The aim of the research was to analyse the ways in which educational content is planned and taught in selected pre-school educational programmes in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with a focus on the topics, educational objectives, and different approaches to school curriculum design. Methods. The first part of the research consisted of a qualitative content analysis of the school educational programmes of 40 pre-schools in the Czech Republic and 40 reflective reports from the teachers of these pre-schools. The research focused on approaches to designing integrated educational blocks in these school educational programmes and on teachers´ preferences when implementing them in their teaching. The second part was undertaken in cooperation with the Faculty of Education of Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia. Research data was obtained by a questionnaire survey among students of distance studies in study programmes preparing pre-school teachers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The results from the research sample indicated that the chronological approach of integrated educational blocks was the most popular type within pre-schools in both countries. The pre-schools designed the educational content according to the season and structured it into weekly themes. This approach might not necessarily fulfil the requirements of the Czech and Slovak national educational programmes in relation to the specified educational content according to the current needs and interests of children. Even though some teachers were often allowed to choose their own topics, the majority of teachers were still required to implement topics specified in the school educational programme. In conclusion, the paper provides a possible outline of the causes of this situation and suggests opportunities for further research. Keywords: pre-school education, educational content, school educational programme, curriculum, planning

Th e contribution presents partial results of research aimed to fi nd out students' evaluation opinions of their own knowledge and experience for development of children's language and literary literacy in kindergartens and children's school clubs and to point out diff erences in self-evaluation, depending on the length and the form of the study. Th e research sample consisted of 98% of students of the full-time and part-time study programme of Pre-School and Elementary Pedagogy, 228 in total. An 11-item questionnaire of our own design was used in the research. In the items P5 -P11, students expressed their subjective evaluation opinion of their knowledge and experience on a fi ve-point scale. Research results showed that students' self-evaluation of knowledge and experience in language and literary literacy depends on both the length and the form of their study 1 .

The study aims to present the need to improve education at Slovak educational centres in Great Britain based on respondents’ opinions. The research sample consisted of 56 members of the teaching staff, 81 parents and 37 children from 13 centres. Data were gathered by an electronic questionnaire modified for each respondent group. Data were processed in the program Štatistika, evaluated by descriptive statistics and hypotheses by inference statistics. Research results indicated the need to increase the quality of instruction, mainly in the innovation of methods, provision of didactic aids, support for teachers and appropriateness of instruction to children’s language skills.

Analysis of the opportunities, constraints and prospects of pre-primary education of children from marginalized Roma communities was, is and will be the subject of many studies and constructive solutions at different levels of responsibility entities. All positive solutions and results in this area are a step closer to the inclusive education in kindergarten. Theoretical considerations, research findings and practical experiences of teachers are used to formulate key actions for successful pre-primary education for children from marginalized Roma communities in the process of inclusive education. Musing on inclusive education of the study was replaced by pragmatic solutions in the form of concrete measures for the reality and for the vision of an inclusive education of children from marginalized Roma communities in kindergartens.