Early Years Teacher Training Through Practice. The Polish Example

Developing and providing a register of rights and regularities underpinning the work of prospective teachers is a complex process. The current transmissive model of training in Poland does not meet the expectations with respect to preparation of new teaching staff. Thus designing new models of teacher training, including early childhood education teachers, should function in parallel with practical activities. In this article, I present a competence model of teacher training, which is my original proposal. It is the outcome of analysing theoretical and empirical achievements, and our own experience. The basic area of activities undertaken as part of teacher training is the development of relevant substantive competencies resulting from the student's selection of a specific subject area, psychological and pedagogical competencies, communication skills as well as methodological competencies, resulting from the specificity of the chosen subject area. The theoretical perspective of the proposed model is determined by the ideas of constructivism and the general taxonomy of learning outcomes by Ziemowit Włodarski. I divided the competence model of training into four stages: 1) simple student with learner-pupil contacts; 2) student as a teacher assistant; 3) student as an accompanying teacher; 4) student as an independent teacher.