PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT AS A KEY ASPECT OF TEACHER LEARNING: A PILOT STUDY OF THE TRAINING PROGRAMME EFFECTS WITHIN THE CLIMA CONCEPT

Abstract

The modern teacher must respond to the needs of society in the context of Education 4.0. It seems suitable to adapt this trend to teaching children at an early age. The paper examines the usefulness of professional education for kindergarten and primary school teachers focused on personality development, emotional intelligence, and other social areas with an emphasis on creating a favourable classroom climate. The pilot study aims to discover which specific areas of this new education approach contributed to the teaching practice. The training effects were evaluated using questionnaires collected from 27 participants before and after the programme in 2018 and 2019. The data obtained from the closed questions were analysed using statistical methods, while open-ended questions were processed by content analysis. An ANOVA test demonstrated the effect in all monitored areas. In verbal answers, the participants appreciated the acquired skills in the field of communication and emotional intelligence. The results suggest that a training programme using elements from management appears to be beneficial to current teaching practice.