Criteria for Educational Program Evaluation : The Case of Teacher Education Progam

When developing tools for evaluation of teacher education programs, it is crucial to know what the adequate dimensions the evaluation instruments should cover are. In other words: How we can describe a competent teacher? In the literature we can find numerous attempts to describe what competences teacher education programs should produce. Teacher competence is defined as the ability of a teacher to deal adequately with the demands of the teaching profession using an integrated set of knowledge, skills and attitudes as manifested in both the performance of the teacher and reflection on his or her performance, In other words, professional competences are the systems of knowledge, skills, abilities and motivational disposition which provide the effective realization of the professional teaching activities.