Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Ondokuz Mayıs Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, cilt.39, sa.3, ss.35-43, 2020 (Hakemli Dergi)
The terms teacher profiles, teacher training, advanced training and furthereducation are becoming increasingly important in an age of educational reforms. The standardizationprocesses in education, such as the standardization of the curricula and the Bologna process alsorequire a standardization of the core competencies of teachers. Through these competences, teacherscan determine to what extent the teaching-learning process corresponds to the learners. The teacherwith her competences is therefore still a key figure in learner-centered teaching and therefore, inrecent years instruments have been developed that describe the competencies of teachers. This alsoincludes the European Profile Grid (EPG) for language teachers. The focus on language teachers at theEPG sets them apart from other general instruments. Their parameters were compiled consideringmethodological principles of foreign language teaching, which is why it can also be viewed as asubject-specific evaluation tool. Standardization of competences in the field of foreign languageteacher training is particularly important at the international level in to ensure professionalization.The teaching of a foreign language takes place in most cases in a country remote from the targetlanguage country. For this reason, language teachers not only have the task of teaching languagemodules, but also have the responsibility to teach language actions in the foreign language. Therefore,the core competencies are composed differently for language teachers.The EPG takes this aspect into account by analyzing the central competencies of language teachers invarious development phases under subject-specific interpretations. As mentioned earlier, the qualityof educational performance is closely related to the competence of the teacher. For this reason, thecompetencies of teachers should be developed to make the teaching process more effective. One wayto achieve this is to raise teachers' awareness by thinking about their own experiences and setting newgoals for their personal development, i.e. ultimately evaluate their own competencies. With a simpleand systematic self-assessment and external assessment, the EPG enables you to create an individualteacher profile. Vacancies in core competencies can be found with the EPG. Determining whatcompetence has to be developed gives the teacher the necessary clue for further and advancedtraining. The EPG is the result of a project supported by the European Commission. The teachingskills in development phases are assessed under the categories: training and qualifications, keyteaching competences, enabling competences and professionalization. The criteria are expressed in theform of optional descriptions. This ensures an objective assessment without bias. Recognizing theirstrengths and weaknesses enables language teachers to develop personally, because reflecting on theirown competencies in certain areas of language teaching can help to identify goals for personaldevelopment. This assessment can be used both as a self-assessment and as an external assessment,e.g. be carried out by colleagues, managers or trainers or trainers. The aim is to support theprofessional development of teachers. Through the data collection, an individual, but also a collectiveprofile can be created when working in the same facility. Platforms are created on which languageteachers exchange their experiences, ideas and practices and thus promote their development.The aim of this study is to present an example of the EPG, which was specially developed forlanguage teachers and offers standardization, to contribute to the widespread use of a newinstrument. The individual categories and development phases are to be examined under the foreignlanguage competence standard to show the profile of language teachers. Furthermore, this work dealswith the final part of the question, what significance does the EPG have for language teachers andlanguage institutions in Turkey? The form of self and external assessment should be focused on.After an extensive content analysis of the EPG, it can be considered that this instrument is suitable fordetermining the competency needs of language teachers. When designing the profile grid, foreignlanguage competencies were taken into account, which is why the EPG can also be viewed as asubject-specific instrument. It does not matter which foreign language is taught. The EPG can be carried out in nine languages and is gaining importance at an international level. Any languagebarriers are thus removed. Through the own or third-party evaluation of teaching skills, languageteachers gain their own profile. They can understand their current status in the professionaldevelopment phase and recognize their skills need development. By answering optional descriptions,a neutral assessment is ensured because they are not critical.