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BRIGITA RUPAR
learn and what it means to truly understand what they have learned; only then
will they be able to apply the constructivist principles in their classrooms on
a daily basis. Ihe concept of realistic education implemented at the Utrecht
University? is a good example of constructivism applied in teacher education.
Its fundamental characteristics are students working in real-life conditions
which they will also encounter during teaching, as well as constant in-depth
reflection and interaction between students and their mentors and teachers.
This approach to teacher education has been named “bottom-up”, or,
metaphorically speaking, “quality from within”, by Korthagen and Vasalos.'°
They emphasize that everything should derive from teacher’s strong points,
qualities and inspirations. The “quality from within” approach is based on
teacher’s own experience, interests and capabilities, leaving behind the
theoretical concepts, which teachers should follow."
STUDIES ON SUPERVISION EFFECTS
Supervision helps to improve professional competence and work quality
through reflection. Analyses and studies of Slovenian teachers have shown
that supervision had helped them obtain more in-depth insights into their
ways of working, thinking, and acting.'* Miller and Dollarhide’ wrote an
abstract of articles gathered in a special edition of the Counselor Education
and Supervision journal focusing on the supervision of school counselors and
subjects in the field of school counselor training, studies on this topic, work
standards and other related issues. They discovered that the counselors, who
already underwent supervision during their education, had shown greater
interest to be involved in the supervision process as they already knew it offered
°F. Korthagen, Praksa, teorija in osebnost v vseZivljenjskem ucenju, Vzgoja in izobrazevanje,
XL, 4 (2009) 4-14.
F. Korthagen - A. Vasalos, Levels in reflection: core reflection as a means to enhance
professional growth, Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2005, 47-71.
U N. Brouwer, Alternative teacher education in the Netherlands 2000-2005. A standards-based
synthesis, European Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 30, No. 1, 2007, 21-40.; B. Koster —
F. A. J. Korthagen — Th. Wubbels, Is There Anything Left for Us? Functions of cooperating
teachers and teacher educators, European Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 21, No. 1, 1998.
S. Zorga, Vloga supervizije pri poklicnem in osebnostnem razvoju strokovnih delavcev.
Socialna pedagogika, 1(3) (1997) 9-26.; B. Rupar, Evalvacija skupinske supervizije med
pedagoskimi delavci, Specialisti¢no delo, Ljubljana, Univerza v Ljubljani, Pedagoska fakulteta,
2002.; B. Rupar, Supervizija — priloznost za profesionalni razvoj pedagoskih delavcev, Iskanja
(Celje), leto 25, St. 27, (2007) 62-66.
G. M. Miller - C. T. Dollarhide, Supervision in Schools: Building Pathways to Excellence,
Counselor Education & Supervision, Vol. 45, No. 4, 2006.
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