The purpose of the thesis was to investigate preschool teachers’ competencies in the field of movement activities and to determine how preschool teachers assess their own competencies, what their knowledge in the field of movement is, and how this differs according to their professional title and level of education. Movement represents one of the fundamental areas of a child’s development in the preschool period, and preschool teachers play an important role in this process, as they are responsible for planning, implementing, and evaluating movement activities. They must understand the importance of movement for the holistic development of preschool children, recognize their role in planning, implementing, and evaluating movement activities for children, and continuously develop competencies for high-quality work in the field of movement throughout their professional careers.
In accordance with the purpose of the thesis, a quantitative study was conducted on a sample of 25 preschool teachers. Using a questionnaire, we obtained preschool teachers’ opinions regarding the importance of competencies in the field of movement, self-assessment of competencies, knowledge in the field of movement, and self-reported practice in planning and implementing movement activities. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, and analyses of differences between groups according to the teachers’ professional titles.
The findings showed that preschool teachers consider individual competencies to be very important, while their self-assessments of these competencies were lower than their ratings of importance. We also found that knowledge in the field of movement in some cases differs from the self-reported practice of preschool teachers. Differences were also observed among preschool teachers with different professional titles, with teachers holding higher professional titles generally rating their competencies more highly.
We believe that the findings of the thesis highlight the importance of continuous professional development and the enhancement of competencies for the high-quality implementation of movement activities in kindergarten.
|
