У статті визначаються й характеризуються принципи розвитку методичної компетентності вихователів дошкільних навчальних закладів: принцип саморозвитку особистості, принцип поєднання індивідуальних і колективних форм методичної роботи; випереджаючого реагування; продуктивності; покрокової; проблемності; професійної доцільності, принцип інноваційності.
Problem. All stakeholders and experts are aware that modernizing education is conditioned by transition from theory to practice thus requiring educators to be prepared for methodological work in preschool education. New trends in the information society related to scientific and methodological developments, the need for the effective mechanisms to transfer and use knowledge, rapid changes in the didactic and methodological provision of teaching and learning in high schools and kindergartens place the priority on methodological work requiring in-service teacher training institutions to provide conditions for developing methodological competence of preschool educators.
Objective: To determine the principles for developing methodological competence of preschool educators.
The main study outcomes. Methodological competence of preschool educators is considered to be an integral, multilevel, professionally significant personal and professional teacher’s characteristic, drawn from the effective professional experience. It reflects the systemic operational level of methodological, practical and research knowledge, skills, experience, motivation, abilities and efficacy for creative selfrealization in the scientific, methodological and pedagogical involvement on the whole, providing an optimal combination of professional educational practices.
Pedagogical principles make up the system of important landmarks that define the content, practices, organizational methodology and approaches to evaluating its results. The pedagogical principles include the following:
- Self-development involving independent work related to the study of the nature and content of methodological competence.
- Combination of individual and collective methodological practices based on the different number of participants in groups such as personal, pair, and group work.
- Efficiency, that is caused by the idea of methodology aiming at creating a product being the anticipated result.
- Sequencing requiring each methodological issue to follow certain stages and require certain procedures.
- Problem-solving considering a problem as a unit of learning content; a problem task as a unit of teaching and learning process; a problem situation as a unit of the relationship between a problem and problem task.
- Professional expediency providing a wide variety of content and forms of teaching and learning.
- Innovation involving the development of evaluation criteria and measurement instruments to assess the educational system development and identify the issues to be modernized and completely changed through innovations. Because of the innovation principle the education system quality is assessed and monitored to determine the need for reform instruments, while searching for pedagogical decisions.
Conclusions. Developing pre-school educators’ methodological competence requires a comprehensive approach to organize pre-service training programs at pedagogical institutions and inservice training in continuing education establishments aiming at improving pre-school educators’ methodological competence, providing methodological practices to organize methodological activity on the preschool level thus ensuring that educational and methodological support is based on the above mentioned principles.
