Description:
Cooperation between preschool education institutions (kindergartens) and families contributes to the welfare of children, and primarily depends on the attitudes and competences of teachers. The research was conducted in two preschool institutions from different regions of the Republic of Croatia, on two samples similar in structure. The revised version of the Parent Survey of Family and Community instrument (Sheldon & Epstein, 2007) was used. The reliability of the used scale (.76 [lambda] .88) corresponds to the original. Informing parents of kindergarten children has been recognised as the most common cause of collaboration with educators (M=3.44; SD=0.59), while counselling on parenting has been recognized as the least common one (M=2.85; SD=0.61). Factor saturation of certain scales indicates deeper parental involvement, rather than particles that point to normal activity. There was a statistically significant correlation between participants' professional work experience and the results of applied scales (.40 [is less than] r [is less than] .55; p.01), except for the assessment of parents' contribution to the curriculum structure (r=-.28; p.05). Significant differences in subsamples were determined on the t-test for the variable Causes of cooperation (t=2.72; p.01). Research results indicate that existing formal education of teachers is insufficient in relation to their development of professional competences needed for collaboration with parents, which is in accordance with the results of recent global research. (author abstract)
Resource Type:
Reports & Papers
Country:
Croatia