ЕDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT AND THE TREATMENT OF THE CHILD AS A CONSTRUCTOR OF  OWN DEVELOPMENT

Treating the child as a constructor of his own development means that it actively, independently and organized creates an own system of functional knowledge. This implies an educational environment that supports children's individual interactions and that encourages freedom of children's cognitive interpretations and expressions. To achieve that, the opinion of teachers about the impact of the structured educational environment on the child's partner role in his own development is very important. The aim of this paper is the relationship between the educational environment and the child as a constructor in own development, depending on the teacher's understanding of the learning and developing process and of the child's role in it. For this purpose, a structured open interview with 37 preschool teachers in 7 focus groups and an observation of child’s participation in 6 preschool institutions, were used as research procedures. The results are processed qualitatively and for research data analyses the analytical and descriptive methods are used. The research provided a general knowledge that educators do not feel the need to create a specific and structured educational environment in order to provide a partner role for the child in the educational process.