Pedagogical Continuity in the Transition from Kindergarten to School

Jerneja Jager and Mateja Režek and Sonja Rutar

Summary:  Successful transition from kindergarten to elementary school requires professional, developmental and pedagogical continuity (OECD 2017). In order to gain insight into the continuity of pedagogical approaches in Slovenian kindergartens and elementaryschools, a study was conducted using a combined research approach, integrating quantitative and qualitative pedagogical research. The study involved 115 teachers from the groups of children who were in kindergarten in their last year before entering school and 45 teachers who taught in the first grades of elementary schools. The results of the quantitative part of the study, obtained through questionnaires, show a relative similarity of pedagogical approaches at the level of the didactic implementation of the educational process and the structuring of the learning environment in kindergartens and the first grades of elementary schools. However, the results obtained through observation in the qualitative part of the research do not fully confirm this. Major differences in the pedagogical process in kindergartens and schools were observed, in particular at the level of accessibility and children‘s ability to choose and use different materials independently, the developmental appropriateness of the learning environment, children‘s participation in the organisation of the environment and in the development of common agreements and rules.