Development and Verification of Instruments for Acquisition of Professional Competence of (Prospective) Early Childhood Educators

The academization of the early childhood field, the aspiration of professionalization and the enhanced competence-focus in professional and further training provide the basis for enhanced interests in the assessment of competencies in early childhood education. In this article, the development and psychometric validation of three assessment-tools are described. Therefore, from 05/2017 till 04/2020 we gathered theoretical and action knowledge of overall 831 educational professionals (early childhood trainees, early childhood students, approved early childhood educators). In this article, three assessment-tools for assessing theoretical knowledge as well as action knowledge are described, regarding contentual and psychometric aspects. The exploratory factor analysis revealed a three-factorial structure of the areas of competence, although, superordinate factors were formed due to weak reliabilities in the action knowledge. Based on intercorrelation analysis, the instruments also show convergent validity, suggesting that the gathering of theoretical knowledge and action knowledge is useful for assessing professional competencies. Overall, due to psychometric testing the survey instruments can be assessed as acceptable possible approaches for acquisition of professional competence.