Preschool teachers' competencies and professional development: A way to a better-quality education of the preschool children

Preschool teachers' competencies are among the most relevant factors influencing the quality of the preschool children's education. The aim of this research was to investigate preschool teachers' selfevaluation regarding their work with the preschool children, look at their experience with professional development, and to analyse the challenges and difficulties that teachers encounter in their everyday work with children. Survey was used as a technique of systematic non-experimental observation, and data were collected using a specially designed questionnaire on a sample of 91 preschool teachers working in kindergartens. The results showed that preschool teachers' evaluation of their own competencies in promoting early development was high. They believe that they possess a high level of knowledge (4.16), skills (3.95), values (4.65) and competencies (3.91). The research results also highlight the preschool teachers' view that continuous professional development (horizontal exchange, accredited professional development programmes) is an important factor in improving professional competencies. The results indicate that 70.3% of preschool teachers encountered difficulties and obstacles in promoting early development of children in direct educational work. The most common difficulties and obstacles are the lack of support of the immediate educational environment and from parents, which highlights the importance of cooperation and mutual support of all actors in the educational process. The results of this research can contribute to initiating further discourse on the competencies and professional development of preschool teachers in the context of maintaining and improving the identified favourable circumstances, as well as resolving difficulties in the educational process, in line with the complex requirements of the early childhood education.