UDK: 373.211.24.018.7-057.875 ACQUIRING METHODICAL SKILLS OF PRE- SERVICE PRESCHOOL TEACHERS: FROM ABSTRACT KNOWLEDGE TO SITUATION- BASED LEARNING1

Students, pre-service preschool teachers, need professional competences, which include the methodical, to become autonomous professionals, empowered in their sig-nificant social role of teachers of young children, to self-express and self-realize as prac-titioners. Bearing that in mind, the question of the competence development and quality is becoming a significant „desirable outcome “ of programs that educate future educators, including the corpus of faculty courses that make up the scientific field of Methodics of preschool education, other words, integrated methodics of early childhood educa-tion. Developing professional methodical competences of pre-service preschool teachers in higher education is not only an isolated process based on academic knowledge and teaching through lectures and academic exercises that are performed in a campus class-room environment. It is a process that is closely associate the abstract knowledge with the authentic and natural context, which, in this case, has its own continuity, soul and a lot of more things (preschool institution). It allows the meaningful construction and application of the abstract knowledge, also competence development based on experien-1 The work with the same title was presented at II Scientific Assembly with internationa