Obstacles in achieving the differentiation and individualization of training in preschool education

Abstract

It takes a quixotic effort  to valorize and valuate (appraise) the classic principle of differentiation and individualization.  Frequently used in the expert literature, this term chronically suffers at the specific praxis level. Although it has been admitted that due to the emphasized social – emotional interaction, the differentiation and individualization process is easier to accomplish at the pre-school level, the encounters with the teachers express the following: the principle functions solely at the principle level. That is at the ideal level. The purpose of this paper is to identify the main obstacle –sources which the teachers working in kindergarden encounter when accomplishing the differentiation and individualization of the professional approaches: teaching and evaluating. The article we propose stands for a segment of a more complex investigation, whose hypothesis could be uttered in the following manner: Although the kindergarden teachers possess a thorough representation of the obstacles interfering with the differentiation and individualization approaches in the teaching – evaluating process, they succeed to a small extent to countervail them. The subjects used in this research: 60 teachers, grouped according to four indicators: age, teaching degree, level of studies, professional status. The paper is adjusted by the following major coordinates which encompass the teachers` opinions: the differentiation and individualization are obstructed by elements connected to the curriculum, elements pertaining to their own professional philosophy, elements regarding the psycho - pedagogical training, elements concerning the interaction. At the details` level, the tool used as a questionnaire, encompasses variables, such as:  the dynamics of the decisions and the curricular documents, the particularities of the teaching environment, the initial and continuous professional investigation, the parents` reaction, the need for optimizing measures, the pertinent positioning level (drafting the final goals, managing the contents, the foundation of the means and methods, managing the interaction with the students). The general conclusions are sustained by the set of conclusions obtained by confronting the data with the differentiating criteria of the involved teachers.