INTRODUCTION

Relevance of the scientific problem: Individual experience of teachers, perceiving one’s self as an instance of the subject’s activities in the teacher career is becoming one of the pre-conditions for professional development. However, modern educology still targets at general requirements for a teacher’s work rather than his/her professional individuality.

It is impossible to realise the new paradigm of humanistic education without the quintessence of perception of an educator’s personality, aim, content and characteristics of professional development. All this cannot proceed without an expression of professional individuality, which realises the humanistic potential of educating. Nevertheless, solving of such problems in educology still encounters a number of obstacles: the boundaries, fields and goals of teacher activities, the realisation of which depend on a teacher’s individuality are not sufficiently defined, because everything what is individual is referred to as a common element. A statement of Ušinskas (1983) that in teaching everything is based on a personality and “only a personality is capable/may educate a personality” also remains declarative (1983, p. 14).

Processes of individual professional becoming of college teachers have not been researched, but they continuously foster interest of scholars as there is a growing tendency to assess a teacher in terms of his/her individuality, uniqueness and individual style (Pukelis, 2004; Laužackas, 2003; Leontjev, 1999; Kornilov, 1995; Krupenin, 1995).

Study and practice of educology tackles an issue of an individual professional development of a teacher in different ways: such development is often attributed to factual, experience-based rather than abstract knowledge. However, in an everyday life a teacher as a cognisant subject is constantly involved in processes of self-knowledge and interacts with a problem of self-identity, as a personality is not a ready-made present, it is developed, projected by efforts of a n individual, who changes, yet preserves the entirety of his/her existence (Kuzmina, 1999; Markova, 1993; Marishchiuk, 1992; Levin, 1982).

Modern education more and more often enables a teacher to get involved into self-realisation where self-control and self-reflection become both a tool to cross pedagogical barriers and a pre-condition for an individual expression (Martynova, 2002; Kuzmina, 1999; Kruteckij, 1997; Kozijev, 1990; Kon, 1984). The following contradictions are often dominant analysing processes of an individual professional development of teachers:

• it is perceived that in a reality of educating a teacher does not depend on parameters of his/her personality, but rather acts as a performer of pedagogical functions, and he/she disregards the fact that due to certain features of his/her personality, cannot properly realise a number of functions (Kagan, Kogan, 1997; Cole, 1996);

• a teacher is mostly attributed to subject of low psychological differentiation, who prefers team rather than individual activities and is successful in communicating; therefore perception of professional eligibility, a system of psychological characteristics having impact on individual professional capacity receive insufficient attention (Maddern, 1994; Lickona, 1991);

• self-control and self-correction are perceived as a tool for overcoming pedagogical barriers of an individual expression, but it is not establishes how they inhibit acception of a new role both in actual and imaginary situations (Marton, Wenestam, 1988).

Inquiries on the scientific topic: An individual professional expression of a teacher is hardly noticeable externally, therefore, it is little analysed. A process of individual professional development tends to be viewed as a key factor pre-determining a professional level (Klimov, 1996; Kagan, Etkind, 1989), whereas self-perception is associated to a new competence of self-projection and civilised professional existence (Vachkov, 2002; Kuzmenkova, 1997; Klimov, 1996; Kornilov, 1995). A teacher as a subject of professional activities is analysed in terms of a structured personality and a subjective, active plane appearing as an impetus for improvement, based on certain values, knowledge and skills (Vershlovskij, 1997; Brushlinskij, 1996; Borishchevskij, 1980).

A system of teacher characteristics has been analysed which belongs to internal structures ensuring stability of a personality, importance in the pedagogical career, but an individual expression is being analysed as an internal radius of a subject exceeding boundaries of actual interactions with “others”, as a development in a personality of “another” (Vasserman, Berebin, 1997; Dorfman, 1994; Elkanov, 1989). The culture of development of professional “ego” is considered in a certain educational framework and decentralisation of a personality towards characteristics defining individuality is established. It is claimed that a new approach to professional development is characteristic to a teacher, which is associated with a different type of thought, behaviour, self-realisation as a learner, as free and responsible individuals (Zeev, 1998; Vaizer, 1997; Berulava, 1996; Iljasov, 1996; Triandis, 1981).

