Abstract
The aim of the research was to analyse the ways in which educational content is planned and taught in selected pre-school educational programmes in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with a focus on the topics, educational objectives, and different approaches to school curriculum design. Methods. The first part of the research consisted of a qualitative content analysis of the school educational programmes of 40 pre-schools in the Czech Republic and 40 reflective reports from the teachers of these pre-schools. The research focused on approaches to designing integrated educational blocks in these school educational programmes and on teachers´ preferences when implementing them in their teaching. The second part was undertaken in cooperation with the Faculty of Education of Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia. Research data was obtained by a questionnaire survey among students of distance studies in study programmes preparing pre-school teachers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The results from the research sample indicated that the chronological approach of integrated educational blocks was the most popular type within pre-schools in both countries. The pre-schools designed the educational content according to the season and structured it into weekly themes. This approach might not necessarily fulfil the requirements of the Czech and Slovak national educational programmes in relation to the specified educational content according to the current needs and interests of children. Even though some teachers were often allowed to choose their own topics, the majority of teachers were still required to implement topics specified in the school educational programme. In conclusion, the paper provides a possible outline of the causes of this situation and suggests opportunities for further research. Keywords: pre-school education, educational content, school educational programme, curriculum, planning
Highlights
Czech and Slovak pre-school education developed together for many decades; since the early 1990s, they have developed in their own separate ways
Research data is important for improving the quality of pre-school education; we are aware that it is not possible to generalise the results to the work of pre-schools in the Czech Republic and Slovakia in general
The data analysis has shown that the terms chronological and flexible do not cover all the possibilities of how integrated educational block’ (IB) were used within SCHEPs
Summary
Czech and Slovak pre-school education developed together for many decades; since the early 1990s, they have developed in their own separate ways. During this period, the sharing of experiences and joint research work of academics from Czech and Slovak faculties of education has supported comparative studies in pre-school education and provided solutions to common problems. Planning the teaching of the educational content by teachers in training is often not based on the evaluation of children’s educational needs and interests, but on fixed integrated educational blocks (hereinafter IBs) agreed in the SCHEP. The Czech Framework Educational Programme for Pre-School Education (hereinafter FEP PE) and the Slovak State Educational Programme for Pre-Primary Education (hereinafter SEP) support child-centred education, i.e. creating an educational offer and adapting the content to the needs and interests of the children
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