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Background. A successful transition from preschool to primary school education is determined not so much by cognitive readiness as by the child’s social and personal readiness: the ability to self-regulate, engage in constructive interaction within a group, and fulfill new social roles. At this stage, social skills become a key resource for school adaptation. However, the expectations of adults (family and school) may diverge, and the subjective assessment of a child’s skill development may not meet the level of required standards.

Objective. To conduct a comparative analysis of the importance ratings of social skills by parents and primary school teachers; to identify the skills perceived by parents as least developed; to establish which skills necessary for school are most often insufficiently developed in children at the start of their education.

Sample. The study involved 80 primary school teachers (assessing skill importance) and two groups of parents: 510 individuals assessed the importance of skills, and 1,269 individuals assessed the level of their child’s skill development.

Methods. A cross-sectional, multi-informant survey was conducted. Skill importance was rated on a 1–5 scale (5 – “very important”), and skill development was rated on a 1–5 scale (5 – “describes the child extremely accurately”). The analysis included descriptive statistics; group comparisons using Welch’s t-test and effect size estimates (Cohen’s d); Spearman’s correlation analysis (r); calculation of the difference (imbalance) between importance and development levels; identification of “critical zones” based on importance-performance analysis (IPA).

Results. Teachers, on average, rated social skills as more important (M=3.96) than parents did (M=3.87), with statistically significant differences found for 15 out of 18 skills. The greatest discrepancies in priorities were identified for emotional regulation and responsibility for personal belongings (higher among teachers), as well as for the ability to ask clarifying questions, express needs, and demonstrate learning motivation (higher among parents). According to parental assessments, the least developed skills in children are emotional regulation (M=3.03), persistence (M=3.36), and adaptability (M=3.40). The maximum gap between high importance and low development, noted by both groups, was recorded for the skill of emotional regulation. Common “critical zones” for both parents and teachers were the skills of peaceful conflict resolution and active listening.

Conclusions. The results emphasize the need to enhance practices in preschool age aimed at developing self-regulation, resilience to difficulties, and skills of constructive interaction. The discrepancies between school and family expectations require not merely informing parents but jointly designing the content of educational continuity. Preschool institutions can initiate dialogue with primary school teachers, including through joint diagnostic and preventive measures.

The relevance of research. The article broadly discusses the issue of education of parents (legal representatives) of children of early and preschool age. The problem of parental education has been relevant for more than a century. During this period, it has been transformed from a simple transmission of information and the elimination of parental illiteracy in matters of health, development, and upbringing of children to an activity that is one of the measures of state support for parents, a way to form a generation of conscious and competent parents.

Organization of the study. The purpose of the study was to develop the content side of the education of parents (legal representatives) of children attending preschool educational organizations. The authors of the article propose to trace the dynamics of society’s approaches to educating parents, reveal the key features of the phenomenon of modern parenthood. Modern parents, living in the age of wide access to information, continue to experience difficulties in family education. However, their needs are no longer connected with information, but with help in a critical analysis of information, selection of the one that will help their educational practice, formation competent and effective parenting skills.

Research results. The implementation of the tasks of psychological and pedagogical support and assistance in the development of competent parenthood is facilitated by the educational activities of teachers of preschool educational organizations. The article contains a brief description of the developed Education Program for parents (legal representatives) of preschool children attending preschool educational organizations. The program was developed by the Laboratory of Preschool Education of the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution Institute of Developmental Physiology of the Russian Academy of Education by order of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation as part of the development of state support measures in terms of the preparation and implementation of educational programs for parents of children attending preschool educational organizations (in pursuance of paragraph 3 of the list of instructions of the President of the Russian Federation dated June 14, 2022 No. Pr-1049GS following the meeting of the Presidium of the State Council of the Russian Federation on May 25, 2022).

Conclusions. The Education Program for parents (legal representatives) of preschool children attending preschool educational organizations contains content that can serve as a guide for preschool teachers in educational activities.

Relevance (context) of the subject of the article. Inclusive culture is one of the fundamental components of the inclusive environment of educational organizations. The study of this parameter, including the inclusive culture of preschool educational institutions, and its significance for inclusive practice remains relevant in Russian science.

The aim of the study. The work carried out a pilot study of the inclusiveness of the culture of a preschool educational organization as a factor that can influence the subjective readiness of teachers to apply inclusive practices in the context of the inclusion of children with special educational needs.

