Presentation by Pavel Zgaga

1. ECER 2010
The European Conference on Educational Research
Helsinki, 25 – 27 August 2010
NW 11. Educational Effectiveness and Quality Assurance
Quality Culture in Teacher Education
Quality Assurance in Slovenian Teacher
Education
Pavel Zgaga
Univerza v Ljubljani, Pedagoška fakulteta

2. 1. Introduction: briefly about initial TEd
Evaluation and accreditation of programmes for initial TEd
= part of the overall higher education QA system.
Initial TEd programmes are performed by three public
universities (3 Faculties of Education & other Faculties).
80.000 undergraduates in total; out of them about 8.500 of
them in Ted programmes.
Organisation of Teacher Education quite diverse: on one
hand integral approach (various profiles at one Faculty),
fragmentation on the other.

3. 2. National quality evaluation and accreditation
Basic features of the system were established in 1993:
each institution and its study programmes have to pass
an accreditation procedure (external QA);
in addition, institutions are obliged to submit self-
evaluation reports every year (internal QA).
The system was reformed in 2006; reform was followed
by strong polemics and led to a new reform (2009).
The main result: Quality Assurance Agency for Higher
Education (SQAA; 2010) established and responsible
for external quality assurance in higher and vocational
(postsecondary) education.

4. 3. National QA and Teacher Education
Evaluation and accreditation of Ted programmes follows
the same criteria as programmes in other study areas.
Since 1998, specific criteria for TEd: education sciences
and subject didactics modules (min. 1 semester) and
teaching practice in schools (min. 4 weeks).
Discussion on quality of teachers: a traditional conflict
between “subject knowledge” versus “educational
competences”.
In the recent university curricular reform, educational and
pedagogic component of future teachers’ preparation
has definitely got stronger accent.

5. 4. “The conflict of the Faculties”?
Most of today’s concerns with quality of initial teacher
preparation are linked with general academic discussion
on quality while the specific quality dimensions of teacher
preparation remain rather on margins.
Internal quality assurance – annual quality reports:
- expression of sincere concerns for quality;
- a tool of inter- as well as intra-institutional competition.
Primarily, annual reports focus at students enrolment,
mobility, transition from one to another year of study and,
in particular, research outcomes.

6. 5. Students; mobile students
T-1: Students – total and by a teaching staff member T-2: Mobile students – outgoing and incoming
University of Ljubljana, 2008 University of Ljubljana, 2007
Average (25 faculties) Total By staff Average (25 faculties) Outgoing Incoming
48352 11,5 959 718
Total
Drama 85 1.8 Economy 217 183
Veterinary Sciences 347 2.0 Arts 239 137
Medicine 1622 3.0 Social Sciences 63 134
Nursing 1435 13.4 Teacher Education & Education 38 32
Teacher Education & Education 2165 14.0 (Architecture) . . . (Nursing) 33 - 15 25 - 17
Computing & Informatics 1412 15.2 Medicine 10 4
Economy 6569 25.6 Maritime & Transportation 3 2
Law 1972 40.7 Drama / Veterinary Sciences 3/2 1/2
Public Administration 2543 46.6 Theology 3 0

7. 6. Transition from the 1st to the 2nd year
T-3: Transition from the 1st to the 2nd year of study (in %) T-4: Transition from the 1st to the 2nd year of study (in %)
University of Ljubljana, 2008 Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, 2009
Average (25 faculties) 58.7 Average (11 undergraduate 74.0
programmes)
Architecture 95.4
Social Pedagogy & Special Education 100
Medicine 92.3
(Preschool Education) 100
Music 91.1
Class Teaching 93.0
Theology 59.7
Chemistry & Biology 78.7
Teacher Education & Education 58.3
Biology & Home Economics 62.1
Mechanical Engineering 57.4 Mathematics & Physics 51.6
Computing & Informatics 41.6 Mathematics & Computing 34.7
Chemistry 39.7 Mathematics & Technology 25.6
Technology 38.9 Chemistry & Physics 22.2

8. 7. Research
T-5: National research project workload (in FTE) T-6: International publications by a registered researcher
University of Ljubljana, 2008 (N > 100 researchers) – University of Ljubljana, 2008
Total (25 faculties) 390.4 Average (14 faculties out of 25) 0,54
Medicine 48.2 Mathematics and Physics (Science) 1,86
Mechanical Engineering 43.8 Chemistry; Medicine 0,73
Biology 42.4 Economy 0,67
Civil Engineering 17.3 Computing & Informatics 0,39
(Law) . . . (Economy) (4.2) … (7.7) Technology 0,38
Teacher Education & Education 3.9 Teacher Education & Education 0,36
Public Administration 2.0 Veterinary Sciences 0,32
Nursing 1.3 Civil Engineering 0,29
Maritime and Transportation 0.4 Arts 0,27

9. 8. Conclusion
Since the 1980s, initial Teacher Education has changed
from colleges of a low esteem to academic departments.
With regard to quality this change has been positive.
However, Teacher Education within universities should
not focus only to general quality criteria in higher
education.
General criteria are important to improve their positioning
against other departments, disciplines and study areas.
In order to improve Teacher Education per se, it is
extremely important to develop a set of transparent and
relevant specific criteria (hopefully at European level):
a task for tomorrow.