The Road to Quality in the Theory and Practice of Early Learning: Identity of the Preschool Teacher Profession / Put prema kvaliteti u teoriji i praksi ranog odgoja: identitet profesije odgojitelja

Abstract

Abstract

The profession of preschool teachers is extremely complex, requiring high professional awareness, continuous research of educational practice, responsibility, ethics, creativity, continuous reflective judgement, and it is almost impossible to achieve professional advancement without lifelong learning and professional development. The study, the results of which are presented in this paper, was conducted in order to determine the attitudes of preschool teachers towards the need and importance of their further professional development in relation to some socio-demographic factors (the current initial training of preschool teachers, age, years of work experience, the number and size of the preschool institutions located in a town or a village). This study included 573 preschool teachers from Zagreb, Karlovac, Međimurje, Bjelovar-Bilogora, and Virovitica-Podravina counties. The results of this study show that with respect to age, the existing level of initial education and years of work experience of preschool teachers, a statistically significant difference was obtained only regarding the first of the five items in total (Knowledge acquired during my study has significantly improved my theoretical expertise). The values of descriptive statistics indicate that the existing initial education has more or less met their theoretical and practical expectations in terms of the acquisition of overall knowledge.

Key words: attitudes of preschool teachers; early childhood education; lifelong learning; quality of theory and practice.

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Sažetak

Odgojiteljska profesija iznimno je složena, zahtijeva visoku profesionalnu svijest, kontinuirano istraživanje odgojno-obrazovne prakse, odgovornost, etičnost, kreativnost, sposobnost stalne refleksivne prosudbe i gotovo je nemoguće zamisliti napredovanje unutar profesije bez cjeloživotnoga učenja i profesionalnoga usavršavanja. Istraživanje čiji rezultati slijede u ovom radu provedeno je s ciljem utvrđivanja stajališta odgojitelja o potrebi i važnosti njihova cjeloživotnog učenja i daljnjeg profesionalnog razvoja u odnosu na postojeće inicijalno obrazovanje odgojitelja, njihovu životnu dob i godine radnog iskustva. U ovom istraživanju sudjelovala su 573 odgojitelja Zagrebačke, Karlovačke, Međimurske, Bjelovarsko-bilogorske i Virovitičko-podravske županije.Rezultati istraživanja pokazuju da je s obzirom na životnu dob, postojeću razinu inicijalnog obrazovanja i godine radnog iskustva odgojitelja od  ukupno pet čestica  dobivena statistički značajna razlika  samo  na  prvoj čestici (Znanja stečena tijekom mojega studiranja značajno su unaprijedila moju teorijsku stručnost). Iz vrijednosti  deskriptivne  statistike vidljivo je da postojeće inicijalno obrazovanje relativno zadovoljava njihova teorijska i praktična očekivanja u smislu stjecanja ukupnog znanja.

Ključne riječi: cjeloživotno učenje; kvaliteta teorije i prakse; rani odgoj i obrazovanje; stajališta odgojitelja