Types of a personality are distinguished (solid, balanced, nominal, interrupted, dispersed, etc.); a link between creativity and individuality is established, pedagogical competence is analysed as a harmonious complex of subject knowledge, didactics, skills and competencies of pedagogical communication and tools of self-realisation (Vachkov, 2002; Laužackas, Pukelis, 2000; Bragina, 1996).

The following problems are to be solved:

• the competencies determining individual professional becoming of teachers have not been established;

• educational basics of professional becoming remain vague along with the question what psychological aspects are significant for individual professional becoming and what possibilities a teacher has for self-knowledge and self-help;

• it has not been determined how a teacher becomes a subject of conscious activities and how he/she gets involved into cognition processes and interacts with a problem of self-identification of professional individuality, and whether he/she has an opportunity to become a subject perceiving one’s self and involved in individual professional self-realisation;

Problem of the research: What are educational basics of individual professional becoming of college teachers and how can they be analysed theoretically and empirically?

Object of the research: Individual professional becoming of college teachers.

Subject of the research: Optimising processes of individual professional becoming of teachers by educational means.

Hypothesis: Provided the educational basics of individual professional becoming of college teachers were examined, it would render possible to develop strategies promoting individual professional becoming of teachers by educational means.

Aim: to provide theoretical underpinning and empirical study of educational basics of individual professional becoming of college teachers and prepare a draft for an educational self-projecting strategy.

Objectives:

1. To survey academic literature and determine theoretical philosophical, cultural, psychological and educational basics of individual professional becoming of teachers.

2. To conduct an empirical research and determine the attitudes and self-knowledge experience of Lithuanian college teachers by educational means.

3. To establish the potential of college teachers to structure a new experience in the processes of individual professional becoming, self-knowledge and self-projecting and analyse the barriers and factors having negative impact on such processes.

4. To prepare a draft for an educational self-projecting strategy.

Propositions of the dissertation research provided for the defence:

• Educational grounds of individual professional becoming of college teachers consists of social, psychological processes and personality traits, which represent teachers’ integral professional self-awareness manageable by educational means.

• Individual professional becoming may be promoted in the following ways: by developing viewing oneself as a free, responsible individual, projecting characteristics of professional expression on the basis of perception of “intra” and “inter” characteristics, targeting at perception of the core of individual professional creativity and decentralisation to individuality via processes of self-identification, self-regulation and self-control.

• A teacher becomes a subject of conscious practice when he/she: gets involved in processes of self-knowledge and interacts with a problem of self-identification of professional individuality; has an opportunity to become self-cognisant subject, involved in professional self-realisation as a self-monitoring and self-perceiving individual, who continuously improves processes of educational knowledge and self-projecting.

• Individual professional becoming of college teachers is a creative process of self-help acting as a pre-requisite of professional reflection. Once the reflection becomes intellectual, retrospective, one strives to actualise those components, which might influence crossing of barriers of individual professional expression by educational means.

Methods of the research:

1. Theoretical: studying, analysing, comparison and summarising of educological, psychological, philosophical, sociological literature on the selected topic.

2. Empirical: survey in writing with a questionnaire, modelling.

3. Statistical: the research data analysis conducted by methods of mathematical and descriptive statistics, employing: VARIMAX rotation, KMO (Kaizer-Meyer-Olkin) ratio, Cronbach α rate; factorial weight L, Principal Components model; method of cluster analysis (k-Means), Spearman correlation rate, disperse analysis (ANOVA – ANalisys Of VArience), differential capacity coefficient r / itt (Item Total Correlation), F test.

Methodological basis of the research is structured from knowledge of the pedagogical reality, based both on rational-empirical and emotional-reflexive areas of thinking. Presumably a teacher is able to demonstrate his/her meaningfulness of ideas and their reconstructions and we may expect the teacher to accept them willingly. Constructionism means a certain return to the reality with continuous search of links with it, which is an alternative for the knowledge of educational reality characterised by persistent mistakes, fallacies or their corrections.

