The quality of kindergarten care as an important element of the subjective theories

Maja Meško,Alenka Cemič,Mateja Videmšek,Jera Gregorc,Jože Štihec

doi:10.5507/ag.2012.002

Abstract

Background: Pre-school teachers and assistants jointly manage the educational process for pre-school children in kindergartens. The selection of topics and the process orientation depends on their professionalism, which is also reflected in subjective theories influencing also their lifestyle selection. Objective: The authors try to establish the differences in the opinions of the pre-school teachers and assistants on the quality and amount of time which children spend in kindergartens and to establish the differences in their opinions on material conditions for pursuing motor/sports activities. The aim was to establish whether the pre-school teachers apply higher standards for the evaluation of quality of leisure time spent by children and stricter criteria regarding material conditions to pursue motor/sports activities in kindergartens than their assistants. Methods: The sample was composed of 810 pre-school teachers and assistants from the whole territory of Slovenia. The sample was not redundant. The data were collected in September 2009, within the scope of a more extensive research project titled "Professional training of education practitioners to implement elements of special pedagogical principles of the Reggio Emilia concept in the field of pre-school education from the year 2008 to 2013" and were analyzed with basic statistical parameters. The data were processed by applying the SPSS statistical programme for Windows. Every statistically significant conclusion was accepted at the risk level of 5%. Results: The analysis of the results showed that the opinions of the pre-school teachers and assistants on the manner of children spending their leisure time were not statistically different. However, there were differences regarding their evaluation of the amount and quality of sports equipment and in their attitudes to motor/sports activities, in favour of pre-school teachers, who also take up motor/sports activities more often than the assistants do. We also established that more motor/sports active the pre-school teachers are during the week, the more often they participate in motor/sports activities in kindergartens, as well. Conclusions: The results of our research direct us towards providing a wider range of seminars within in-service teacher training also for the assistants and to contemplate offering recreational activities for the kindergarten staff, which shall contribute to a comprehensive bio-psycho-social status of an individual and to reshaping his lifestyle from the sedentary to the active one.

Highlights

The organization and detailed content of life and work are set out by the kindergarten in the annual work plan, adopted by the council of the kindergarten (Article 21 of pre-school institutions act, 1996), in which among others the facilities needed in the kindergarten to participate in physical activities are identified
We inferred that children of our research sample spend 10.1% of their leisure sitting outdoors, whereas 28% of their leisure is spent sitting in the play rooms on average, and 16.8% of their leisure is spent sitting in the joint premises
The aim of this research was to establish the differences in the opinions of the pre-school teachers and the assistants as regards the quality and amount of time that children spend in kindergartens, as well as the material conditions at their disposal

Summary

Introduction

The organization and detailed content of life and work are set out by the kindergarten in the annual work plan, adopted by the council of the kindergarten (Article 21 of pre-school institutions act, 1996), in which among others the facilities needed in the kindergarten to participate in physical activities are identified. The annual plan for an individual teaching group is devised on the basis of the Pre-school curriculum (1999) approved by professional Council of the Republic of Slovenia for General Education; whereby special features of the kindergarten (material, geographical, weather conditions, personnel and interests of children) and children should be taken into account. Previous research in the field of movement demonstrated that material conditions, personnel and organizational factors have impact on the frequency of integrating organized motor/sports activities in the kindergarten (Zajec, Videmšek, Štihec, & Šimunič, 2010). The same researchers established that of the above mentioned factors personnel is the key factor contributing to the formation of the regression equation for identifying the relationship between organized motor/ sports activities in the kindergarten and other variables, such as material conditions, content and personnel. The selection of topics and the process orientation depends on their professionalism, which is reflected in subjective theories influencing their lifestyle selection

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion