2024, 6

Preschool educational program of preschool educational organization: rethinking the approach to design and implementation

2024, 6 p. 4-21

Krivtsova T.V.

926

Background. This problem is caused by two factors. On the one hand, there is a need to develop educational programs for various types of preschool educational organizations operating in the conditions of standardization of preschool education content. On the other hand, there is a lack of an approach that allows designing and implementing educational programs in accordance with the current norm.

Objective. Testing a regional approach to the design of basic educational programs of preschool education in preschool educational organizations with various key characteristics and scales.

Sample. The study involved 6 preschool educational organizations of the regional network of various scales and with different initial characteristics and amounts of resources.

Methods. The study used: training of management teams, individual consultations on the application of the approach, expert support for the process of designing educational programs for preschool education and their experimental implementation in kindergartens.

Results. Each preschool educational organization participating in the study developed an educational program for preschool education. All programs were designed in accordance with the content of the Federal Educational Program for preschool education based on the proposed regional approach. The presentation of the software products obtained during the study was carried out in five regions of the Russian Federation as part of the implementation of a federal grant from the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation.

Conclusions. The results of the study allow us to rethink approaches to the design of educational programs of preschool education, minimize the risks of full-fledged implementation of Federal Educational Program for preschool education and a formal approach to designing educational programs of preschool education. The obtained software products can be used in developing recommendations for educational organizations experiencing difficulties in designing educational programs and as model software solutions for the implementation of the practical part of professional development programs that take this issue into account.

Keywords: preschool education program preschool educational institution program design program implementation regional approach regional network content unification Federal Educational Program

DOI: 10.24412/2782-4519-2024-6126-4-21

The relationship of teachers’ ideas about children’s participation with their support of children’s opinions and involvement in decision-making

2024, 6 p. 22-33

Ursulenko L.M.

888

Background. Teachers’ ideas have a significant impact on their practical decisions. Supporting the child’s opinion and participation in decision-making helps children develop a sense of belonging and self-expression, which in turn has a positive effect on both educational achievement and overall quality of life. Nevertheless, issues related to teachers’ ideas of the concept of participation and its implementation in the study group remain insufficiently investigated.

Objectives. To develop a model of a participatory approach that allows determining the degree of implementation of the principle of participation in an educational organization. To analyze the relationship between the ideas of Russian teachers about children’s participation and the level of their support for children’s opinions and participation in decision-making.

Sampling. 42 teachers from 30 preschool groups participated in the study. To analyze the relationship between teachers’ ideas and their support for children’s opinions, all respondents were divided into three subgroups according to the quality level of the environment of the groups in which they work.

Methods. Teachers’ ideas about participation were studied using the author’s modification of the questionnaire “Preschool teachers’ ideas about kindergarten education” (Broström et al., 2012; modified by Ursulenko, 2020), in which an indicator of parental participation was added. The examination of the level of support for children’s opinions and participation in decision-making was carried out by a specially trained external expert based on the educational environment quality assessment tool “Support for children’s opinions and participation in decision-making”, developed by the Research Institute of Urbanism and Global Education MСU as a possible addition to the ECERS-3 scales.

Results. The respondents of the first subgroup, with unsatisfactory quality, have no significant correlations in the ideas describing children’s participation in decision-making. The respondents of the second subgroup, with minimal quality, have significant connections both in the ideas describing children’s participation in decision-making and in the ideas describing the manifestation of their initiative. But these ideas are not related to each other. Respondents in the third subgroup, with a good quality, believe that participation in activities affecting the interests of children is associated with decision-making and the ability to initiate joint activities. There are no subgroups with high-quality. The number of preschool groups in which teachers have created conditions that prevent or insufficiently support participation prevails — 80% (24 groups).

Conclusions. The structural and dialectical model of the implementation of the participatory approach developed by us allows us to perform a meaningful analysis of the practices of implementing the principle of participation in preschool education, which is presented in the theoretical part of the study. Teachers’ ideas about children’s participation are related to their support of children’s opinions and participation in decision-making. For participation in activities affecting interests, not only participation in decision-making is important, but also the ability to initiate joint activities that are interconnected.

Keywords: participation participatory approach structural-dialectical model teachers’ ideas about children’s participation model of participatory interaction children’s opinion decision-making

DOI: 10.24412/2782-4519-2024-6126-22-33

Monitoring the labor market in the field of preschool education as a tool for forecasting and improving personnel policy

2024, 6 p. 34-47

Dukhanina L.N.

833

Background. Monitoring the labor market in the field of education makes it possible to timely identify the needs of employers in teaching and management personnel, analyze the demand for professions, the functional workload of employees, identify areas of shortage and inefficient use of personnel, and investigate the impact of various economic and social factors on changes in the content of labor. Analysis of the monitoring results contributes to the preparation of conceptual solutions in the framework of the implementation of strategic objectives for the development of preschool education.