A process of individual professional becoming of teachers is perceived as a certain structure formed from a teacher’s practical knowledge, which exhibits not only certain knowledge but also meanings calling for continual going deeper into them. Thus, constructionism is associated to self-regulation of thought, emotions and experience, which is verified by the teacher himself/herself.

Evolutionistic view on professional activities and a personality of a teacher is also significant. It is based on a concept that a teacher in his/her career continuously acquires new characteristics, which foster or impede the teacher’s individual development. Once perceived and acknowledged, the new characteristics may assist in establishing the individual element in professional development, which is self-knowledge and its direction towards processes of individual professional development and their content. Analysis of experience is one of the pre-requisites of experience-based learning affecting formation of self-knowledge and self-image.

The process of individual professional becoming of college teachers is conceived in terms of culture emphasising differences among teachers where individuality is a certain cultural state. One of the key criteria differentiating cultures is a system of values giving priority to individuality and self-control.

In the career a personality is expressed in terms of functional relations revealing its view on standard requirements and informal rules. A sphere of such measurements emerges evidencing professional improvement of the personality. In order to become a subject of activities the personality must promote the inner resources, competence and motives. In such a way the individual, professional mentality of the personality is expressed.

Theoretical basis of the research is formed of constructionism theory referring to cognition of the world via a sense of reality, covering constructive-reformative thought and an interface with the educational reality, which can correspond to such thought. Constructive thought is logocentristic, aiding in differentiating those component of the educational reality, which may be reproduced constructively through the interaction with processes of professional becoming meaningful to a teacher. On the grounds of constructionism pedagogical experience is not only attributed significance, but also personalised and becomes significant to the teacher.

Another theory is that of phenomenology. It corresponds to the spirit of post-modern epoch and analysis of structure and core of phenomena as a phenomenon is a subjective, meaningful instance involving into schemes of life interpretations and being the thrust of the phenomenon defined in words that exists in our mind. These are focal points of the refined individual perception with an intense cognitive “ego” where self-awareness becomes as if “translucent” based on an intellectual person, reflecting and creating a new perception (Pukelis, 2004; Kliene, 1999; Mickūnas, Stewardt, 1995; Spiegelberg, 1992).

The research is based on the theory of autonomy prevailing in modern management where an individual is conceived as a conscious self-governing system, capable of accumulating social-cultural needs of the surrounding world, transform them into appropriate direction and by means of its inner powers (knowledge, skills), channel them for reformation of the inner world corresponding to competences of the career (Serikov, 1998; Slobodchikov, 1994; Sventickij, 1986).

The research is also based on the ideas of individual psychology concerning the need of a personality expression in cognitive processes and continuity of social roles (including professional roles), assuming them through a system of rules and relationships forming a basis for a self-knowledge process. This process is one of the features of a conscious personality expression enabling it to remain adaptive in a social reality, establishing personal relationships according to the interface between “Me” and “Another”, perceiving “Me” in situations, self-expression processes and continuously and systematically getting involved into strategies of their management (Kagan, Kogan, 1997; Noddings, 1995; Kuper, 1989; Klein, 1970).

The research pursued the statements of acmeology science proving that a subject of the career may be analysed both in terms of the whole structural, content-related and in the subjective, active framework of a personality expressed as an impetus for improvement based on certain target values, knowledge, skills, perceiving priorities of individual practice in collective activities. This entirety is defined by the following reasoning: a specialist is a personality mastering professional competences on the grounds of a narrative, informal and values-based component while interacting with members of activity milieu. Thus it might be seen how the career of a subject becomes individual in terms of content and forms.

Theory of self-realisation of Humanistic psychology (Maslow, 1967) maintains that a personality is an open system characterised by the aim of self-actualisation. There is a significant view on a subject of the career as a personality, who has a special ability to change oneself and offer various ways for existence of the organisation. Therefore, a teacher as a subject of the career never coincides with the objective field, because improvement of any personality in the process of activities is associated with self-organisation, undertaking a meaningful for an individual analysis of his/her professional “Self”.

Stages and basis of the research organisation: The research was conducted in 2001-2004. It involved higher education institutions (colleges) of the largest cities of Lithuania (Kaunas, Klaipėda, Marijampolė, Panevėžys, Šiauliai, Vilnius) similar in terms of a number of students and trends of their curricula. In order to compare the potential of individual growth in the colleges, the experience of teachers at Šiauliai College as the only state college in Šiauliai District has been analysed.

