Pedagogical innovations represent a vital part of education and serve as an important indicator of the development of each individual teacher, school, and consequently also of the whole education system. In Slovenia, there are many teachers with twenty or more years of teaching experiences. Based on their invaluable experiences they can either encourage or discourage younger colleagues to undertake professional development. The results of various phase models investigating teachers’ career and professional development show that teachers opt for innovations only in the first half of their career, and less often in their further career. The main objective of this master’s thesis was to examine the willingness of teachers with twenty or more years of teaching experiences to implement innovations in their teaching profession as well as to recognise and analyse the factors that encourage teachers in the second half of their career to implement innovations in their teaching. Another objective of this thesis was to examine the teachers’ understanding of implementation of innovations in their teaching, their attitude to the implementation of innovations as well as the strategies teachers use to tackle any challenges that might appear along the way. The data for the research was obtained using semi-structured and unstandardized interviewing techniques with twenty-three teachers with twenty or more years of primary-school-teaching experiences. The interviews were accomplished in November and December 2022 and the obtained data was evaluated according to the qualitative content analysis. The most important and at the same time the most encouraging outcome of our research is that most of the interviewed teachers are prepared to implement innovations in their teaching methods despite their long-time teaching position. However, the interviewed teachers have a clear understanding of what kind of innovations they are willing to undertake: such innovations that are both practical and beneficial for the pupils while allowing the teachers a change from the daily routine. According to the interviewed teachers, the crucial factors when implementing innovations are the teachers’ curiosity, the support from their colleagues as well as the adequacy and sustainability of the chosen innovation. The outcomes of this research can be used as guidelines for the future education policy. What is more, school leaders can find them helpful when planning the implementation of innovations. Last but not least, they can make teachers aware of the importance of the implementation of innovations in their teaching.
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