Teachers have certain opinions and beliefs about what ideal teaching should look like. These are mostly implicit and are formed on the basis of his experiences as a student during his school years, then during his systematic studies at the faculty of education and later during his own teaching practice. They also result from how the teacher perceives the development of the child's personality, i.e. whether he or she perceives personality to derive mainly from behaviour and perceives its development through social adjustment. Or is he/she closer to the view that personality develops from within the actualisation of its existing potential. This is also reflected in the teacher's views of the child more as an object or subject of instruction and the goal of education more than formation or self-realisation. Sometimes the teacher's individual approach may be entirely in harmony with some of the pedagogical approaches, or he may prefer only some aspects of them. The aim of the research was to explore what is the individual teaching approach of preschool and elementary education students. A research instrument, a questionnaire, was developed which contained 15 closed-ended items. In each item, students expressed the extent to which they identified with an aspect of different pedagogical approaches (ranging from behavioural, conservative, through pragmatic, constructivist to personalistic, humanistic). 144 students in the first year of the Bachelor's degree, the first year of the Master's degree and the first year of the Extension degree completed the questionnaire. The results of the research present what percentage lean towards the aspects of behavioral, conservative approaches, what percentage lean towards the aspects of pragmatic, constructivist approaches, and what percentage lean towards the aspects of personalistic, humanistic approaches. At the same time, the differences between first year students of bachelor studies, who still have their individual approach formed mainly during their studies as a learner, and students of master and extension studies, who have already formed their individual approach also on the basis of their systematic study of pedagogical studies and partly also their own practice during their studies at the faculty of education, were discussed. The differences between full-time and part-time students were also discussed. On the basis of the results, recommendations were made to research further into the issue, as this identified individual approach may be in line or in conflict with the state promoted educational approach declared in the state educational program. If the teacher does not share it, the contradiction between these approaches (the teacher's individual approach and the state's approach) may have an impact on the quality of teaching and the achievement of the curriculum objectives.

Keywords: Teaching approach, preschool pedagogy, elementary school pedagogy, questionnaire.