Page 342 - Pedagoška vizija / A Pedagogical Vision

Jurka Lepičnik Vodopivec, Kristina Alviž, and Aleksandra Šindić

school teachers and elementary school teachers is necessary during the
transition process of a child from kindergarten to elementary school.

Based on the defined goals and the research tasks, the following research
hypotheses were set:

H1 Preschool teachers and elementary school teachers do not differ in
their appraisals of the quality elements of transitional practice from
kindergarten to elementary school.
H2 Preschool teachers and elementary school teachers estimate that the
quality elements of transition practice from kindergarten to elemen-
tary school is mediocre.
H3 Preschool teachers and elementary school teachers do not differ in
their appraisals of the importance of cooperation between preschool
teachers and elementary school teachers during the transition pro-
cess of a child from kindergarten to elementary school.
H4 Preschool teachers and elementary school teachers note the impor-
tance of mutual cooperation when children transition from kinder-
garten to elementary school.

Sample
The sample was convenient and included 228 preschool teachers and 113 el-
ementary school teachers from the Republic of Croatia. Respondents from
most Croatian counties were included in the survey: Bjelovar-Bilogora, Brod-
Posavina, Dubrovnik-Neretva, Zagreb, Karlovac, Koprivnica-Križevac, Krapi-
na-Zagorje, Lika-Senj, Međimurje, Osijek-Baranja, Primorje-Gorski Kotar, Si-
sak-Moslavina, Split-Dalmatia, Šibenik-Knin, Varaždin, Virovitica-Podravina,
Vukovar-Srijem, Zadar, Zagreb counties. The sample is not uniform concern-
ing gender and includes 227 (99.6) female preschool teachers and one
(0.4) male preschool teacher, and 111 (98.2) female elementary school
teachers and 2 (1.8) male elementary school teachers, which was expected
if the specificity of the type of occupation is taken into account. The age
and work experience of preschool teachers and elementary school teachers
involved in the research ranged widely, and the data are presented in table 1.
The majority of preschool teachers involved in the research had a higher
professional qualification (completed a two- or three-year study) – 160 of
them (70.2), while the majority of elementary school teachers had a higher
professional qualification (a four- or five-year study) – 90 of them (79.6) (ta-
ble 2).

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