Scope of the research. The research involved 341 college teachers: in Kaunas College – 49, in Klaipėda College of Business and Technologies – 38, Marijampolė College - 63, Panevėžys College - 50, Šiauliai College - 70, Vilnius College - 71 teachers. At the time of the research there were 15 state colleges in Lithuania with 1,194 teachers working full-time. It may be claimed that a number of the teachers and colleges involved in the research is sufficient and the scope is reliable because the groups of research units are represented proportionately.

The research was conducted in three stages:

Stage 1: in 2001-2002 the analysis and meta-analysis of theoretical literature undertaken; philosophical, cultural, psychological, educological basics of individual professional becoming of college teachers established.

Stage 2: in 2002-2003 the educational, empirical research conducted with the aim of determining tendencies for expression of individual professional becoming competencies of the college teachers, experience of self-knowledge and self-help.

Stage 3: in 2003-2004 the interpretation of the data undertaken, the conditions and factors beneficially affecting the process of individual professional becoming of the college teachers established and a draft for an educational self-projecting strategy prepared.

Scientific novelty of the research:

• For the first time in Lithuanian educology the process of individual professional becoming of college teachers has been researched and the educational basics of such development have been established. It has been determined what psychological elements precondition individual professional becoming of teachers and what potential for self-knowledge and self- help a teacher has.

• Individual professional becoming of teachers is scientifically substantiated through a function of humanitarian cognition showing how a teacher tends to reflect on his/her professional community and attribute certain meanings to it, perceiving himself/herself and meaningfulness of his/her activities there. It reveals how knowledge about professional individuality are made subjective and become an area of consistent and continuous interest where the teacher is actively involved.

• Scientific underpinning is provided for the view on college teachers as knowing themselves in terms of profession, capable of projecting professional development creatively via “intra” and “inter” characteristics and working in the processes of continuous teaching (learning). Thus a new trend of modern educology, i.e. pedeutology, is forwarded, which analysis individual professional becoming of teachers as a process pf a life-long teaching (learning).

Practical novelty:

• A diagnostic tool for individual professional becoming of college teachers has been developed and validated, which may be applied in the processes of self-projecting and management of individual professional becoming of college teachers and form the basis for curricula of professional competencies development and monitoring projects.

• A model of self-projecting of individual professional becoming of college teachers has been developed, formed from constructs of philosophical knowledge and educational self-projecting disclosing the interface between an expression of a teacher’s professional individuality and individuality of other teachers, harmonious setting of meaningful orientations where the career is imbued with the purport of life, enabling a teacher’s individuality to unfold and liberating it from negative experiences.

• A model of self-projecting the individual professional expression of teachers has been developed, which may be managed on the basis of theoretical and practical knowledge about self-improvement via reflection, with a continuous evolution of a teacher’s interest in one’s self as individuality in the career.

• It has been displayed how processes of self-projecting individual professional becoming of teachers may become the basis for informal self-help of teachers, accounting for the content and essence of the life-long teaching (learning).

Structure of the dissertation: introduction three sections, conclusions and generalisations, reference list and annexes. The reference list includes 238 sources. The scope of the dissertation -172 pages, 46 tables and 65 figures.

CONTENT

Introduction

1. THEORETICAL EDUCATIONAL BASICS OF INDIVIDUAL PROFESSIONAL BECOMING OF TEACHERS

1.1. Professional self-awareness of teachers as an educational pre-requisite of individual professional becoming

1.2. Integrity of expression of individual professional becoming of teachers and factors of educational management

1.3. Barriers of individual professional expression and educational management strategies

2. EMPIRICAL RESEARCH OF INDIVIDUAL PROFESSIONAL BECOMING OF COLLEGE TEACHERS

2.1. Organisation, methodology and methods of the research

2.2. Aims and factors of individual professional development of teachers

2.3. Perception of teachers’ individual adequacy for the career

2.4. Experience of self-knowledge: trends, ways and content

2.5. Perception of individuality expression as a pre-requisite for professional becoming of teachers

2.6. Barriers of individual professional becoming and expression

2.7. Types of individual professional becoming of college teachers (in terms of self-knowledge and expression)

3. EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS OF INDIVIDUAL PROFESSIONAL BECOMING OF TEACHERS: PROCESS OF SELF-PROJECTING AND MODELLING OF MANAGEMENT

