Creating Study Program for Teachers’ Initial Education: … and if Students’ and Program Designers’ Priorities are Divergent?

Nowadays, policy makers and scientists are promoting the idea that students should be involved in shaping their curriculum, as an essential dimension of student centered learning. After a brief discussion of this idea, we attempt to uncover which competences the students consider to be important. For this, we carried out relevant research in a Department of Primary Education in Greece with students in the final year of their initial education. The material used comes from the Tuning program. The research results reveal that students prioritize the competences that are directly linked to the school classroom, the act of teaching and school matters and place less importance on competences which are considered significant by the specialists and the policy makers, according to the specific bibliography. It seems that the students' beliefs are more pragmatic and based on their previous school experience. However, this doesn't facilitate innovative interventions and adjustments to new developments and trends. So, the question posed is: in the case of divergence between specialists and students regarding the curriculum, how could the issue be resolved?