Introducing Multiple Short Interviews (MMI) to Assess the health and knowledge Adequacy of Early Childhood Training volunteers (SADAMAK)

In recent years, the importance of early childhood development in lifelong learning and growth has led to pay more attention to professionalization of early childhood educators, including higher standards for their education and training. Today, kindergarten teachers play a vital role in educating children in these centers, and their knowledge and competency are associated with positive short-term and longterm consequences. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to develop and standardize the method of multiple short interviews to assess the health and knowledge adequacy of educators.

Participants in this study were 62 kindergarten teachers in Tehran province. By taking into account the criteria of age, education, work experience, fields of study and scores of SADAMAK knowledge test (2016) sampling of these participants was performed purposefully. The mean age of participants was 34.26 with a standard deviation of 7.26. These participants were selected from Rey (1 person), Shemiranat (12 people), Vardavard (6 people) and Tehran (43 people).

A score of 14 was considered on the SADAMAK test to enter the interview, and then kindergarten teachers were evaluated by performing four short interview stations (MMI) that included mental health, resume, knowledge adequacy, and administrative rules.

The results showed that the structure of short interviews can reveal the strengths and weaknesses of educators in relation to professional competence.