Continuing education for pre-school teachers: Analysing the role of brochure “Awaking to Science –activities from 3 to 6”

Abstract

In Portugal, guidelines for pre-school education aim for sciences (included in the area of world knowledge) to be worked at kindergarten level, with 3 to 6 year olds. Having in mind that Curricular Guidelines for Pre-School Education (OCEPE) were highly criticised, namely on various studies undertaken, in 2009, the Ministry of Education published the brochure “Awaking to Science – activities from 3 to 6” in order to guide the educator’s work. After this publication, pre-school teacher training was also provided, so that they could effectively use the brochure on their educational and pedagogical activities.

In this article, we present the opinion of a group of pre-school teachers regarding the aforementioned document and also about the training received its application. The results show the importance of this document for pre-school teachers, while offering some suggestions.

We consider this to be crucial in order to allow us to fully understand the brochure’simpact on the pre-school teacher’s practices, because only this way we will be able to enjoy all the benefits of this investment and optimise future ones, as well as provide more innovative practices regarding science education at pre-school level.