Methods of the study. The study was conducted using adapted scales-questionnaires, compiled on the basis of those used in international studies. The adaptation included changing the statements of the questionnaires for use in a preschool educational organization. The number of statements in the questionnaires and Likert scales remained unchanged. The following scales were used: attitudes towards inclusion, concerns about teaching in an inclusive environment, teachers’ self-efficacy in implementing inclusive practices, and intentions to implement inclusive practices. Questionnaires are given in appendices A, B, C, D. The sample consisted of 20 respondents, employees of preschool organizations in Moscow, including 15 educators, 2 tutors and 3 support specialists (speech therapist, special educator, educational psychologist).

Description of the research progress. The obtained results show that the attitude towards inclusion among teachers is ambiguous: most teachers are more likely to accept the values of inclusion, some of them are closer to undecided and 2 respondents expressed a negative attitude. The willingness to implement inclusive practices was reflected in the indicators of self-efficacy scales and the intention to implement inclusive practices. Correlation analysis showed that the scales of self-efficacy and intention were statistically significantly (p<0.001) positively associated with a high close relationship on the Chaddock scale, while there was a trend between the scales of attitudes towards inclusion and concern about difficulties in implementing inclusive practices (0.05<p<0.1) to a moderate negative relationship.

Research results. Thus, the set of methods used for the first time in the Russian sample revealed the contradictory nature of attitudes towards inclusion in the organization and the likely lack of support for it, which may indicate insufficient inclusiveness of the culture of the ECE. At the same time, the readiness to implement inclusive values among most teachers may indicate a personal commitment to their implementation.

Background. We are living in challenging times, with an urgent need for transformation that requires new and sustainable ways of living. Young children are exposed to these global challenges. This study responds to the need for further understanding of how education for sustainability (EfS) is being handled in early childhood education (ECE).

Objective. This study investigated ECE teachers in the process of implementing early childhood education for sustainability (ECEfS). This was initiated by the 2019 revised Swedish National Curriculum for the preschool, where education for sustainable development is included as an overall value and objective.

Design of study. The data presented in this article was obtained in May 2021. An initial questionnaire was emailed to all Ifous participants. One hundred fifty-three teachers (76.5%) responded. The intention of the questionnaire was twofold: first, to investigate what the teachers considered to be education for sustainability in ECE; and second, to scrutinize the teachers’ knowledge base, for the further planning of the research and development program. Content analysis was used to analyze the data.

Results. The findings of the study showed a tendency to describe education for sustainability as “business-as-usual” rather than treating EfS as a new field, and to contend that the teachers addressed EfS before it became a compulsory task in 2019. There were few connections made to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (2015) and to the ongoing pandemic. A common trend when describing the content and activities was to divide the content into three areas, following the three dimensions of sustainability. The teachers described the physical changes and pedagogical changes made after the revision of the national curriculum.

Conclusion. The teachers in the study were interested in EfS, and some articulated a longing for more knowledge about ECEfS and for transformative change. The teachers also showed the need for courage and professionalism to lead the way in finding the relevant content and activities for EfS. The teachers were struggling to find new ways to meet the demands from the governing documents especially during a planetary crisis.

Introduction. The article presents the results of the analysis of the stages of the formation of the system of training teachers of preschool education at the Herzen State Pedagogical University. The purpose of the analysis is to reveal the historical stages and distinctive features of the St. Petersburg model of training teacher of preschool education from the period of existence of the Pedagogical Institute of Preschool Education to the modern stage of modernization of teacher education in Russia.

The result of the study was a description of the four stages of the formation of the St. Petersburg model for the preparation of the teacher of preschool education in the conditions of higher education, including: the stage of training in the conditions of functioning of the Pedagogical Institute of Preschool Education (1918-1925); stage of registration of preschool pedagogy and methods of preschool education as educational disciplines and content core of teacher training (1926-1992); stage of level and variable training of the teacher of preschool education (1992-2013); the stage of development of new practice-oriented models for the training of bachelors and masters in the profile of “pre-school education” (2014 – to the present-day).

Conclusion. The study allows to characterize the essential, distinctive features of the St. Petersburg model of training teacher for pre-school education, to identify promising areas of development, features of educational programs for the training of teachers of preschool education.

Background. The psychological preparation for school is a term elaborated by the followers of Vygotsky, the main creator of the historical-cultural school, who point out that the child must acquire the psychological formations also called neoformations typical of the preschool age that prepare him for complex learning, therefore the design of the semi-structured interview that was applied to investigate this topic is exposed. Close adults essentially influence the level of development of neoformations through the inclusion of the child in activities that are accessible and relevant to them, so the interview was applied to mothers and fathers and to the teacher who are the adults who live directly with the preschool child.

