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DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHERS" PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCIES THROUGH SUPERVISION THE EFFECT OF SUBJECTIVE UNDERSTANDINGS ON TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Subjective understandings are harmonized formations that reside mainly at the unconscious level and affect teachers’ actions. As such, they are very resilient to change. A part of subjective understanding is the teacher’s perception of their role, which has been shaped throughout their entire life. At the point when future teachers enroll in faculty, they already have a firmly set system of beliefs, viewpoints, opinions and subjective theories on the matters of instruction, teaching, learning, and the role of teachers, students and others involved, which is mostly based on their personal experience gained in the process of their own schooling, and relations they had built during that process. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which teacher training with supervision influences the formation of their professional identity. That is the question that, according to Bullough,° is to become an important part of studies on the effects of educational processes. Teacher identity greatly depends on the way teachers see themselves in relation to other individuals at school], i.e., students and colleagues. Ihe process of identity change can be achieved through reflection; however, it is important that reflection is incorporated very early in teachers" education. In the recent years, the effectiveness of teacher education has been the subject of many studies which show that student achievement is directly linked with the guality of teachers" knowledge and skills." Should the teachers implement constructivist principles in classrooms, they will primarily have to be educated according to those principles themselves. In order to make a step towards more effective teacher education, the theory-practice relation should primarily be understood and implemented in a different way.’ That means that the teaching of pedagogical disciplines systematics would no longer be in the foreground; instead, students would be encouraged to reflect on, upgrade and change their existing ideas and methods. According to Plut Pregelj,® teachers should understand the new concepts of knowledge, know how students in F. Korthagen, In search of the essence of a good teacher: towards a more holistic approach in teacher education, Teaching and Teacher Education, 20 (2004) 77-97. M. Cochran-Smith, The outcomes question in teacher education, Teaching and Teacher Education 17 (2001) 527-546. L. Plut Pregelj, Konstruktivistiöne teorije znanja in Solska reforma: u¢itelj v vlogi ucenca, in Marentié Pozarnik, B. (ed.), Konstruktivizem v Soli in izobrazevanje u¢iteljev, Univerza v Ljubljani, Filozofska fakulteta, Center za pedagosko izobrazevanje, 2004.; B. Marenti¢ Pozarnik, Nam evropski poudarek na kljucni kompetenci »ucenje ucenja« prinasa kaj novega?, Vzgoja in izobrazevanje, XXXV, 3, 2004. Plut Pregelj, Konstruktivistiöne teorije znanja in Solska reforma, 32. * 167 +
