Methodological recommendations for conducting search and cognitive activities with preschool children

Organization of search activities of preschool children

Bibliographic description:

Minullina, R. F. Organization of search activities of preschool children / R. F. Minullina, R. V. Ryzhmanova. — Text: direct // Education and upbringing. — 2022. — No. 1 (27). - pp. 11-12. — URL: https://moluch.ru/th/4/archive/154/4848/ (access date: 01/13/2022).


This article reveals the content and methodology for organizing the search activities of older preschoolers in the light of the federal state educational standard for preschool education.

Key words: federal state educational standard, Federal State Educational Standard, preschool education, activity, problem situation, cognitive task.

In accordance with the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard of Preschool Education for the results of mastering the basic educational program, presented in the form of targets, at the stage of completion of preschool education, “the child shows curiosity, asks questions to adults and peers, is interested in cause-and-effect relationships, and tries to independently come up with explanations for phenomena nature and actions of people; inclined to observe and experiment.”

The scientific search for effective means of achieving the designated guidelines represents an urgent problem that requires theoretical and practical solutions. Among the possible means of developing the cognitive activity of preschoolers, search activity deserves special attention.

Elementary search activity is the joint work of the teacher and children, aimed at solving cognitive problems that arise in educational activities, in everyday life, in play and work, in the process of learning about the world.

The emergence and development of almost limitless search and research activities aimed at understanding the world around us is based on the child’s need for new impressions, given by nature itself. The more varied and intense the search activity, the more new information the child receives, the faster and more fully he develops.

Search activities are carried out in a specific system. It begins with the teacher setting and children accepting a cognitive task; it is also possible for children to set a cognitive task. Then its primary analysis is carried out and assumptions are made, methods for testing the assumptions put forward by children are selected, and they are verified. The search activity ends with an analysis of the results obtained during the inspection and the formulation of conclusions.

Elementary search activity as a form of organization is used in older preschool age. In accordance with the educational program, the teacher develops a system of cognitive tasks that he gradually sets for the children. For this, it is important to create problem situations in classes or in various activities, in everyday life, in play, work, and in the process of learning about the world.

A problematic situation arises when a problem already exists, but its solution is not immediately available to children. An effort of thought is required to compare already known facts and draw some conclusions. Children’s independent work in such a situation is exploratory in nature.

After the children accept the cognitive task, under the guidance of the teacher, it is analyzed, the known and the unknown are identified. As a result of such an analysis, under the guidance of the teacher, assumptions are made about the possible causes of the observed phenomena.

The assumptions made by children may be correct, incorrect, or even contradictory. But at the same time, they all need to be discussed. It is important to listen to all the children’s assumptions and pay attention to their inconsistencies. offer to check whose is more correct. If the children do not make assumptions, the teacher encourages them to do so or makes the necessary assumptions himself.

During the analysis and evaluation of assumptions, children develop interest and it should be used to move to the next stage of search activity - consideration of verification options and the verification itself.

Children usually offer different methods of verification, and the teacher can also offer them: short-term recognition observations, long-term comparative observations, elementary experiments, demonstration of models, heuristic conversations, etc.

Formulation of conclusions is the final stage of search activity. It is necessary to encourage children to formulate conclusions on their own, take the time to give them hints, listen to all the children’s statements, and ask questions to guide their thoughts in the right direction. If children's conclusions are incorrect, additional experiments or observations can be organized so that everyone comes to the correct conclusions.

We conducted an experimental study of the level of development of search activity by determining the cognitive activity of children of senior preschool age. For this purpose, the method of V. S. Yurkevich “Tree of Wishes” and the standardized questionnaire “Curious, active” by V. S. Yurkevich, Yu. A. Baranova were used.

During the diagnostics, it was revealed that the level of development of cognitive activity in children mainly corresponds to the average and low level. To increase the level of search activity of preschoolers, it is necessary to develop a number of measures that will contribute to the development of children’s cognitive activity and maintaining interest in search activities.

It is recommended to arrange and equip the following in the group:

– (card file of classes on research teaching methods, reading fiction: “The Great Encyclopedia for Preschoolers”, the encyclopedia “Everything about Everything”, etc.).

– Club of experts “I explore the world” (summarizing experience on topics being developed, preparing reports, monitoring, presentations of scientific works).

– Game center (verbal games, educational games and exercises).

– Mini (experimental corner).

Thus, in the process of organizing search activities, children acquire the ability to independently set cognitive tasks that reflect a deeper penetration into the essence of phenomena, the establishment of analogies, and an understanding of increasingly general patterns.

Literature:

1. AbdrakhmanovaA. I. Current state of the problem of the formation of cognitive activity in children of senior preschool age. // Bulletin of Tomsk State Pedagogical University. - 2015. - No. 3. - P. 38–41.
2. Ismatullaeva M. G. Formation of cognitive and personal activity in preschool children. URL.https://cyberleninka.ru (date of access: 01/09/2020).
3. Shchetinina V.V. Formation of cognitive activity of children of senior preschool age in the process of search activity. M.: 2006.-126s.
4. Yurkevich V.S. Development of initial levels of cognitive needs among schoolchildren // Questions of psychology. — 1980. — No. 2. — P. 83–92

Key terms
(automatically generated)
: search activity, preschool education, cognitive task, child, Federal State Educational Standard, everyday life, cognitive activity of children, problem situation, senior preschool age, elementary search activity.

