Awareness of the Good Start Method and its Application in the Current Pedagogical Practice in the Czech Republic
Abstrakt
This article presents the results of a contact questionnaire survey aimed at obtaining information on kindergarten teachers' awareness of the Good Start Method (GSM) and its application. The results of the questionnaire survey were supplemented by data obtained by research of electronic resources.
The article briefly characterizes GSM and describes data collection and analysis associated with this method. The survey was conducted from 5/2018 to 6/2019 in ten regions of the Czech Republic and brought 326 relevantly completed questionnaires.
More than half of the teachers had no knowledge of the existence of GSM, 39% of the teachers had mediated information and 7% of the interviewed had personal experience with GSM. The categorization of further responses showed that the current form of GSM serves mainly as a source of inspiration, as only four respondents confirmed that they use the whole GSM systematically.
However, the large number of respondents reported using parts of GSM or working on similar principles relating to at least certain extent to original materials. The search of electronic resources identified 60 facilities (mostly kindergartens and primary schools) offering children/pupils professional implementation of GSM.
These facilities are found across the whole Czech Republic, with the prevalence of the Moravian-Silesian Region, where the author of the Czech version of GSM, Jana Swierkoszová, has been working. This research is a part of wider pedagogical research aimed at boosting interest in GSM and developing methodological material implementing GSM principles containing a new musical component.
The research results reflect the Czech version of GSM as a living source of inspiration whose potential still remains unexploited.