Research On Tacit Knowledge In The Professional Development Of Preschool Teachers

Teacher knowledge is not only the internal root of preschool teachers’ high-quality education behavior and the fundamental problem of professional development,but also the logical and realistic starting point of preschool teachers’ education research and reform.The postmodern trend of thought deeply reflects on the nature,standard and value of knowledge,shakes the belief that knowledge is regarded as absolute truth under the guidance of technical rationality,promotes the legalization of tacit knowledge in the composition of preschool teachers’ professional knowledge,and opens a new vision for preschool teachers’ knowledge research.Preschool teachers are deeply involved in preschool activities and have great power to choose courses and dispose of teaching.The uncertainty and particularity of educational scenarios make tacit knowledge a greater proportion,deeper influence,and greater value in preschool teachers’ professional development.Based on the research paradigm of tacit knowledge,this study explores the content structure,influencing factors,explicit mechanism and tacit knowledge management of preschool teachers.The main conclusions are as follows:Firstly,based on combing and regulating the content structure,influencing factors,mechanism,this study points out that tacit knowledge is the key dimension of preschool teachers’ professional development.Specifically,tacit knowledge is an important support for high-quality preschool education,an important content that needs urgent attention in the training of preschool teachers,and a powerful tool for preschool teachers to confirm their professional rights.Preschool teachers acquire tacit knowledge in professional development through experience reflection,implicit learning,intuitive experience,pairing of teachers and apprentices,and organizational research.The tacit knowledge of preschool teachers’ professional development has not only universal characteristics,but also professional characteristics such as subjectivity,priority and flexibility,multi-level.Secondly,this study found that the tacit knowledge of preschool teachers is manifested in educational beliefs,mental models,difficult to express care skills,interpersonal skills,behavior observation and personalized education skills,and implicit guidance skills of preschool activities;as far as the internal form is concerned,it can be divided into “knowledge packaging” “teacher script” and “prototype activation”.Based on the three-dimensional structure model of tacit knowledge,by using the situational judgment questionnaire as a tool to measure tacit knowledge,this study found that the content structure of preschool teachers’ tacit knowledge is a second-order single factor structure: including three dimensions of managing themselves,managing others and managing tasks.At the same time,the study found that,the score of preschool teachers’ tacit knowledge is significantly better than that of preschool education normal students,which reveals that preschool teachers’ tacit knowledge can be acquired in real working situations and really generated in the practice of education and teaching.Preschool teachers’ tacit knowledge is significantly and positively correlated with their job performance,task performance,interpersonal promotion and work dedication.The tacit knowledge of preschool teachers’ management tasks can significantly predict task performance,and the tacit knowledge of managing themselves and management tasks can significantly predict the job performance of interpersonal promotion.Thirdly,by establishing a multiple regression model based on the personal factors,organizational factors,total score of tacit knowledge and specific tacit knowledge that affect preschool teachers’ tacit knowledge,it is found that the personal factors and organizational factors of preschool teachers affect the tacit knowledge.Among them,in terms of personal dimension,it is mainly affected by personal attitudes and reflective habits,and partly by personal experience and learning ability;in terms of organizational factors,organizational characteristics,organizational support,and relationship-based trust among organizational members have an impact on preschool teachers’ perceptions of Tacit knowledge has a significant impact,and organizational environment has a partial impact.In addition,the tacit knowledge in the professional development of preschool teachers is related to the age,education,and type of kindergarten of preschool teachers,but not to the gender of teachers and the level of kindergarten.Through the case “narrative” research method,this research excavates and “thick description” the individual characteristics,reflection habits,growth experience,organizational system,organizational atmosphere,and the role of important others in the development of preschool teachers’ tacit knowledge.Fourthly,This study analyzes the explicit mechanism of preschool teachers’ tacit knowledge from the macro perspective from the SECI model theory based on knowledge acquisition and transformation.Based on the Distributed Cognition theory,taking preschool teachers’ acquisition of tacit knowledge about “environmental creation and utilization” as an example,this paper analyzes the stage process of explicit tacit knowledge of preschool teachers from the micro perspective.Through the correlation analysis of the components of the explicit mechanism,this study found that that the influencing factors of preschool teachers’ tacit knowledge explicit mechanism can enhance the explicit level of preschool teachers’ tacit knowledge and affect the choice of explicit mode.The effectiveness of tacit knowledge explicit is affected by the explicit level and explicit mode of tacit knowledge.Through the regression and intermediary analysis of the influencing factors of tacit knowledge dominance and the actual effect of tacit knowledge dominance,it is found that the mode of tacit knowledge dominance plays part or all of the intermediary effect between knowledge subject factors,media tool factors,institutional structure factors and organizational environment factors on the actual effect of tacit knowledge dominance of preschool teachers in the kindergarten,Thus,it presents the path structure model of the explicit mechanism of preschool teachers’ tacit knowledge from the perspective of kindergarten organization.Fifthly,Based on the above research,this study proposes a tacit knowledge ecological management system for preschool teachers,which includes tacit knowledge,knowledge subject,knowledge media,and knowledge environment.At the knowledge level,it involves establishing the discourse system and content system of preschool teachers’ professional development based on tacit knowledge,as well as establishing the acquisition mechanism of tacit knowledge.At the knowledge subject level,it involves constructing a professional development path for preschool teachers based on self-experience,improving the explicit processing ability of preschool teachers’ tacit knowledge,and adopting learning methods that are conducive to the generation and flow of preschool teachers’ tacit knowledge.At the level of knowledge media,it involves improving the representation media,knowledge storage media and sharing media of preschool teachers’ tacit knowledge.At the knowledge environment level,it involves creating an organizational environment,organizational mechanism and organizational culture that are conducive to the sharing and transformation of tacit knowledge.