The resilience, creativity and personality traits of future preschool teachers

Određene karakteristike odgajatelja više su nego značajne za njihov efikasan rad s djecom predškolske dobi. S obzirom na to, a u skladu sa smjernicama i ciljevima Nacionalnog okvirnog kurikuluma, važno je znanstveno istraživati i propitivati zastupljenost osobina kao što su psihička otpornost, kreativnost i osobine ličnosti budućih odgajatelja. Ove osobine nisu važne samo s aspekta efikasnog rada odgajatelja, već i s aspekta kvalitetnih i znanstveno utemeljenih promjena sukladnih studijskih programa, te programa usavršavanja. Dosadašnja su istraživanja pokazala da su psihička otpornost, kreativnost i ekstraverzija, otvorenost za nova iskustva te emocionalna stabilnost značajno pozitivno povezane, te iznimno poželjne karakteristike budućih odgajatelja, koje treba poticati i njegovati u kasnijem radu s djecom predškolske dobi. Stoga su ove osobine primjenom kratkih upitničkih mjera ispitane na uzorku studenata Ranog i predškolskog odgoja i obrazovanja Učiteljskog fakulteta u Rijeci. Cilj istraživanja bio je ispitati razinu psihološke otpornosti, kreativnosti i osobina ličnosti kod budućih odgajatelja, te ispitati postoji li značajna povezanost među početnim varijablama. Rezultati dobiveni na uzorku od N=134 studentice Ranog i predškolskog odgoja i obrazovanja pokazali su kako studentice posjeduju visoku razinu psihološke otpornosti (M=2,69; SD=0,16), umjerenu razinu kreativnosti (M=3,48; SD=0,51) i umjerene razine pojedinih osobina ličnosti. Utvrđena je značajna pozitivna povezanost između pojedinih varijabli; s porastom dobi i studijskom godinom raste kreativnost, s porastom otvorenosti prema iskustvu raste kreativnost, emocionalna stabilnost, savjesnost i ugodnost, dok s otpornosti raste emocionalna stabilnost i ugodnost. Ovi i ostali rezultati prikazani u radu mogu poslužiti kao polazište za nova istraživanja ovog područja.Certain characteristics of preschool educators are more than significant for their efficient work with children of a preschool age. In view of thism and in accordance with the guidelines and aims of The National Curriculum Framework, it is important to scientifically explore and address the representation of feautures such as psychological resistance, creativity and personality traitsof future preschool educators. These attributes are not relevant only from the aspect of efficient preschool educator's work, but also from the aspect of quality and scientifically based changes in compliant study programs and trainig programs. Previous researches have shown that psychological resistance, creativity and personality traits (extraversion, openness to new experiences and emotional stability) are positevely associated and highly desirable characteristics of future preschool educators, which should be stimulated and nurtured in later work with preschool children. Therefore, these feautures were examined by using short questionare measures on a sample od Early and pre-school childcare and education students in the Faculty of Teacher Education in Rijeka. The main goal was to examine levels of psyhological resistance, creativity and perosnality traits among future preschool educators, and to establish if there is a statisticaly important relation among initial variables. The study was conducted on sample of N= 134 Early and pre-school childcare and education students and the results have shown high level of psychlogical resistance (M=2,69; SD=0,16), moderate level of creativity (M=3,48; SD=0,51) and moderate level of most of future preeschool educators' personality tratis. It was found that with increasing age creativity increased, with increasing openness to new experiences creativity, emotional stability, conscientiousness and agreealeness increased as well. Also, with increasing resiliance emotional stability raised. Those, and more results shown in this paper may serve as an inspiration for new researches in this domain