Sekundarni povzetek: |
Knowing that the time in which we live in is based on the changes and expectations
that educational institutions always keep in step with the changes, led me to investigate the
effects of professional education of pre-primary school teacher as well as motives and
strategies of implementing those changes into pedagogic practice in the light of their
professional development. Increasingly, we can perceive professional challenges brought
about by competition between children, educational institutions, parents, enforcement of
market mechanisms, financial reorganization, etc. Pedagogic workers should therefore always
follow the trends and innovations in the field of work methods, approaches, programmes, etc.
They should cope with the diversity among children (multiculturalism, individual differences
in perception, integration of children with special needs). The mentioned elements require a
high degree of professionalism from pre-primary school teacher, in-depth personal reflection,
as well as knowledge of appropriate approaches, methods and forms of work.
The study, which I conducted, included 180 pre-primary school teacher, assistant pre-primary
school teacher, pre-primary school teacher who provide professional help, first grade teachers,
and some pedagogic workers who are not included in the aforementioned terms and have been
selected randomly.
Research questions have been divided into 4 parts, namely the frequency of implementing
changes, factors of support, fields of implementing changes - 6 curriculum areas (language,
movement, nature, social science, mathematics, art), area of conflict resolution, integration of
pedagogic workers, active learning, ICT, cooperation with parents, health care and children
with special needs, communication, sharing of information, and education of pre-primary
school teachers in connection with the implementation of changes into pedagogic practice.
The fact that 59.2 % of pre-primary school teacher introduce innovations in their work is
welcoming. pre-primary school teacher with 13 years of service introduced novelties in only
39.6 %, but those with 4-6 years of service already in 52.5 %. In the periods between 7-18
years of service and 19-30 years of service they implemented changes in 73.3%, which is the
most in the whole period of teachers' work. Later, after more than 31 years of service, they
introduce new features up to 66.7 %, which is inconsistent with certain research of
professional development. According to the research, pre-primary school teacher stop or
significantly reduce the level of implementing changes into their teaching practice towards the
end of their career. Research findings interestingly reveal that teachers who spent some career
time away from education, introduce innovations in 65.6 %, from which it may be inferred
that they like novelty because they have changed profession or job sometime in the past. Most
of the changes are introduced by pedagogic workers with higher education, up to 76.1%.
However, if the pedagogic workers are divided according to the field of education, most
changes are implemented by pedagogic workers who have studied preschool education
(60.8%). I wanted to find out what is the main factor that promotes the implementation of
changes into pedagogic practice. Research has shown that for pedagogic workers, the most
important incentive is new knowledge. Factor analysis revealed that when implementing
changes, pre-primary school teachers find material factors very important (promotion into
higher salary grades, promotion into job titles, financial reward, sabbatical), which, with
59.99 % of the variability, affect the introduction of changes into pedagogic practice. For
more detailed information, further research, which would include only factors that promote or
facilitate introduction of changes, would be needed.
Children are the biggest support for pre-primary school teacher who implement changes.
I was also interested in what curriculum areas are covered the most from the point of view of
introduction of innovations. I was surprised that the option "other" was listed in the first
place. From 207 novelties, there are 35 which I could not categorize as they are probably
quite fresh and actually a novelty for pre-primary school teacher. Many questions on this topic
have remained open, but could be solved by means of a more extensive study. |