Objective. The objective of this study is “to describe the design and management of the semi-structured interview as a methodological tool for the analysis of the conceptions and actions carried out by mothers and fathers and the teacher for the preparation of the child for school”.

Sample. The study was carried out from the application of interviews to 23 parents and the head teacher of a group of 3rd grade. of preschool that due to the COVID 19 pandemic was applied online.

Results. It is concluded that the conceptions and actions that mothers and fathers and teachers have do not allow guaranteeing the optimal level of preparation of the child for school.

Conclusions. It is argued that mothers and fathers and teachers require a guide to guide them to develop psychological neoformations in their children to raise the level of preparation for school.

Background. The current stage of preschool education development is characterized by the active implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Despite the understanding of the indispensability of personal communication between teacher and child, AI tools can optimize the professional activities of educators, freeing them from routine tasks and providing data for personalized learning. However, there is a lack of empirical data on the practical application of AI assistants directly in the work of educators in kindergarten groups.

Objective. To test and evaluate the effectiveness of integrating AI assistants into the educational process of preschool educational institutions in Kazan to personalize learning and optimize the professional activities of teachers.

Sample. The study involved 180 children aged 5 to 7 years (60 preschoolers aged 5-6 and 120 children aged 6-7), 24 teachers (educators and kindergarten specialists), and 180 parents (legal guardians of the children participating in the experiment) from six municipal kindergartens in Kazan.

Methods. The study was conducted using an experimental design and included four stages (preparatory, training, main, and evaluation). A combination of diagnostic methods was used: assessment of teachers’ digital competence (surveys and interviews), analysis of the individualization of the educational process, pedagogical assessment of children’s development (speech, cognition, socialization, emotional-volitional sphere), and parental surveys. Statistical data processing was performed using the Student’s t-test, Mann-Whitney U-test, Pearson’s c² test, variance and correlation analysis, and Cohen’s d coefficient for effect size assessment.

Results. AI assistants were integrated into the educational process of kindergartens. A significant increase in the digital competence of teachers in the experimental group was observed, and a reduction in the time teachers spent on recordkeeping was found due to the use of a digital platform with AI analytics. Statistically significant differences in the cognitive and speech development of children in the experimental group compared to the control group were found. A strong positive correlation was found between the use of robotic assistants and the development of social skills, as well as between specialized AI platforms and personalized learning. Positive trends in parental attitudes toward the implementation of AI were also recorded.

Conclusions. The integration of AI assistants allows for the optimization of educators’ work and the personalization of educational trajectories without replacing the role of the teacher. Key conditions for successful implementation include data security, technological reliability, and the critical selection of tools (taking into account the risks of commercial support, as in the case of the Moxie robot). AI assistants should not be viewed as a replacement for the teacher, but as a tool that enhances their capabilities and allows them to see the child more deeply, without replacing human warmth and understanding.

Background. Against the backdrop of rapid socio‑cultural change, the development of social competence in preschool children has become a key task of education. Despite broad recognition of its importance, empirical data indicate a low level of social competence in many children, which predicts later difficulties with adaptation and learning. This creates the need to analyse existing barriers and practices among the primary agents of socialisation—parents and educators.

Objective. To identify and compare parents’ and preschool teachers’ assessments, practices and perceived barriers in developing preschoolers’ social competence, in order to outline directions for optimising their collaborative efforts.

Sample. The study involved 178 parents of preschool children and 57 teachers from preschool educational institutions in Yuzhno‑Sakhalinsk.

Methods. The study was conducted as a cross‑sectional, multi‑informant survey. A specially designed questionnaire was used; to monitor data validity, it included fictitious, non‑existent methods.

Results. Parents and teachers showed a high degree of agreement in identifying the most difficult components of social competence: “anticipating the consequences of one’s actions”, “taking account of other people’s feelings” and “admitting rule‑breaking and correcting one’s behaviour”. This convergence reflects the objective difficulty of fostering metacognitive and reflective functions. At the same time, there were marked differences in the practical toolbox. Teachers actively employ structured techniques (role play with explicit rules – 72.6%, peer mediation and social stories – 47.4% each), whereas parents more often use emotion coaching (17.2% versus 5.3% among teachers), which can be explained by differences in interaction contexts. A key finding was the documented gap between declared knowledge and actual behaviour: 25.9% of parents and 18.1% of teachers reported using non‑existent methods, and 46.6% of parents and 26.3% of teachers chose ineffective strategies at least once in scenario‑based tasks. This points to insufficient operational competence and susceptibility to “pseudo‑scientific” rhetoric.

