The implicit pedagogy of each educator affects the creation and development of the quality of the institutional context, and it is a product of the educator's image of the child, his development and possibilities (Petrović - Sočo, 2011). The modern understanding of the child is based on the fact that the context in which the child resides should be stimulating. The child is encouraged to cooperate and be active, not to be passive in the environment (Miljak, 2015). According to Miljak (2015), children today spend a lot of their time in an educational institution, so it is very important what it has to offer to the children. The emphasis is mostly on varied and interesting activities that require more effort in problem solving and research. The paper exhibits the development of early and preschool education in the European context, describes the modern understanding of the child in relation to the former traditional approach to work and quality of early and preschool education institutions. The goal of the research is to examine what kind of approach educators have to the child in educational practice, considering the traditional and contemporary perception of the child of early and preschool age, and to determine the quality of certain elements of pedagogical practice. Six teachers from the same kindergarten participated in the research. The participants are three teacher pairs who work in three different educational groups that differ in relation to age (younger kindergarten group, middle kindergarten group, older kindergarten group). The research used a qualitative approach of semi-structured interview method. After analyzing the answers to the research questions, it is concluded that the majority of educators use a modern approach to the child in educational work, and that the differences compared to the traditional approach, the children in the group and the pairs of educators are small. The way in which the educator comprehend the child greatly affects the quality of his educational work and the quality of the work of the institution, therefore it is important that he constantly improves and works to enhance implicit pedagogy.