Abstract:

The aim of this paper was to examine how preschool teachers evaluate their skills in different areas of their professional work, to identify incentives and obstacles in their professional development and opportunities for interaction between science, research and practice.

The following problems arise from this:
a) examine the perception of the development of preschool teachers' competencies;
b) examine how preschool teachers assess their professional development and investigate the relationship between competences in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT) and media literacy according to socio-demographic characteristics, and
c) identify factors that hinder preschool teachers and encourage in developing certain professional competencies.

Given that preschool teachers should be guided by a modern approach to learning and teaching that the child perceives as an active (co)creator of their own knowledge and learning, they should be ready for innovation and continuous investment in themselves and their own professional activities. development. Developing and strengthening their competencies to understand the complexities of educational practice is of great importance. The research was conducted on a sample of 40 preschool teachers employed in a public kindergarten in the city of Zagreb. A modified questionnaire on teacher competencies constructed by Erčulj et al. (2008) and a questionnaire designed for examine educational needs, conditions and opportunities (Čepić, 2009) were applied. The results show that the greatest educational needs of preschool teachers appear in the field of information technology and media literacy; the biggest obstacles at the state and local level are poor organization of formal education and inability of professional advancement or training outside the profession; and among the organizational barriers they noted lack of time and financial constraints. As the most urgent incentives for training/learning at the national and local level, preschool teachers often highlight the possibility of professional advancement, better evaluation, and at the organizational it is the financial support. Practice and experience are considered by the respondents to be the most important for professional development. Maintaining a high level of preschool teachers’ ability to act in various areas of professional activity and their advancement in critical, independent and responsible decision-making and action requires an appropriate institutional, administrative and organizational structure that recognizes the importance of their creation of an interaction science, research and practice in order to innovate the professional activities of preschool teachers.

Keywords:

Competencies, professional development, preschool teachers, incentives, obstacles.