In the diploma work titled Professional development for preschool teachers to acquire the competencies needed to work with parents, we first defined the concept of professional development, described its characteristics and meaning. We defined principles and three different models. We emphasized the educator's responsibility and the role of cooperation with parents in their work. We focused on the kindergarten's cooperation with parents, their influence and the rights granted to them. Cooperation between educators and parents is formally prescribed, so we also highlighted the content of some laws and focused on the document that builds the program and implementation of preschool education, i.e. Kindergarten Curriculum (1999). When describing the cooperation of educators with the family, we also covered the purpose, principles and models of cooperation with parents. We also touched on formal and informal ways of cooperating with families. We also defined resilience in kindergarten. Finally, we devoted a few more words to the competences, knowledge and skills necessary for the successful cooperation between professional educators and parents.
In the empirical part of the thesis, starting from the objectives, we investigated what importance experienced educators attach to working with parents, how competent they feel, what contributed most to their competence, what forms of cooperation they most often use in their work, and how their professional development affects the acquisition of competences for quality cooperation with parents. We also asked educators about their opinion regarding cooperation with parents, their experiences, and the most common obstacles they face in this regard. The goal of the research work is to find out how the professional development of educators is connected with their competences for cooperation with parents.
The obtained results give us an insight into the qualifications and experience of educators in working with parents. With the help of interviews, we found that the educators feel competent enough to cooperate with the child's parents and came to the conclusion that they acquired their competences in connection with their own professional development.
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