Abstract
M.Ed.
This research project is aimed at eliciting input and opinions from teachers on how they perceive teacher competence. Theoretical constructs around which teacher competence is designed, are:
the learning environment
professional commitment
order and discipline
educational foundation
teacher reflection
co-operative ability
efficiency; and
leadership style
These constructs are reduced to two factors, namely collaborative and educative competences. This study concentrates on co-operation as an aspect of professional commitment, and its implication for the management of teacher competence. Co-operation is defined as a "harmony model" whose aims are a collective sense of responsibility and participant management and therefore communal decision-making. It was found that co-operation in education could be divided into co-operative learning and co-operative teaching. It was further discovered that true professionals will invariably participate on people-strategy teams, collaborative teaching teams and encourage collaborative learning by the students. Certain skills were found to be essential if teachers are to positively influence learning gains in co-operative learning, e.g. giving complete explanations to questions; structured rotation of individual roles; meeting needs of high achievers and not retard them; direction-giver; generator of additional answers. Since very little is done by way of teacher development, cooperative teaching teams were found to serve as substitutes in
developing teachers' talents and their competence.