Estimating the quality of preschool education: methodological orientation

The article positioned the current topical problem of estimating the quality of preschool education in terms of its methodological orientation. The concept of "preschool age" in a broad sense covers all children from birth to 6-7 years. Preschool education is defined as a overall process aimed at ensuring the harmonious development of preschool children in accordance with its inclinations, abilities, individual, mental and physical characteristics, cultural needs; gaining life and social experience. We understand the quality of preschool education as providing an opportunity for a child to choose an individual educational way based on a variety of subject, forms, and methods of working with children; ensuring social protection of the child from incompetent pedagogical actions; guarantee that each child will achieve the minimum required level of preparation for successful learning in primary school. Methods and forms of studying and estimating the quality of results of preschool education are clarified: control, analysis of educational activity of pre-school educational institution and its results; analysis and estimating of the quality of development and upbringing of children of different preschool ages in accordance with state standards for the acquisition of various educational competencies and holistic development of children. During the long period, estimating of the quality of preschool education in Ukraine was mainly carried out in the following areas: control, analysis, evaluation of the activity of pre-school educational institution; (comprehensive analysis and estimating of the quality of ZDO activities; pedagogical analysis of estimating the quality of the educational process of a particular age group (educational activity of the educator); pedagogical analysis of the quality of children's development (complex, thematic) of a certain age category; monitoring the quality of methodical work of ZDO or educator-methodologist. The article describes new methods of estimating the quality of preschool education, in particular, the qualimetric method of G. Yelnikova, according to it the criterion of estimation is the subject of educational areas of base component of preschool education in other words the final results are acquired by the child (competencies) for each educational area according to the amount of scored points, taking into account the biological maturity of the child. The specifics of the foreign methodology for estimating the quality of the educational environment of the ЗДО (ECERS-3) are revealed, according to which an experimental research was initiated in the 200s of ЗДО of Ukraine and a cohort of experts was prepared. The main method of estimating the quality of the educational environment of pre-school educational institution is passive monitoring of the activities of educators, children and other employees of pre-school educational institution. Experts draw up protocols for 35 parameters according to each of the 7 scales of this methodology.