Peculiarities of competence development in preschool teachers who work with children with attention, emotional, or developmental disorders

Abstract

Educational reforms and rapid changes in social life due to the COVID-19 pandemic are affecting the qualifications, professional competencies, and abilities of preschool teachers. The acquired knowledge alone is no longer sufficient, and the development of new competencies is becoming important. Every teacher should continuously improve their competencies and abilities, taking into account the current changes, and must participate in professionalization activities. According to the Preschool and Preprimary Teacher Training Standard (2019), the qualification structure of preschool education teachers consists of four main areas of activity: the assessment of the child and his or her environment and the provision of educational assistance, the development, management, and implementation of the educational content, applied research in professional activity, and cooperation with parents, state and municipal institutions, social or educational assistance services, businesses and organizations, and public and non-governmental organizations. It is important to note that official documents do not mention teachers’ competencies that are needed to educate children attention, emotional, or developmental disorders, even though there are a number of children in educational institutions who have difficulty managing their emotions. Purpose of the research was to reveal preschool teachers’ attitude towards competencies needed to ensure the successful education of children with attention, emotional, or developmental disorders. Methods/methodology: The study on the professional education and training of preschool teachers was performed during 2021. For this study, we prepared a 27-item self-designed questionnaire consisting of instructions and open-ended and close-ended questions. In this study, we used structured questions, questions with a nominal scale format, and open-ended questions. The studied sample consisted of 159 [...].