup>11<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>The government also finances supplementary professional education in areas defined as having major relevance to educational policy. Employers are responsible for providing other continuing professional development opportunities. Costs incurred by teachers\u2019 continuing professional development are co-financed by the government as part of state aid for education.<sup>12<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>The Strategy for Education, Science, and Technology,<sup>13<\/sup> adopted by the Croatian parliament on October 17, 2014, envisages the development of national competency standards for teachers by 2015. These will be based on learning outcomes and in line with the Croatian qualifications framework. The strategy also sets out several long term measures for improving initial and ongoing teacher training programs, which include quality assurance and professional development for teacher educators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Teachers, Teacher Education, and Professional Development Until the 2005\u20132006 academic year, the majority of higher education institutions offered four year undergraduate degree programs. Through the implementation of the Bologna Process at Croatian universities, degree programs are now structured as follows: &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/timss2015.org\/encyclopedia\/countries\/croatia\/teachers-teacher-education-and-professional-development\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":118,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-671","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/timss2015.org\/encyclopedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/timss2015.org\/encyclopedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/timss2015.org\/encyclopedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/timss2015.org\/encyclopedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/timss2015.org\/encyclopedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/timss2015.org\/encyclopedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5147,"href":"http:\/\/timss2015.org\/encyclopedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/671\/revisions\/5147"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/timss2015.org\/encyclopedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/timss2015.org\/encyclopedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}