Conclusions. There is an objective consensus between parents and teachers regarding the core difficulties in developing preschoolers’ social competence. However, coordination of efforts between family and preschool institutions is hampered by differences in methodological resources and by the gap between declarative knowledge and everyday practice. To increase the effectiveness of work in this area, targeted measures are needed to provide methodological support for parents and to adapt evidence‑based practices (such as emotion coaching) to the realities of preschool groups.

Background. Changing requirements to the level of professional competence of preschool teachers, related to the new priorities in the educational system, entail the necessity of qualitatively different provision of resources, the key role in which is played by the internal resources of the subject of activity.

Objectives. The aim is to identify peculiarities of interaction of cognitive and personal resources of teachers of the institutions with different level of quality of education.

Sample. 526 teaching teams (leader, senior teacher and two or three teachers) participated in the first stage, the second stage (study of cognitive and personal resources) was attended by 117 teachers.

Methods. The following methods were used in the study: the method of diagnosing the resourcefulness of professional thinking (I.V. Serafimovich, E.A. Medvedeva, N.V. Surina); the questionnaire of emotional intelligence EmIn by D.V. Lyusin (Lyusin, 2006); methods for studying subjective well-being (Osin, Leontiev, 2020, p. 136): the emotional aspect of well-being is the subjective happiness scale (Lyubomirsky, Lepper, 1999, adapted by E.N. Osin, D.A. Leontiev, short version (Osin, Leontiev, 2008), and the cognitive aspect is the life satisfaction scale (Diener et al., 1985; adapted and validated by D.A. Leontiev and E.N. Osin, (Osin, Leontiev, 2008).

Results. Positive interrelations of cognitive and personal resources have been established. Institutions with high quality are characterized with balanced uniformity, the institutions with medium quality are characterized with unbalanced focus. Differences in the personal resources’ components among teachers from various organizations were not identified, but there are some in the reflexive component of cognitive resources (teachers working in the organizations with high quality of education have higher level). It is shown that the organizations with medium quality have feeble circumstantiation and development of directions: correctional and developmental work with children with disabilities, ways to support children’s initiative and independence (age-appropriate), conditions for creating a developing subject-spatial environment (transformability, variability, multifunctionality); application of methods of modern planning of educational activities.

Conclusions. The use of research data is related to the possibilities of organizing continuous informal education of teachers of preschool educational organizations through the actualization of cognitive and personal resources, taking into account the deficiencies in the work of educational organizations in building immediate and distant development prospects.

Background. Modern parents form the public opinion about a preschool educational organization and about each preschool teacher. However, very often the influence of parents on the reputation of a kindergarten is underestimated, which leads to unfavorable consequences for the kindergarten. In this regard, it is extremely important to know how preschool teachers look like to parents, the requirements and requests of parents in order to maintain the competitiveness of the kindergarten.

Objectives. The aim of the study is to identify current problems in the interaction between parents and preschool teachers, to analyze the attitude of modern parents towards preschool teachers, and to develop recommendations for optimizing cooperation between participants in the educational process.

Sample. The study involved 210 respondents — parents of different ages and genders from different regions of Russia, whose children attend preschool educational institutions aged from 2 months to 7 years.

Methods. The following methods are used in the study: a scientific and theoretical analysis of publications on the research problem, a questionnaire conducted with the help of an outsourcing company, generalization and systematization of the obtained data, content analysis of the content of parents’ statements about the professional activities of preschool teachers.

Results. 177 statements by parents about the professional activities of kindergarten teachers were analyzed according to the following parameters: attitude towards parents, attitude towards children, attitude towards professional development. Based on the parents’ opinions the current problems in the interaction between parents and preschool teachers were identified: lack or insufficient information for parents, lack or insufficient number of joint events for children-adult communities, inability of preschool teachers to interact with different categories of families. 144 statements of modern parents about their own attitude towards preschool teachers were also analyzed in the study. It was found that parents often have a biased attitude towards preschool teachers and make unreasonably high demands on preschool teachers.

Conclusions. The study allowed to identify the main problems in the interaction of parents and preschool teachers, positive trends in modern preschool education, and also to record the unfriendly attitude of modern parents to preschool teachers. The results obtained indicate the need for careful preparation of prospective preschool teachers for cooperation with parents.