Objective. To analyze the results of monitoring the labor market in preschool education and offer recommendations for optimizing professional activities and improving the mechanisms for the professional development of preschool education workers.

Sample. The study involved 46.766 employees of the preschool education system from 81 subjects of the Russian Federation.

Methods. The following methods were used in the study: online survey, calculation of descriptive statistics, factorial (exploratory) analysis, correlation analysis according to Charles Spearman, Mann-Whitney U-test.

Results. The degree of satisfaction of preschool education workers with working conditions was determined, as a result of the analysis of the functional load of educators, the frequency of their performance of certain labor functions was established, additional, redundant and duplicating labor functions of educators were identified, the need of the preschool education system for new qualifications was clarified, factors influencing the passage of advanced training by educators were highlighted.

Conclusions. The results of the analysis are of key importance for predicting the labor market needs in the field of preschool education for new qualifications and timely solving the identified systemic problems in this area — eliminating excessive functional load of specialists and duplication of labor functions.

Keywords: preschool education labor market qualification structure functional load job satisfaction labor market monitoring personnel policy

DOI: 10.24412/2782-4519-2024-6126-34-47

The systemic approach to the formation of preschool administrators’ perceptions about the psychological safety of the educational environment

2024, 6 p. 48-60

Kukushkina M.D.

1026

Background. Social perceptions of the administrators of educational institutions about the psychological characteristics of the educational environment are a key factor influencing the effectiveness of the system of interaction in the team. The organizational and managerial component of the educational environment is of primary importance in the formation of a psychologically safe kindergarten educational environment that promotes the maintenance of the emotional well-being of all its subjects.

Objective. Theoretical and empirical substantiation of the development of a program of social and psychological support for kindergarten managers, as well as an assessment of its effectiveness.

Sample. The study involved 111 kindergarten managers from seven cities of Russia. 72 people participated in the formative experiment: directors, deputy directors and senior preschool teachers aged 35 to 70 years.

Methods. The study used survey and diagnostic (questionnaires, surveys) methods, observations, and a formative experiment. The content analysis of the associations of managers was carried out using the methodology of P. Verges (Vergès, 1992).

Results. The study shows that the administrator is a key link in ensuring psychological safety in an educational institution, which emphasizes the importance of identifying and adjusting social perceptions about creating safe learning conditions. These perceptions play a significant role in shaping the organizational and managerial component of the educational environment of a preschool educational institution. The study defines the structure of social perceptions of preschool educational institution directors before and after participating in the program of socio-psychological support. The content of these perceptions was also revealed and described, and then the changes that occurred as a result of the formative experiment were analyzed.

Conclusions. The program of social and psychological support, including five semantic blocks: diagnostic, informational, educational, formative, reflexive and analytical, is an effective tool for forming social perceptions of preschool educational institution heads about the principles of organizing a psychologically safe educational environment in a kindergarten.

Keywords: psychological safety of the preschool educational environment emotional well-being of participants in the educational environment organizational and managerial component of the educational environment social perceptions of administrators regarding psyc

DOI: 10.24412/2782-4519-2024-6126-48-60

Toy preferences among 3-to-4-year-old children: The impact of socio-demographic factors and developmental characteristics

2024, 6 p. 68-60

Veresov N.N. , Gavrilova M.N. , Sukhikh V.L.

945

Background. Today’s common typologies and categories of children’s toys are mainly decided by the manufacturers and retailers of children’s products. Such categorizations are not based on a theoretical understanding of child development and therefore cannot provide information about the opportunities that toys provide for the young.

Objective. This study proposed three criteria for categorizing toys based on the cultural-historical approach: their degree of realism; their degree of anthropomorphism; and their degree of detail. These criteria were chosen as a result of an analysis of theoretical works carried out in the framework of cultural-historical approach.

Design. The proposed criteria were tested through an experiment measuring children’s toy preferences. The participants were 129 children of ages 3-4 years. Experimental data confirmed that most children do prefer realistic and detailed toys rather than those with fewer of these properties. The contribution of socio-demographic factors and the children’s individual developmental indicators to their toy preference was also analyzed.

Results. The study revealed that among various socio-demographic factors, only the child’s gender and the number of siblings in the family acted as significant predictors for the toy preferences. None of child’s developmental characteristics (non-verbal intelligence, executive functions, and emotional understanding) were found to be significant predictors of preference for particular toys.

Conclusions. The assumption that toys can be assessed in terms of their realism and degree of detail found empirical support. The results of this study may be useful in designing further research and in the practical issue of toy selection for children age 3-4 years.

Keywords: child psychology cultural-historical approach play toy preference executive functions emotion understanding

DOI: 10.24412/2782-4519-2024-6126-68-80

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