The Importance of Modern Pedagogical Approaches in Forming Students' Professional Identity

The article examines the importance of modern pedagogical approaches for forming the professional identity of students in higher pedagogical education. Professional identity is treated as a dynamic process in which a student gradually accepts the values of the teaching profession, builds an image of himself or herself as a teacher, acquires professional ways of acting and reflects on his or her own development. On the basis of a theoretical analysis of international and national research, the paper argues that traditional transmission-oriented teaching mainly develops professional knowledge, while identity requires experience of acting, reflecting and belonging. Six modern approaches are analysed: the competency-based, person-centred, reflective, practice-oriented, narrative-biographical and community-of-practice approaches, together with the potential of digital, video-based tools. For each approach the component of identity it mainly supports and the corresponding teaching techniques are shown. It is concluded that the approaches are effective only in combination and should be integrated into the content of professional courses such as "Pedagogical Skill".