IN-SERVICE TEACHER EDUCATION. AN INSIGHT FROM PRESCHOOL EDUCATION

Abstract

Preventing language disorders from early ages is a situation that can be solved in the pedagogical area; although it has been the focus of important contemporary studies, practice has shown that there are still lacks in the process of in- service teacher education of teachers of preschool education. That is why, the objective of this research was focus on assessing the main needs of preschool teachers to help the prevention of language disorders before entering school. This article shows the results of an exploratory research, which constitutes the initial phase of a deeper study conducted through a pedagogical pre-experiment. Due to the complexity and variety of the data, it was necessary to use a wide variety of tools, methods and techniques according to the research context, such as the unstructured interview, participant observation, field notes, the questionnaire and triangulation of sources to demonstrate convergence among results. The relationship of the obtained information made it possible to identify the main needs of the teachers of preschool education taking into account their specific functions and the context where they develop their teaching. The process that was carried out provided these teachers with the tools for recognizing their own needs for preventing language disorders from early ages, because they were very active in it.

Keywords

• prevention
• language disorders
• early childhood