Abstract
The introduction of the preparatory grade in Romanian primary education has generated its first results. Considering the above, there arises the following question: Are the students from the Pedagogy of Primary and Preschool Education properly trained for the challenges of the preparatory grade? To answer this question, our study relates to two perspectives: 1. theoretical – Investigating the preparatory grade as a research object, based on unmistakable psycho-pedagogical and didactic particularities. We have systematized several defining aspects of how the teaching activity is designed, organized and conducted in the preparatory grade (curricular design centred on competences, specific aims, integrated curriculum, the ludic dimension of the process, evaluation particularities), in order to trace the way in which the training of students is done according to these coordinates; 2. the curricular-pragmatic approach – in relation to the initial training of prospective teachers for primary and preschool education. By analysing the specialization curriculum and the syllabi for the specialty disciplines in the attempt to articulate their vertical and horizontal correlation, we have structured several proposals for improving the academic curriculum for the bachelor study programme The Pedagogy of Primary and Preschool Education. Our aim has been to enhance the correspondence between initial training in this domain and the quality of the beneficiaries’ insertion into the process, at the level of the preparatory grade.
Key words: competence, curricular reconsiderations, integrated curriculum,preparatory grade