EXPERIENCES FROM THE TEMPUS PROJECT: HARMONIZATION OF PRESCHOOL TEACHER EDUCATION CURRICULA IN SERBIA
Keywords:
kindergarten teacher, curriculum, key competencies, Tempus project.Abstract
The paper presents the outcomes of the activities carried out within
the three-year-project Harmonization of Preschool Teacher
Education Curricula in Serbia, implemented within the TEMPUS
program including 8 partners from Serbia and EU, in the period
between December 2013 and December 2016. The main aim of the
project was to harmonize preschool teacher curricula in Serbia and
to modernize it through exchanges with EU partners according to
identification of desirable competencies which are supposed to
permeate a modern preschool teacher education curriculum. Having
compared the existing curricula and consulted the relevant literature,
the legislative framework of the preschool teacher training in Serbia,
as well as all the stakeholders, i.e. students and the world of labour,
the team of experts within the project identified eleven areas in which
key generic competencies were classified. These areas are as follows:
professional competence for the organization of learning and
teaching, including ability to develop program and activities
stimulating and supporting development in each upbringingeducational
field included in preschool curriculum, i.e. speech
development, literacy, basic mathematical and science notions,
development of motor skills, music, visual art, as well as creativity;
professional competence for team work; professional competence for
planning, monitoring and documentation of educational activities;
organizational skills and pedagogical guidance of groups; knowledge
of developmental and learning needs of children; knowledge of the
system of preschool education; ability to use information and
communication technologies in education; ability to plan one’s own
professional development; specific competences, knowledge and
skills – arts, music, speech, drama, physical and health preservation
competence; social inclusion, difference and diversity and
transferable/transversal, i.e. soft skills. These main areas of
competence are further elaborated into more specific competencies.
The mere list of the identified main areas preschool teachers should be competent in makes the profession complex and demanding,imposing serious challenges on higher education institutions providing their pre-service and in-service education, training and professional development.
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