Pre-primary Education

Students will acquire understanding of the specifics of pre-primary education, its purpose, educational goals and objectives as well as principles. They will get familiar with the legal acts and educational documents that regular pre-primary education and with the situation of pre-primary education in Europe and Lithuania. They will be ready to develop child’s socialisation as well as physical, psychical and spiritual powers, to help children prepare for transition to systemic education at school. S/he will know how to help children, who do not attend educational institutions, to adapt in a pre-primary group, how to help them to gain self-confidence and reliance on own abilities, to create conditions to experience the joy of learning. Students will analyse curricular of pre-primary and primary education and children’s competences provided for in them, will acquire abilities to flexibly and creatively analyse the renewed “General Curriculum of Pre-primary Education“ (2014). Students will learn about the essence of children’s social, health, cognitive, communication and artistic competences, will be able to ensure efficient and integral development of competences and to integrate learning to learn, creativity, initiative and entrepreneurship competences into them. Students will learn to model (plan) the content and process of education, to create educational environment, aids and to adapt them to children with various needs. They will learn to choose and apply educational methods, techniques and forms that are most appropriate for pre-primary children and are oriented towards efficient development of child’s educational outcomes. They will understand the importance of interaction of participants that ensures a responsible attitude towards a child, his/her education and provision of efficient educational support.

The aim of the module is to acquire pre-school education competencies for work in a pre-school group, the ability to provide one-year quality pre-school education, adapt the content and process of children with different needs, select the most suitable modern education strategies for pre-school education, help prepare for school learning.

-

Theoretical bases, concept, goals, objectives, attitudes of pre-school education. Purpose of pre-school education. The concept of "equal start" in school. Preschool child and his needs. Children's maturity for school. Residual value of quality pre - school and pre - school education. Documents and legal acts regulating pre-school education. Publications and educational tools for pre - school education. Trends in the development of pre - school and pre - school education in the European Union and Lithuania. Pre-school and pre-school education development projects. Availability, quality and effectiveness of educational services for a pre-school child and the foster family. Establishment and organization of pre-school education groups. Necessary conditions for the implementation of the program, their application to various forms, models and methods of educational organization. Preschool group environment and its creation. Documentation of children's education in a group. The role of the teacher and the requirements of the position in organizing education. The essence of the pre-school education (learning) program and its interpretive, creative, flexible realization. Modeling and adaptation of the educational content and process to a specific group focusing on the field of the child's learning experiences, the nature of the child's activities, multiple interactions between the child and the environment, the creation and creation of educational situations, various cultural experiences. The concept of children's competencies (health care, cognition, communication, artistic, social and learning to learn) and their concretization should be developed in the pre-school age. Identifying the competencies of children with different needs and anticipating opportunities for personalized and attractive development. The importance of developing personal and social skills in preparation for school learning. Unique and creative electronic planning of pre-school education. Planning to encourage children to model the content of pre-school education. How to develop an educational plan based on the reflection of the child's abilities and educational process? Variations of plan models in answering the questions "What do we aim for?", "How will the child develop?" "What did the child manage to achieve?" Pedagogical directions of child-centered education are applied to pre-school education (humanistic-democratic pedagogy; dialogue pedagogy; child listening pedagogy; interpretive-creativity-promoting pedagogy; play pedagogy). Application of modern educational technologies in the preschool group. Components of a child's active activity: playing, getting to know, creating, feeling, surviving, etc. "How does a child learn?"