Pandemic Education Raising Awareness of the Need for Systemic Teacher Training for Remote Education

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to trigger critical reflection on the importance of the problem of preparing teachers to make use of the new information and communication technologies and remote education for the modernization of the educational process and bringing the school closer to the digital reality of the 21^st century. As evidenced by numerous studies, the necessity of distance learning during the pandemic has exposed the unsatisfactory level of IT and methodical competence of teachers in this area. In the first part of the article, an attempt was made to synthesize the results of nationwide research, conducted during the pandemic by leading academic centres, which concern the assessment of the teachers’ competencies in the use of ICT in education before the pandemic and the dynamics of their development during the remote education. In the following part of the article, in the context of the emerging diagnosis of the preparation of teachers for distance education, an analysis of the standards of teacher education in force in the last 20 years is conducted. The review of the standards and reflection on the changes contained in them in the field of information and methodical teacher education sheds new light on the issue contained in the title of the need for systemic training for remote education.