Identify Professional Competencies of Preschool Educators for Curriculum Planning

This research is a descriptive-analytical study that used mixed method. The statistical population of the qualitative phase includes faculty members and experts in preschool education. The quantitative phase includes educators of Ahvaz (Iran) during 2017-2018. A total of 12 individuals we selected as the sample in qualitative phase by purposive and chain sampling. And in quantitative phase, 180 people were selected through stratified random sampling. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews and a researcher questionnaire. In qualitative part 4 main components and 48 components were identified, the qualitative findings were coded and categorized based on content analysis. The results showed that the educators do not have enough professional competency at all stages of the curriculum process and their mean score was significantly lower than the desired level. There were also significant and positive correlations between all research variables. The least correlations were between content selection with evaluation and the highest correlation was between needs assessment and teaching-learning patterns.