CONTEMPORARY FUNCTIONS OF TEACHERS

Abstract

The teacher has always been an important figure in the upbringing and education of young people. There are numerous functions that teachers perform in everyday work. However, frequent changes in society are causing constant changes in teaching profession. Teachers are expected to be able to perform numerous functions:organization and teaching, professional development, participation in research, cooperation with parents, colleagues, expert service, school management, etc. This work shows the most common general functions of teacher such as: lecturer, evaluator, builder of collaborative relations, educator, associate, manager, organizer, coordinator, but also contemporary functions such as innovators, researches and evaluators of his and student work. Special attention was paid to the functions of teachers during the thought activation of students such as: a teacher skill to organize teaching activities that will ''attract'' students into relevant mental activities, the teacher's function to use different methods, techniques and strategies in order to activate students in thought, the teacher's functions to use different learning and teaching resources. Particularly important teacher functions are: training students to apply knowledge in familiar and unknown situations, encouraging students to think critically, and using new ways of learning and teaching. There are more and more competencies necessary for successful teaching practice .In their call, teachers need to constantly look for new ways of teaching and they need to be able to adapt to different educational situations. The contemporary function of teachers are complex and dynamic. They are complex because they cover different types of activities (planning, preparation, evaluation of the overall educational work), knowledge of the developmental characteristics of students, knowledge and use of modern techniques and technology in education, etc. The functions of teachers are also dynamic because the circumstances in which the teacher is working are changing constantly, and he is obliged to constantly adjust the structure of his and his student activities to those changes. Students and parents are the ones that greatly have changed. The teacher's educational function in the modern age is more important than ever before, given that students spend less and less time with their parents. The contemporary functions performed by teachers are related and complementary. There are more and more competencies necessary for successful teaching practice. It is important that teachers constantly work on self-evaluation of their work, to re-examine their roles, to extend their roles, and to adjust their work to improve teaching practice. Education of teachers in 21st century is one of the greatest challenges of modern civilization.