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Background. The relevance of this study stems from the contradiction between the growing demand for the development of young children (aged 1–3) and the insufficient preparedness of educators to address their specific needs. Preschool teachers lack competence in areas such as pre-verbal communication, emotional regulation in toddlers, and working with parents, yet standard professional development courses fail to account for these specific aspects. This necessitates the development of a comprehensive personnel training concept, new educational programs, and flexible formats for non-formal education.

Objectives. To theoretically substantiate and empirically verify a holistic concept of developing professionalism among early childhood educators in the context of non-formal education, revealing its essence, structure, and dynamics as a nonlinear process of qualitative transformation of the specialist’s personality and activity.

Sample. The study sample consisted of 445 specialists from four regions of the Russian Federation, including 282 early childhood educators and 163 experts from psychological-pedagogical and methodological services. A subsample of 45 educators participated in the formative and control experiments.

Methods. A questionnaire survey with self-assessment and expert assessment of deficits, 18 focus groups (182 teachers), and analysis of activity products. A pedagogical experiment (N=45) based on the implementation of a non-formal learning community program, followed by verification of its effectiveness.

Results. A stable discrepancy was found between teachers’ self-assessment and the expert assessment of their professional deficits (p < 0.05), the most acute being in the methodological sphere (mean scores of 6.2 and 4.8, respectively). Professional deficits of teachers were recorded. Qualitative analysis of interview data showed that teachers are aware of their difficulties but do not have a sufficiently diverse set of tools to overcome them. The developed concept posits non-formal education as a special environment that generates professional new formations through the mechanisms of social learning, kinesthetic attunement, and collective creativity.

Conclusions. A holistic concept is presented that defines non-formal education as a possible resource for developing the professionalism of early childhood educators. Empirical evidence of its validity was obtained: statistically significant positive dynamics across all diagnosed indicators (p < 0.05), with the greatest increase in pedagogical sensitivity (32%) and pedagogical tactility (28%). Prospects for use are associated with the development of variable regional models of learning communities for specialists working with young children in different types and kinds of institutions.

Background. The study of the problem of methodological support for preschool teachers in the design of the educational program of a preschool organization is actualized by the need to improve the quality of education and the effectiveness of pedagogical work in the context of changing requirements of regulatory documents. In preschool education, this is the introduction of the Federal Educational Program of Preschool Education. The quality of the educational program design depends on the level of readiness of teachers for design activities, their competence, knowledge and skills, which determines the need to identify professional deficits and provide methodological support to fill them in a preschool organization.

Objective. Determining the possibilities of various forms of methodological work to fill the professional deficits of educators in design activities identified during diagnostics.

Sample. The study involved 420 educators of preschool educational organizations of the Chelyabinsk region in 2023 and 2024 (2023 - 270 people, 2024 - 150 people). Of these, 92 have the highest category, 178 have the first category, and 150 have no category.

Methods. The following methods were used: theoretical analysis of regulatory and methodological documents of the federal and regional levels, which are the basis for designing and implementing methodological work as a means of supporting teachers in designing the educational program of a preschool organization; comparative analysis of data from a diagnostic study of the level of development of design activities; diagnostic maps that allow identifying the degree of severity of teachers’ theoretical ideas about pedagogical design, its stages, project implementation indicators, as well as the degree of formation of design activity methods.

Results. A description of the forms of methodological work (reproductive, reproductive-heuristic, heuristic, heuristic-productive, productive) is given, which are correlated with a specific content of educators’ activities to fill professional deficits in design activities. Based on the analysis of the data of the diagnostic study of the level of formation of the design activities of educators, the main professional deficits are identified, leading to typical difficulties in designing the variable part of the educational program.

Conclusions. Taking into account the features of the forms (reproductive, reproductive-heuristic, heuristic, heuristic-productive, productive) of methodological work when replenishing the professional deficits of educators is a means of supporting educators in designing the variable part of the educational program of a preschool educational organization, contributes to improving the quality of preschool education.