Abstract

Today, teachers are faced with numerous challenges, especially in Croatia, where extensive educational reform is underway. Education reform has placed a new teaching and learning paradigm in the foreground that demands new knowledge and skills from teachers. Studies and analyses show that teachers are the most important factor in reaching pupils’ educational goals. In additional to professional competencies, pedagogical, psychological, didactic, and methodical teacher competencies are of great importance to the development of knowledge. Using survey data from a sample of 115 students, this paper examines the extent to which students of two institutions of higher education – the Faculty of Croatian Studies and the Catholic University of Croatia – are satisfied with their initial teacher education, and whether they consider it appropriate and sufficient for the challenges their future careers hold. The results of this research show that students are, on average, satisfied with the quality of their studies and teacher education, as well as that they prefer the existing pedagogical competency attainment model that is added to the regular subject study. The research results are analysed in the context of examining the need for a new design of such programmes, their refinement or expansion of teacher education study programmes.