Teachers' professional development and career advancement. Limitations of the current model of professional competences assessment

The study proposes the assessment of the teachers' level of professional development and career advancement and examines the limitations of the current competences assessment model, which implies the completion of the second didactic degree standards. The research has been conducted on a lot of 216 teachers specialized in different pre-university education fields and has aimed at the following objectives: to assess the cumulative development level for teachers' professional competences; to identify differences in the participants' professional development, dependent on gender and specialty; to point at limitations of the current model of assessment of teachers' professional competences. The research methods used have been document analysis (grade rolls), interview and statistical techniques. The research results contribute to the optimization of continuous teacher training programmes and to the improvement of their competences assessment strategies. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.