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TEACHER'S AUTHORITY AS A ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR OF SCHOOL REFORM
Abstract
In the life of a child, a pupil, student, the authority is fundamental and is of key importance for its further social experience. As a dynamic element, it is subject to a number of changes especially between childhood and adolescence. We cannot separate the authority from the educational process, as the constitutive element of the teaching profession it manifests itself in the social relationship between the teacher and the learner. The teacher plays an important role in this process, as the pupils are reliant on the support teachers can offer them and ultimately build on their authority. This should be seen as one of the important tasks of school reform in Slovakia. Teachers cant think, that based on their formal position and social role, they will always be considered by the pupils as their authority. Although their formal authority is legitimately recognized by society and the law, pupils in the present day do not attribute high importance to the formal teacher?s authority. Since the basis of the educational process is created by the interaction between the teacher and the pupil, the teacher's interactive style must be considered significant from the point of view of the teacher's authority. Our research task was to find out the interaction style of primary school teachers. Our research findings have pointed out that pupils perceive their teachers as educators who are good organizers, help them when they need it, can understand them, and lead them to accountability, which can be positively evaluated. We also consider the fact that pupils did not perceive their teachers as uncertain, dissatisfied and strict. Based on these findings and adhering to the teacher's interaction style model T. Wubbels et al. [1], we can conclude that in the studied classes the educational process was carried out by authoritative and tolerant-authoritarian teachers. We are of the opinion that this also points to the awareness of the importance of teacher's authority to pupils in educational reality.
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References12
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