DEVELOPING FUTURE PRESCHOOL EDUCATORS’ READINESS TO USE INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES AT UNIVERSITY

Abstract

This article examines the development of future preschool educators’ readiness to use innovative technologies in a pedagogically justified way. The relevance of the study is determined by the need to select digital platforms in preschool education with regard to children’s age characteristics, safety, educational objectives and developmental interaction. The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of a module on innovative technologies integrated into a special elective course at a pedagogical university. The research was conducted as a quasi-experiment with third-year students of the Preschool Education and Upbringing programme. The sample included 63 students: 30 in the experimental group and 33 in the control group. The intervention was implemented from 5 September to 20 December 2025 and involved professionally oriented tasks using Canva, Padlet, LearningApps, Wordwall and Google Forms. Data were collected through a 15-item questionnaire measuring cognitive, operational-practical and motivational-value components of readiness. Reliability was confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha values of 0.86 at pre-test and 0.88 at post-test. Descriptive statistics, the Mann–Whitney U test, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and Pearson’s χ² test were used. The total readiness score in the experimental group increased from 42.6 ± 6.1 to 54.4 ± 4.9 points, whereas in the control group it changed from 43.1 ± 5.8 to 45.1 ± 5.1 points. Final differences were statistically significant (p < 0.001). The findings confirm the effectiveness of the practice-oriented module.