INTERNALIZATION IN AN INCLUSIVE ENVIRONMENT OF CZECH KINDERGARTENS

On 1 September 2016 an amendment to the Education Act came into effect which introduces an inclusive approach in schools. An alleged advantage is the support of socialization and personalization of intact children and those with special educational needs in the real school environment. This amendment changes the conditions of education (not only) in kindergartens. The objective of the paper is to present the process of structuring of internalization through joint activities of all children.

An applied research study of a qualitative nature has already been performed. Data collection was performed by means of an extensive research method – structured interview with open-ended responses. This allowed interpersonal contact with preschool children. This explorative tool was used to collect answers, which were recorded and assessed during a process of categorization. The interview focused on questions relating to friendship with an emphasis on joint activities, satisfying one’s own needs and strengthening one’s own status (ECE 2018, Brighton, UK).

The mentioned study is now followed by another research project aimed at kindergarten teachers, which reflects on the processes of establishing friendships in a real inclusive environment – an action research. Teachers of selected kindergartens (with an inclusive character) focused on the implementation of a special methodology developed by psychologists to support prosocial behavior and internalization in pre-school children. The implementation was in the form of an experiment where 15 classes of kindergartens that applied the special method (experimental group) and 15 control classes without the special method were monitored. Through the methods of pedagogical diagnostics the emotional development of children was studied with a focus on friendship relations.

Acknowledgement:
This paper was written as part of a grant project entitled Social aspects of inclusion in basic education in the context of international research (the research is part of an international project - Inclusive Education no 4401/11 Institute for Research and Development, Faculty of Education Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic).