INVESTIGATING SECONDARY EDUCATION TEACHERS' TRAINING NEEDS

Teacher education is an important factor in personal and professional development and optimization of the educational work. Given the fact that the quality of the educational process is inextricably linked with the teacher, a key factor for the upgrading of education, and that the high level of teacher training leads to the success of the educational reforms, an important parameter is the prevalence of the philosophy of lifelong learning of teachers to help create productive citizens, serving universal competition. This is the goal of each education policy is to better prepare teachers to respond to society's demands for renewal of cognitive supplies and for effective communication in an internationalized environment. The recent literature highlights the favorable attitude of teachers towards their institution of training. However, it has been found that the existing training programs in Greece reflect the centralized nature and bureaucratic structure of the education system in the training policy, the actual needs of the teachers and the applied training programs, the organization and a structured training plan and timely information but also continuity in the educational actions. The purpose of this paper is to study the training needs of Secondary Education teachers in Greece, in the context of challenging a new curriculum called "New School" of the 21st century and based, among other things, on the use of ICT. Key research questions, the identification of educational needs, the degree of satisfaction of teachers from the training offered and their expectations from a training program and how do gender, age, educational level, type of school of work of teachers relate to the educational needs, expectations and content of a training program within the "New School". A quantitative research, using a questionnaire, was carried out. The convenient sample consisted of 150 teachers who served during the school year 2017-2018. During the statistical analysis of data, univariate analyzes (frequencies and) and analyzes of two variables were performed with non-parametric control selection which is generally considered to be more "rigorous" in its results, since, aiming to correct potential mistakes conditions, has led to a more accurate assessment of possible differences between the groups selected. It is noted that all controls were performed at a 95% significance level. The results showed that teachers' inadequate didactic, scientific and pedagogical training combined with the introduction of new technologies in didactic practice and the various educational changes and developments related to the concept of "New School" are the most basic factors that create need training. Consequently, the teachers expressed their minimal satisfaction with the number and content of the programs they had attended and stated that their expectations of a training program are their training in the above fields with content which in their opinion is appropriate, which enhances the respective knowledge and skills and emphasis on issues of interpersonal relationships, behavior and learning difficulties.