Expanding the traditional role of the adult education teacher - The development of relational competences and actions

The article reports the effect of a competence development programme for adult education teachers. The effect has been assessed using electronic questionnaires completed by the teachers before and after the training programme, and by interviews with the teachers over a period of two years. The study shows that while the teachers' competences and actions develop significantly on some dimensions (e.g. to act upon discovering a student who is not thriving), they remain largely the same on other (e.g. to give appreciative feedback). There is a greater change and development in the teachers' actions than in their competences.