The purpose of this thesis was to examine early childhood education teachers´ PED-time (Planning, Evaluation and Development). In addition, the aim was to explore the early childhood education teachers´ thoughts and views on how the PED-time works in practice, what it includes and how it could be improved. The thesis was carried out in cooperation with Pilke daycare centre in Southern Finland.

The theoretical background deals with theory of early childhood education, early childhood pedagogy and specially planning, evaluation and development time. The PED-time was explored by the views of content, policy and development. The thesis was a qualitative study and the research material was collected by thematic inquiry, which involved seven early childhood education teachers. The data were analyzed by thematizing.

According the results, the early childhood education teachers saw that PED-time is an important means of ensuring goal-directed and pre-planned early childhood education. The PED-time consists of various working practices, which stem for the children´s needs and interests and the teachers´ personal preferences. The development ideas were related to pedagogy and the visibility of PED-time.