Conclusions and Generalisations

Reference list

Annexes

CONCLUSIONS AND GENERALISATIONS

1. The social, psychological and educational basics of individual professional becoming of college teachers

• The view that the subject of professional activity (the career) has the special ability to alter himself/herself and to propose various methods for the existence of the organization as well as the attitude that the subject represents a specific system which never coincides with the objective system, is observed in contemporary educology, psychology and management. Thus, the perfection of every personality in the process of professional activity is related with self-organization when the subject “Self” gets involved into professional activity which becomes individually important to him/her.

• The professional becoming of teachers can be perceived as the development of personal qualities, the integration of skills, knowledge and abilities as well as their implementation in educational activity. This predetermines active, qualitative reconstruction of the world which reflects its new structure. Creative self-action and professional independence become the main determinant of the professional personality development.

• The individual professional becoming of teachers is carried out through the interaction with the knowledge and is directed towards self-knowledge. The direction of professional cognition is the sphere of interpersonal relations “Me-You-We” which means the direction towards oneself – “Self” and towards others – “We” as well as towards the content based on a sense “Self-We”. The professional becoming of an integral personality is described by the system of values which reveals the hierarchical structure of the teacher’s personality motives, interactive professional directions and professional competence.

• One of the most important components which has direct influence on the individual professional becoming of teachers is self-awareness which is determined by the following factors falling into two groups: the expectations, assessment (received in the process of communication) and motivation of the teacher’s social environment, which arises from the practical educational activity.

• In the process of professional development and improvement the ability to transcend the everyday educational practice and to look at the professional expression “from aside” appears. The perception of the processes of professional growth stimulates the teacher to experiment and these experiments are understood as research and creative work. The most important incentive for professional becoming is the “Reflected Self” and the “Acting Self” the incongruity of which is predetermined by the necessity to alter not only one’s inner world but also his/her environment.

• Self-cognition becomes to the teacher the sphere of reality where he/she can acquire wider experience of updated self-reflection. Teachers are involved into processes of self-reflection which are perceived as self-creation, self-cognition, perceived professional educational “Self”, which becomes the epicentre of the construction of knowledge and constant attention.

• In the process of professional activity certain new formations are acquired which fall into two groups: alterations that facilitate successful adaptation in social environment and alterations that interfere with the functioning of the personality in environment; those alterations can be defined as constructive and destructive methods of the individual professional expression.

• The attitude towards professional and personal perfection, the perception of its objective allows escaping the state of “Self Loss” (Merlin, 1996) which can cause psychologically traumatizing influence upon the individual professional becoming of the teacher. A condition of professional deformation is educational conservatism and insularity when the tendency to enforce one’s “Self” upon others and the aspiration to exploit “Others” become obvious.

• The professional deformations of the teacher’s personality can be described as follows: low level of professional purposefulness and obvious purposefulness in rendering of the subject, educational inflexibility (inadequate emotional reactions), single-sided methods of psychological defence, intellectual “entrapment”, ill-structured self-awareness and low level of the self-regulation of self-knowledge. The main factor which prevents the occurrence of professional deformations is the teacher’s personality. The obstacles in individual professional expression are related to the lack of personality professional deformations which are caused by the management of professional “Self” and the processes of self cognition.

2. The management of the processes of individual professional becoming of college teachers in the reality of education

• Empirical research has revealed that the majority of college teachers are interested in educational competence and “seeking perfection” (61.2%) and “aspiring to know themselves better” (81.5%).

• The following competencies are typical: to render the subject (72.1%), to communicate with the trainees (59.2%). Adaptation and the aspiration to adjust to the requirements of the school receive significant attention from college teachers (77%).

