Teaching Competence for Organising Problem-Centred Teaching-Learning Process

Problem-centred education (PCE) is a teaching-learning process which includes meta-subject tools as part of its content. The given tools, which find their origin in OTSM-TRIZ theories, allow to structure and reorganise information with the aim of identifying, analysing and solving problems in various domains. In the framework of PCE, students develop not only their subject-matter skills (language, maths, etc.) but also their problem-solving competence or inventive thinking skills. While research has shown that PCE has had a positive impact on learners, the empirical experience of helping regular school teachers learn to organise problem-centred teaching-learning process showed that while some teachers succeeded in introducing some changes in their classrooms, the majority of them failed to do so. This situation has brought to the foreground the problem of teaching competence required from a teacher for organising problem-centred teaching-learning process. This chapter will define PCE, highlighting the features which make it distinct from the existing problem-based and teaching for thinking approaches and will present the first results of the study on teaching competence required for organising problem-centred teaching-learning process.