Partnership of pedagogues and child care providers for encouraging development and learning in preschool children

Abstract

Preschool childhood is the period of rapid development in which every age exhibits its own specific traits. Successful education and guidance of preschool children primarily demand taking into account these specific traits, as well as characteristics of individual children. Flexibility, dynamism and openness for continuous exchange with the environment incorporated in the programme model enacted in the preschool institution require constant collaboration between pedagogues and care providers. This paper starts from humane assumptions of partnership and team work, and then investigates the link between the confidence child care providers have in their own self-efficacy and attitudes concerning partnership oriented towards effective support for development and learning in preschool children. The main assumption is that multiple links between self-efficacy in social interaction with pedagogues, attitudes relating to team work and neutral variables can provide useful insights for pedagogic theory and preschool teaching practice. The paper provides new insights into partner activities, approaches and methodological procedures, as well as forms of communication which contribute to learning and development in preschool children, in addition to providing material for further investigation.

Keywords

• partnership
• team
• encouragement
• development
• learning