• In the individual professional becoming college teachers distinguish the following features as important: “flexibility and originality of the way of thinking” (73.6%) and “tolerance of different opinions” (65.1%). The above mentioned features correlate with educational results (from 0.1 until 0.52). However, in some colleges (Klaipėda, Panevėžys) such feature of the teachers as “attentiveness to each other” (71.4%) and “its influence upon the educational results” (p = 0.0332; p = 0.014) was especially obvious.

• College teachers attribute the inclination for creative work to the competencies of individual professional becoming of teachers (78.5%). Teachers from different colleges assess the influence of the inclination for creative work on the competencies of individual professional development of teachers differently, for example, the teachers from Kaunas College emphasise the influence of the inclination for creative work more than others. The correlative relation between the inclination of the teachers for the type of activity based on mathematics and natural science (r = 0.327) and that for creative and humanitarian activity (r = -0.26) is weak.

• Particular ways of emotional expression are typical of the individual professional becoming of teachers: intense and open expression as well as control of emotions (moderate and complete). The majority of teachers indicate that their emotions are under strict control (47.5%) or they are moderately controlled (41.6%). Teachers from Šiauliai College relate the expression of controlled emotions with the competence of individual professional becoming more than others (42.8%).

• The competence of individual professional becoming of teachers is determined by activity which is manifested when the teacher assesses, analyses and perceives certain situations with the orientation to the consequences and results of educational activity. Activity depends on the teacher’s education. The higher the education (master degree) a larger number of the teachers are apt to analyse and assess the situation and to relate it to the results of the activity. The lower the education (vocational training or secondary education) the less attention the teachers devote to analysis and assessment and the more they are oriented towards the result.

• The perception of the individual adequacy for professional activity of the teachers is carried out through the expression of certain personality traits which are important to the teachers and by which they describe the fitness for professional activity. The most significant traits for the teachers are: “responsibility” (70.4%), “sense of duty” (68.3%), “communication” (52.8%), “morality” (43.1%). Less important are: “will” (34%) and “motivation” (27.3%). Teachers from Šiauliai College distinguish “responsibility” (71.4%) and “sense of duty” (71.4%) more than others. The most important traits for the teachers are those which demonstrate the attitude towards work (sense of duty, responsibility). Less important is creative self-expression which is highly valued by the teachers from Vilnius and Klaipėda colleges (9.04%).

• Certain spheres of individual professional expression are notably of little significance for the teachers: “mime” (0.29%), “body language” (9.6%). The most important are: “educational activity” (26.9%), “behaviour” (21.9%), “mood” (15.5%) and “language” (13.2%). Interests, motives and relations are important only to a small group of teachers (4.1%).

• The majority of college teachers are usually (43.9%,) or seldom interested (40.7%) in themselves as personalities, significantly fewer are very often interested (6.74%) and only a small fraction is never interested in themselves as personalities (2.05%). The main objectives of communication with others are: “the acquisition of information” (23.9%), “interchange of experience” (23.4%), “emotional relation” (21.9%). The motives of the communication of teachers are: “acquisition of new experience” (29.3%), “possibility to express oneself” (15.8%), “possibility to influence others” (8.5%).

• Lack of self-esteem, tendency to participate in conflicts and moderately expressed inclination for relationships with others based on goodwill are typical of teachers from Šiauliai College. The teachers from Klaipėda College manifest high level of self-esteem and aspiration for relationships based on goodwill and they are not inclined towards participation in conflicts. Teachers from Marijampolė College lack self-esteem but they are good-natured. Teachers from Kaunas College lack self-esteem, they are inclined towards the participation in conflicts but the express moderate tendency towards relationships based on goodwill. Teachers from Vilnius College posses no inclination towards conflicting situations, their self-esteem is average and they manifest a moderate tendency towards relationships based on goodwill.

• Two objectives of personality perfection are important to college teachers: “aspiration to be a good teacher” (34.8%) and “aspiration to reach perfection” (47.4%).

• College teachers apply various methods of self-esteem and self-control: usually they apply self-assessment (47.14%), are evaluated by others (38.7%) apply self-analysis (76%), self-observation (49%), observation of others (24.6%) or question others about themselves (9.7%). Evaluation by others is important to college teachers and it makes no difference if the know about the evaluation (65.4%) or not (47.8%). Almost a quarter of all teachers know what kind of evaluation they receive from others, 8.87% are not sure and 17.3 % do not know anything. Only a very small group of teachers know what evaluation they receive but it is unimportant to them. The correlative relation between indications “You know how you are evaluated by others” and “It is important to you how you are evaluated by others” is weak (0.37).

