Future kindergarten educators' views regarding the role of language as one of the core kindergarten curriculum areas

Petek, Tomaž (author)

Kindergarten educators represent the first contact of children with the institutional environment. In this article we assume that kindergarten educators have a significant impact on children's perception of their first/mother tongue and their language development. Language is one of the core kindergarten curriculum areas in which the educator needs to be adequately empowered to set an example for the children, while at the same time developing their communicative competence which is the basis for (later) efficient communication. We carried out a questionnaire-based survey involving 236 students pursuing early childhood education in all three public universities in the Republic of Slovenia which prepares students for the role of kindergarten educators in order to study their perceptions of the language. The questionnaire-based survey was answered by students in their first and third years i.e., when starting and finishing their studies. A large majority of future kindergarten educators consider their positive attitude towards language in general to be extremely important for kindergarten children as language forms the basis for all other curriculum areas. Also, when surveyed, almost all future kindergarten educators considered it essential to be proficient in the language and to encourage language development in children by following their own example. Furthermore, they believe it is important to have a well-developed linguistic capability (language knowledge), to have the capability of crafting linguistically accurate written content and to master a suitable literary expression.

• Language: English
• Keywords: educator’s example, future kindergarten educators, kindergarten, linguistic capability, mother tongue
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: PEF - Faculty of Education
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: Str. 835-849
• Numbering: Vol. 13, iss. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-154403
• UDC: 373.2.016:81
• ISSN on article: 2165-8714
• DOI: 10.12973/eu-jer.13.2.835
• COBISS.SI-ID: 184517379

Copyright

Podatek o licenci CC-BY 4.0 je naveden na prvi strani članka (https://pdf.eu-jer.com/EU-JER_13_2_835.pdf). (Datum opombe 13. 2. 2024)

• Publication date in RUL: 13.02.2024

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: European journal of educational research
• Publisher: Eurasian Society of Educational Research
• ISSN: 2165-8714
• COBISS.SI-ID: 19227400

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: bodoči vzgojitelji, lingvistična zmožnost