Literacy of preschoolteachers and their assistants in kindergarten

V diplomskem delu sem obravnavala pojem pismenosti, še posebej pa sem se osredotočila na poznavanje pojma pismenosti pri vzgojiteljih in pomočnikih vzgojitelja. Diplomsko delo je sestavljeno iz teoretičnega in empiričnega dela. V teoretičnem delu sem najprej opredelila pismenost, predstavila, kako je bilo s pismenostjo v preteklosti, navedla in opisala nekaj vrst pismenosti, za katere menim, da jih morajo vzgojitelji in pomočniki vzgojitelja poznati in tudi obvladati. V nadaljevanju sem predstavila raziskave o pismenosti v Republiki Sloveniji in navedla nekaj novejših rezultatov. Predstavila sem tudi, kako pismen naj bi bil vsak strokovni delavec in kakšne kompetence naj bi imel. Opredelila sem tudi, na kakšen način lahko strokovni delavci spodbujajo razvoj pismenosti otrok. Na koncu sem opisala še program pedagogike montessori in opredelila vlogo vzgojitelja v procesu učenja in razvoja otrok v tem programu. Empirični del je sestavljen iz analize in interpretacije rezultatov, ki sem jih zbrala z anketnim vprašalnikom. Anketne vprašalnike je reševalo 58 strokovnih delavcev, a vsi niso odgovorili na vsa zastavljena vprašanja, zato je pri vsakem vprašanju zapisana točno število strokovnih delavcev, ki so na vprašanje odgovorili. Strokovni delavci, ki so bili vključeni v raziskavo, so zaposleni v javnih, zasebnih vrtcih, vrtcu s programom pedagogike montessori in osnovni šoli. Raziskava je bila izvedena kvantitativno. Na začetku so predstavljeni demografski podatki strokovnih delavcev: spol, starost, stopnja izobrazbe, število let delovne dobe, delovno mesto, ki ga zasedajo, in vzgojno-izobraževalna ustanova v kateri so strokovni delavci zaposleni. Odgovori so predstavljeni z grafi, s preglednicami ter interpretirani s strokovno literaturo. Z analizo sem ugotovila, da strokovni delavci v celoti menijo, da so pismeni in se zavedajo, da morajo svojo pismenost izpopolnjevati s tem, da se udeležujejo različnih izobraževanj, berejo in podobno. Ugotovila sem, da strokovni delavci najpogosteje dobro poznajo matematično, bralno, računalniško in medijsko pismenost. Največ jih meni, da je potrebno pri otrocih razvijati bralno pismenost, z najrazličnejšimi dejavnostmi pa spodbujajo razvoj različnih vrst pismenosti. Skoraj polovica strokovnih delavcev meni, da se pojavljajo razlike v ravni pismenosti vzgojiteljev in pomočnikov vzgojitelja. Ugotovila sem, da strokovni delavci dobro pojasnijo pojem pismenosti in skrbijo tudi za razvoj svoje pismenosti z branjem, udeleževanjem izobraževanj in uporabo interaktivne tehnologije. Dobila sem odgovore, kako strokovni delavci vsakodnevno uporabljajo matematično pismenost, in ugotovila, kje se najpogosteje srečujejo z izzivi pismenosti. Strokovni delavci so imeli tudi posebno nalogo, ki je vključevala zapis vabila na roditeljski sestaneknalogo so vsi dobro opravili. Pri zadnjem vprašanju, ki je vsebovalo 15 trditev na Likertovi lestvici stališč, sem pridobila raznovrstne podatke, s katerimi sem ugotovila, ali oz. kako močno se vzgojitelji s trditvijo strinjajo. Z anketnim vprašalnikom sem uspešno pridobila vse želene podatke. S pomočjo pridobljenih informacij sem si odgovorila na raziskovalna vprašanja, ki sem si jih zastavila pred začetkom raziskovanja. Pridobila sem tudi zelo zanimive podatke o tem, kakšen pomen pripisujejo pismenosti vzgojitelji, s kakšnimi dejavnostmi jo razvijajo, kako pogosto razvijajo svojo pismenost in kako vrednotijo cilje, ki so zapisani v Kurikulumu za vrtce in se nanašajo na področje pismenosti.In this paper, we discuss the term literacy, focusing on how the term is known among educators and assistant educators. This paper consists of a theoretical and an empirical part. In the theoretical part, we first define literacy, we present the past of literacy, and we list and describe some types of literacy that we believe educators and assistant educators should be well familiar with. Then, we present research on literacy made in Slovenia and some of the latest results. We also present the estimated literacy level of professional workers and their competences. We also define how professional workers can promote the development of literacy in children. At the end, we describe the Montessori Pedagogy Programme and the role of educators in the learning process and children’s development within this programme. The empirical part consists of the analysis and interpretation of the results of our survey. Questionnaires were completed by 58 professional workers, but all of them did not answer all questions, which is why we state the number of answers for each question separately. The professional workers included in the survey are employed in public and private kindergartens, a Montessori Pedagogy kindergarten and an elementary school. The research was performed quantitatively. First, we present the demographic information on professional workers: genre, age, level of education, years of service, job title, and employer. Answers are presented in graphs and tables, and explained based on scientific literature. The analysis showed that all professional workers believe that they are literate and they are aware that they need to improve their literacy by taking part in different training courses, reading and similar activities. We found that professional workers mostly have a good knowledge of mathematical, reading, computer and media literacy. Most of them believe that reading literacy needs to be developed in children and they use different activities to promote the development of different types of literacy. Almost half of professional workers believe that there are differences in the level of literacy among educators and assistant educators. We found that professional workers can well define literacy and they develop their literacy by reading, taking part in training courses, and using interactive technologies. We received answers on how professional workers daily use mathematical literacy and we discovered where they are most often confronted with literacy challenges. Professional workers also had to complete a special task that included writing an invitation to a parent-teacher meeting – which was well done by everyone. The last question with 15 statements, rated using the Likert scale, provided different data that was used for determining whether they agree with the statements or not. The survey successfully provided all the required data that answered the research questions that were raised before the beginning of the research. We also gained interesting data on the opinion of educators regarding the importance of literacy, their activities for the development of literacy, how often they develop their literacy, and how they value the goals set out in the curriculum for kindergartens in the field of literacy