Well-defined teacher competencies can serve as a reference resource for teacher candidates and a road map for teachers who need to equip themselves with new competencies to meet the rapidly changing demands of children and society. This study, which grounded on mixed methods research, aimed to develop a measurable and observable generic teacher competency framework. The study was conducted in three phases. The initial phase was comprised of the literature review on teacher competencies, interviews with teacher candidates, teacher trainers, and education experts on the current teacher competency framework developed by the Turkish Ministry of Education in 2017. The analyses revealed the need for a new framework since the current competency framework does not allow self-evaluation and cannot be used as a road map for teachers and teacher candidates due to the way it is structured. Based on the initial findings, the researchers prepared a draft competency framework, which was evaluated by 397 teachers through information forms and 52 teacher trainers representing all disciplines of educational sciences at a workshop organized by the researchers. The analyses resulted in a framework consisting of six competency domains, 31 sub-competencies and their performance indicators at four competency levels. The core competencies developed seem to be congruent with international frameworks; however, it is also a unique framework with its content, structure and approach
A common terminology unity has not been achieved yet on some concepts in the field of educational sciences. Some concepts defined in different terms or different meanings are assigned to those concepts. Some concepts, on the other hand, might evolve into different words and this situation causes a concept confusion in literature because a particular concept can be misunderstood or misconceived by various people. Besides, sometimes wrong Turkish-English equivalents can be used for these concepts. Three of the mostly used, yet misconceived concepts in Turkish are "yeterlik", "yeterlilik" and "yetkinlik", and in English "competence", "competency" and "competent". "Yeterlik and yeterlilik" and "competence and competency" are frequently used as synonym terms. This makes it difficult to grasp what those concepts actually mean. However, the same concept confusion is not exclusive to national literature. The confusion regarding those concepts do exist in international literature as well. So, establishing a common understanding of what those concepts actually convey and what should be their equivalents in Turkish would contribute to both educational sciences and human resources fields. This study, which relies on document analysis concerning educational sciences and human resources, discuses the actual meanings of competence and competency. How those concepts are used and what they mean in national and international literature are showcased by extracts and how they should be used to avoid confusion related to those concepts is explicated.
The purpose of this article is to clarify the concept of the critical friend. It is practically used in self-study research, which is a kind of qualitative study. Self-study as a systematic inquiry helps teachers and teacher candidates to explore and analyze their practices. Self-study as a qualitative research methodology is largely recognized in western countries yet considered relatively new in Turkey. In this article, the history of self-study research methodology is briefly introduced and how it differs from other qualitative research methods is explained. Then, the concept and importance of critical friendship, which is one of the key characteristics of self-study methodology because of its collaborative nature, is explicated. Critical friends are reliable colleagues who systematically provide data to the researcher and at the same time are those who help increase the validity and reliability of the research. Since it is hard for the researchers to reframe their experiences and verify assumptions objectively, critical friends provide pivotal support by asking challenging questions and presenting constructive criticism. For this reason, choosing a critical friend considerably affects the whole research. This article attempts to specify attributes and qualities of a critical friend and answer the question "What kind of a critical friend is needed in a self-study?"
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