• The reasons of teachers’ self-control are as follows: “aspire to perfect themselves” (53.6%), “avoid trouble” (24.3%), “fear to be misunderstood” (6.74%). Least significant are the following reasons: “aspiration to make a pleasant impression” (3.81%) and “fear to be underestimated” (0.88%). Self-control is mostly determined by self-preservation and frustrations (avoidance of trouble, fear to be underestimated) as well as educational incentives (aspiration to perfect). Thus, aspiration for self-preservation is more important to the teachers than education.

• Teachers can describe themselves as personalities. The most important trait is “attitude towards work” (63.6%), less important are “relations with others” (61.5%). This factor is statistically significant (L<0.6). Least important trait is the expression of (21.7%). There are no significant differences in different colleges. Distinctive capacity (r/itt) revealed that the relation between single variable and the grade of the general scale is sufficient (0.74).

• Direct personal criticism is acceptable to college teachers (61.6%), criticism from colleagues is less acceptable (25.8%), and the least acceptable is indirect criticism (3.7%) from administration (3%) and public (11%). Besides, one of the least forms of criticism is criticism from students.

• More than a half of all college teachers described themselves as “naturally active” (56.3%), few of them doubt that (29.6%). A small part of teachers could not describe themselves as “naturally active” (13.4%). There is no statistically significant difference neither according to the colleges (F = 1.266, p = 0.278), nor according to the teachers’ education (F = 1.076, p = 0.359). These teachers who attribute themselves to those “naturally active” manifest the following features of activity: “activity is important in the sense of knowledge and achievements” (63.5%). Less important to teachers are the following features: “attempt to reach the objectives with purposefulness” (37%), “to use the ideas in their activity” (36.4%).

• Almost half of all teachers are interested in their differences from other teachers but there is the smaller part to which “it is unimportant” (18.7%). Differences in different colleges and groups with different education are statistically insignificant (F = 1.266; p = 0.248). The following features distinguish college teachers from representatives of other professions: “positive disposition for work” (26.9%) and “attitude towards their profession as vocation” (18.7%). Such features as “professional purposefulness” and “emotionality” are of little importance to teachers (7.2%; 6.8%).

• The following features are important to college teachers who are interested in individual and professional originality: “personality traits and characteristic features” (18.2%) and “strong motivation” (11.6%). College teachers manifest the aspiration to be different from others but at the same time they seek to be similar to others. The majority estimate their exclusiveness as a normal phenomenon (61%) and only a small part of teachers prefer the aspiration to be similar to others (9.38%). The teachers are interested in personality traits which are important for the perception of professional individuality and they distinguish the uniqueness of the way of thinking and creativity. The teachers use the following traits to describe themselves as creative personalities: “inquisitiveness” (4.5%) and “intuition” (39.5%). The rate of correlation between the factors “traits oriented towards the description of personality” and “traits oriented towards the description of communication” is very strong (L = 0.746). The most powerfully expressed are the traits oriented towards the description of personality (z = 0.14).

• The following obstacles interfere with the individual professional becoming of college teachers: socially – inefficient activity of administration (35.4%), and politicians (39.3%), colleagues (20.7%); influence of well known truths (for example, “the teacher is responsible for the results” (4.8%), “the teacher has to teach everyone” (30.2%)); “pressure of educational approaches” (28.7%), “moral pressure” (24.1%), “pressure from established authorities” (21.7%). The majority of teachers have received neither moral pressure (53.6%), nor pressure from established authorities (55.4%). The stereotype that “theory should not be trusted as it does not substitute practice” is most obvious (15.3%). The teachers would like to overcome the following stereotypes of behaviour: “the discussion of student behaviour with colleagues” (29.3%), “labelling” (23.2%) and “too high self-esteem” (16.6%). Attempting to overcome stereotypes the teachers usually “rely on themselves” (37.2%) or “seek help from their colleagues” (18.5%).

