Methodological skills and professional development for teachers of kindergarten and primary school: experience of in-service training

Abstract

From many years the construct of competence entered in the italian school as an educational target to achieve and around which rethink the teaching/learning paths.1 It is a complicated challenge that required and requires to the teachers of the schools of all levels a considerable commitement in terms of restructuring of consolidated practice in education and revision of the way of working in
the classroom. The paper proposes a reflection on the teacher’s professional figure with particular reference to the methodological skills to be acquired in relation to this important paradigmatic change and to the importance of in service training for the improvement of those skills. In the first
part we focus on the analysis of the teacher’s professional figure and about the set of knowledge and skills that qualify him as such, with particular reference to the methodological skills required to meet the challenge of competence. In the second part we describe what is the challenge of competence and how this challenge is transposed by the legislature in the text of the National Guidelines
for the curriculum in kindergarten and in the first cycle of education (September 2012). In the third part we describe an experience of in-service training for teachers of kindergarten and primary school which took place in the Comprehensive Institute of San Marzano sul Sarno with the aim to
improve the expertise in the didactic planning. In closing it tell about some products of this experience that have been developed by working groups during lab training hours.