Exchange of educational
experience: Poland –Ukraine
On 17 September 2018, a group of teachers from Ukraine
visited our institution (the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Centre for Education of
Teachers – KPCEN) as part of their study visit in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship
“Management of education at the local level”. The representatives of Ukrainian
teachers from the Luhansk
and Donetsk Oblasts were interested in the issues connected with
consulting services andcourses provided by KPCENfor teachers in our region. The
group of visitors included the president of the Donetsk Regional Institute of
Postgraduate Pedagogical Education, the vice-director of the Department of
Education of the Luhansk Oblast Administration, an expert in the SKL
International Program, a regional education expert of the U-LEAD Program, a
legal counsel of the Centre for the Development of the Local Government,
regional leaders of education, headmasters of schools. The guests were welcomed
by Sławomir Żebrowski, the head of KPCEN in Toruń. The next person to speak was
Ostap Bodyk, the president of the Donetsk Regional Institute of Postgraduate
Pedagogical Education, the higher education institution in Ukraine which trains
future teachers and pedagogues. He briefly presented the range of the activities
of the institution.
Danuta
Potręć, a consultant of KPCEN in Toruń, in a multimedia presentation described the initiatives undertaken in
Toruń’s KPCEN. She underlined that our institution belongs to a group of
accredited educational centres. She also presented the organizational structure
of KPCEN in Toruń, the number of employees, their responsibilities, along with the
short statistical data concerning the number of courses and teachers who
completed trainings in KPCEN in the previous school year. Danuta Potręć also
showed the webpage of KPCEN and explained how the institution operates in the
social media; she also mentioned the journal for teachers Kujawsko-Pomorski Przegląd Oświatowy UczMy being the journal’s
co-editor.
The
main part of the presentation of the work of KPCEN was devoted to courses,
cooperation networks, conferences, innovative teaching methods, competitions,
and both regional and national projects financed by the European Union. Danuta
Potręć presented to the guests the study visits to Finland, Estonia, China,
Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Switzerland, during which education
experts from our region could exchange
theirexperience with their colleagues from other countries. She stressed
that KPCEN also organizes similar visits to Polish state centres such as the
Centre for Talent Development in Gdańsk.
The
presentation of our institution being finished, the head of KPCEN Sławomir Żebrowski
encouraged the guests to ask questions. Our guests were interested in the kind
and duration of courses offered by KPCEN, the most popular trainings for
teachers, how the consultants of KPCEN develop their skills and qualifications,
how the education of teachers is
financed in our country, what institution supervises centres for the education
of teachers, and what the career path of Polish teachers looks like. The person
who helped in the discussion was Piotr Szostak, a member of the delegation, who
was also the interpreter. The Ukrainian education specialists were interested
in official regulations concerning the work of our consultants and the
organization of courses.
Our
Ukrainian guests were impressed by the variety of the educational offer for
teachers and other initiatives undertaken by the staff of KPCEN in Toruń.
Responding to those comments, Sławomir Żebrowski emphasized that the teacher’s
profession is very dynamic and requires constant development, which means that
the offer of educational centres for teachers needs to be competitive. He also
underlined that in the Polish education system much importance is given to the
national exams taken by students. As teachers are responsible for the
performance of their students, consultants who educate teachers should provide
them with a highly innovative offer of courses correspondingto the
requirements of the education system and modern conditions.
Dominika
Wojtasińska,
The
Department of Information and Promotion of KPCEN in Toruń
Translated by Agnieszka
Chabros,
The Department of Information
and Promotion of KPCEN in Toruń