• The types of individual professional expression of college teachers can be distinguished according to the competencies and concepts of expression of the factors determining them, aspirations and needs for professional growth, activity and expression, orientation towards the trainee and the result of education, features of professional activity, organizational skills and the expression of creativity.

• According to the concept of competencies and the expression of factors certain types of teachers can be distinguished. The teachers explain professional competencies on the basis professional skills and features, giving more prominence to skills than to features. Other teachers who participated in the research consider educational competence to be equally related to skills and features (39%) but educational features are given more prominence (46%).

• The types of teachers according to aspirations and needs for professional activity and growth are as follows: moderate interest in personality traits and the need for professional activity, indifference to the factors of professional growth (32.1%) and the lack of need (29.3%); the need for productive educational activity is stronger than the aspiration to understand personality traits; strong interest in the factors of individual professional development of teachers. (47.2%).

• According to the orientation towards the trainer, trainee and the results of education the following types of teachers are distinguished: is oriented towards the results of education and the trainee but not towards the personality of the trainer (36.4%); professional growth is associated not with the orientations towards the trainee, the trainer or the results of education but with the orientation towards the perfection of personality (55.4 %).

• The types of teachers’ individual exclusiveness according to traits and features are as follows: “responsibility”, “aspiration to reach the goals” and “the ability to concentrate”. The following types can be distinguished: teachers dissatisfied with certain personality traits such as communicability (32%); satisfied with all personality traits and the features of the individuality of personality (45.1%).

• The types of teachers’ individual professional expression according to organizational skills are as follows: posses “organizational skills” (40.2%); posses “organizational skills and skills necessary for group work” (38.7%), manifest “neither organizational nor team work skills” (21.1%).

• According to two factors (“creativity skills oriented towards oneself” and “creativity skills oriented towards communication with others”) three types of teachers can be distinguished: “strongly manifested creativity skills oriented towards communication” (38.6%); “moderately manifested skills oriented towards oneself” (34.2%); “weakly manifested skills oriented towards oneself” (27.2%).

• According to the expression of competencies and factors certain types of individual professional expression of teachers can be distinguished: “aspiration and need for professional growth and effectiveness of activity, orientation towards total perfection of personality” (36%); “orientation towards partial perfection of personality according to traits and features” (32%), “orientation towards the perfection of organizational skills and towards the improvement of the effectiveness of the expression of creativity” (32%).

3. The processes of self-projecting of individual professional becoming and the outline of the modelling of management

• The individual professional becoming of teachers can be described as a continuous process of self-projecting and three stages according to the levels of self-projecting can be distinguished in it with the help of which the teacher as a subject can “transcend” the limits of his/her activity and can implement the creative attitude towards himself/herself.

• The management of the processes of self-projecting of individual professional expression of teachers corresponds with the model of process management of mixed type when the teacher through self-analysis gets involved into the perception of its essence and the manager acquires the possibility to manage those processes from the outside. However, one of the pre-requisites is constant interaction with the teacher stimulating the processes of self-analysis.

• Considering personal abilities of an employee the manager can predict behaviour in different situations. However, this is related to the manager’s features as well: friendly attitude towards the employee, when dealing with official tasks, and orientation towards individual professional features. Usually the two-dimensional aspect of behaviour is applied when the task as well as professional individuality of the employee are taken into consideration. This aspect determines the formation of a multidimensional network of management which ranges over two positions: concern for the person and concern for the task. The principle of personally oriented activity allows perceiving the teacher as the subject of common activity. This can be achieved with the application of educational model which is oriented towards professional growth, the expression of competence, the management of the process and autonomy through the construction of knowledge and self-cognition in the management of the processes of self-projecting which can be understood and modelled by the teacher.

On the basis of the accomplished research it can be stated that the hypothesis that “Provided the educational basics of individual professional becoming of college teachers were examined, it would render possible to develop strategies promoting individual professional becoming of teachers by educational means” proved to be correct.

Raktažodžiai: modeliavimas - modelling, individualumas - individuality, savireguliacija - self-regulation, savimonė - self-awareness, konstravimas - construction, augimas - development, tapsmas - becoming., saviprojektavimas - self-projection