EVALUATION OF CONTINUING EDUCATION PROGRAMS FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION TEACHERS: METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT OF A PROPOSAL

Abstract

The article aims to collaborate with those who intend to evaluate continuing education actions for teachers. In other words, to verify if a certain training action have contributed to the professional's development and to the improvement of the quality of their teaching performance. This study is based on consultancy work provided by the author, in the period of 2013-2014, to the General Coordination of Early Childhood Education (COEDI), of the Ministry of Education. The aim was to support the Coordination in the structuring and evaluation of continuing education actions for Early Childhood Education professionals, developed within the scope of the Basic Education Secretariat (SEB). Considerations are proposed on concepts and practices of program evaluation, especially on experiences of continuing education for teachers of basic education. We present a proposal for an external evaluation of the most significant action of training daycare and preschool teachers which are under development at SEB – the Specialization Course in Teaching in Early Childhood Education, implemented in partnership with 23 federal universities. The proposal includes indications for the various stages of the evaluation, such as the identification of questions, the definition of strategies, sampling criteria, and methods of data collection and analysis. The importance of involving stakeholders in the valuation throughout the process of identifying questions or issues is emphasized, which is provided in two phases: the divergent phase, in which several possibilities are raised, and the convergent phase, in which the most relevant and priorities scenarios are selected.