Vlatka Domović, Monika Pažur, Maja Drvodelić

ECEC GRADUATE STUDENTS’ INVOLVEMENT, PERCEIVED SENSE OF BELONGING TO THE STUDY PROGRAM, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCIES

Introduction

Ecec graduate students’ involvement, perceived sense of belonging to the study program, and the development of professional competencies. Research explores ECEC graduate student involvement, perceived sense of belonging, and professional competency development using a new instrument. Findings highlight key connections.

Abstract

This paper presents the development of an instrument for assessing the student involvement of early childhood education and care (ECEC) graduate students and the relationship between the perception of involvement and the students' sense of belonging, as well as the relationship between involvement and self-assessment of acquired professional competencies. 286 ECEC final year students from all teacher training higher institutions in Croatia participated in this research that was conducted in 2022.The results show that there is a statistically significant connection between all the recognized elements of student involvement in learning and the dimensions of the sense of belonging as well as the assessment of the acquired professional knowledge, skills, and attitudes.The obtained findings suggest that the educational culture still does not recognize the importance of the active role of students as agents of educational changes.

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