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DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHERS" PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCIES THROUGH SUPERVISION
an opportunity for professional development. Teachers’ emotions and the effect
they have on pedagogical process are a highly significant element of effective
teaching and are given much attention in the supervision process. According
to Hargreaves, one of the most renowned researchers of changing schools into
learning organizations, emotions are at the very core of teaching, meanwhile
good teachers are emotional and devoted individuals who are connected with
their students, while filling classrooms with kindness, creativity, challenges,
and relaxed atmosphere. Hargreaves sets out four statements forming the basis
of the teacher-student relationship:
+ Teaching is emotional practice.
¢ Teaching and learning incorporate emotional understanding.
¢ Teacher’s emotions cannot be separated from their moral intentions and
their capabilities to actualize those intentions.
With that in mind, Hargreaves also stresses that teachers, burdened by the
weight of curricular contents to be lectured and, consequentially, lacking the
time to build solid relations with their students, often misinterpret students’
behavior which affects teachers’ capabilities to help students learn.* Hargreaves
is convinced that in the process of school reforms too much focus is put on the
rational dimensions of human behavior, while emotional dimensions, which
should be in the centre of the process, are being neglected.
As established by Slovenian and foreign experts who research supervision,
in addition to learning, supervision also enables efficient relief of tension and
stress.’
THE PURPOSE OF STUDY
The purpose of this study was to find answers to the following questions:
s Does inclusion in the supervision process help to raise awareness of the
importance of teachers’ roles and responsibilities in order to achieve
education goals, and how? Which tasks are deemed the most essential
by teachers?
4 A. Hargreaves, The Emotional Practice of Teaching, Teaching and Teacher Education, Vol. 14,
No. 8, 1998, 835-854.
15 Ibid.
B. Bogataj, Supervizija v vzgojnih zavodih in stanovanjskih skupinah, Socialna pedagogika, 1
(3) (1997) 47-70.; Klemen£icC Rozman, M. M., Dozivljanje supervizijskega procesa pri (bodocih)
strokovnjakih v poklicih pomoëi, Socialna pedagogika, vol. 14, St. 1,2010, 83-100.; P. Hawkins
—R. Shohet, Supervision in the helping professions, Philadelphia, Open University Press, 1989.;
P. Hawkins — N. Smith, Coaching, Mentoring and Organisational Consultancy. Supervision
and Development, England, Open University Press, 2006.
* 169 +