Teachers' teaching and professional competences assessment.

This research is part of a project led by the Catholic University of Santiago de Guayaquil (Ecuador) and the National Distance Education University - UNED (Spain) aiming at designing a teaching/professional competences training model for teachers. The purpose of this study is to assess the meaning of professional competences and their significance within teachers' teaching and training processes. Using the mixed methods approach, an ad hoc questionnaire was designed and given to discussion groups, achieving participation of more than a hundred teachers. Quantitative data analysis was carried out using the Logit model while Atlas ti 23 allowed analysis of the qualitative data. The results evidenced high scores in the competences evaluated, being leadership and research the lowest. In general, the teachers value, preferably, planning, communication, evaluation, methodology, digital, and tutoring competences, with a lower value among teachers ranging from 25 to 30 years old; those older than 55 stressed the importance of digital and innovation competences. Thus, it is recommended that training programs for teachers should focus on the set of related competences, especially on the digital competence, considering the challenges represented by investigation and pedagogical leadership.

Pedagogical Leaders and the Teaching-Learning Processes in COVID-19 Times.

This study aimed to identify the main decisions made by pedagogical leaders, comprising institutional management teams, heads of departments, and teachers in general, in order to improve teaching-learning processes and promote the comprehensive education of students-in particular, secondary school students during the pandemic period, located in the regions of Andalusia and Madrid (Spain). An integrated mixed methodology was applied, composed of the contributions of discussion groups and content analysis of the corresponding open questions presented in each of the constitutive dimensions of the questionnaire. Such analyses were expanded by applying an ad-hoc designed questionnaire, which indicates the main actions developed by leaders and their implications in the educational community, when working on communication facilitation processes, using program planning through the support of technologies and decision making regarding the training of teachers, didactic resources, and the emergence of competences to be trained by the leaders participating in the research. The results highlight the dedication, commitment, and implication of pedagogical leaders during the COVID-19 period.