Experience in developing cognitive interests in younger preschoolers

Modern society needs an active personality, capable of cognitive and active self-realization, of manifestation of activity and creativity in solving vital problems. The fundamental foundations of such a personality must be laid in preschool childhood. The development of cognitive activity in children is a pressing issue today, because The federal state educational standard for preschool education requires teachers to develop curiosity and cognitive motivation. They need to develop key qualities in future kindergarten graduates, such as creativity and the ability to search for knowledge.

The main thing in working with preschoolers is focusing on the possibilities of developing interest, aimed at studying the world around them through experimental and research activities.

Therefore, it is necessary to organize children's research activities from early preschool age. They are characterized by an increased interest in everything that happens around them.

One of the effective methods of understanding the patterns and phenomena of the surrounding world is experimentation. It has enormous development potential. Its main advantage is that it gives children real ideas about the various aspects of the object being studied, relationships with other objects and the environment. That is, children's experimentation is a good means of cognitive development of preschoolers.

When observing children, you should pay attention to the fact that young children have insufficiently developed cognitive activity. Such immaturity is reflected in the development of speech, logical thinking, memory, and attention. Children do not always actively show curiosity and research interest in the world of living and inanimate nature, preferring other types of activities. Therefore, pedagogical activities should be based on purposeful, systematic work using children's experimentation.

To achieve the goal, the following tasks should be solved:

1. Study the methodological literature on children's search and experimental activities;

2. Organize the developmental subject-spatial environment of the group in accordance with program requirements;

3. Expand children’s understanding of the world around them;

4. Develop coherent speech and active vocabulary in the process of experimental activities;

5. Encourage children to reason, teach them to ask questions and make requests;

6. Contribute to the formation of conclusions and definitions during experiments and children's research;

7. Enrich children's experience.

Having analyzed the requirements of the approximate basic general educational program of upbringing and training in the kindergarten “Childhood” and having studied practical and theoretical information about children’s experimental activities, scientific and methodological literature on this topic, we have outlined ways to carry out future work on this problem.

At the first stage of work, we were faced with the task of enriching the subject-spatial environment for the implementation of children's experimental activities in practice. A child develops through cognition, experience and transformation of the world around him, therefore a carefully thought-out developmental subject environment encourages children to explore, show initiative and creativity. For this purpose, we created an experimental center in the group, its equipment included:

- magnifying glasses, buckets, measuring cups, sand, pebbles, shells, children's books with illustrations about animal life, board games, plant seeds, herbariums and much more.

We planned the group space to be convenient for independent choice and decision-making and discovery. At the same time, the environment developed children's initiative and provided an opportunity for creativity and experimentation. All this allowed children to develop a searching, active, independent style of thinking in their activities.

At the second stage of work, we developed long-term planning for experimental and research work for the academic year. The basis was based on calendar and thematic planning for the second junior group.

The work system was built from the interconnection of three main blocks:

— direct educational activities, as a specially organized form of training;

— joint activities of the teacher, parents and children;

- independent activity of children, which promotes active cognitive activity.

Direct educational activities, built on the principles of developmental education, are aimed at developing the personality as a whole, as well as improving the speech of preschoolers, their thinking and creative abilities.

The cognitive development of preschoolers is unthinkable without activity. To keep kids interested and active, we used special educational games.

Experimenting with sand, clay, water, snow, and pebbles delighted the children. They had a desire to examine, compare, establish cause-and-effect relationships and dependencies. In such games and experiments, children acquired experience in search actions.

Games, manuals, models, books that were used in classes and in joint activities helped stimulate search and cognitive work.

In developing cognitive interests in children of primary preschool age, we adhered to some rules and principles:

- they did not force the child to play, but created conditions for the emergence of interest in the game;

- children were not prohibited from actively moving;

- encouraged children's initiative;

The main method in experimentation activities for children of primary preschool age is to conduct simple experiments.

Their novelty and theoretical significance in the work is as follows:

firstly, due to the nature of the problems being solved, the experiments are accessible to children’s understanding and contribute to the development of cognition;

secondly, in the process of conducting experiments, scientific discoveries do not occur, but elementary concepts and conclusions are formed;

thirdly, such work uses ordinary household items and play equipment

Such educational activities using experiments help to satisfy children’s cognitive interests, search and the ability to analyze, compare and make small but very important discoveries for kids.

In our practice, to study the properties of water, clay, air, we widely use didactic games.

Using the games “Clean Hands” and “Our Helpers,” children learned that hands and objects will become cleaner if they are washed with water.

Getting acquainted with the properties of sand, we played the game “Let's bake pies and cakes.” In the process of sculpting from dry and wet sand, the children summed up how dry and wet sand take shape. And when carrying out the didactic game “Pathfinders”, the children were convinced that traces and prints remain on the wet sand.

When conducting the didactic game “Catch the Air,” children tried to catch air in plastic bags and were convinced that the air was transparent and weightless. In the game "Storm" the kids blew through a straw into a glass of water and saw that the water pushed out air. And the game “My Cheerful Tinkling Ball” contributed to the understanding that the ball also contains air.

During lessons with stones, we play games “Light - Heavy” and “What Shape is the Pebble?”, in which children learned that stones have different weights and different shapes.

Through experiments with paper, children learned that it is light: you can crumple it, blow on it, and it can move, paper is thin and can tear, and so on.

Experimental games promote children's sensory development, broaden their horizons, and deepen children's understanding of the properties and qualities of natural materials.

We involved the parents of our children in the work on developing cognitive interests. They readily accepted our advice and recommendations and joined us in the exciting game of experimentation.

The joint efforts of parents and kindergarten teachers helped to achieve positive results in nurturing preschoolers’ cognitive interests in the environment and developing their sensory experience.

The children's level of cognitive interest increased and their horizons broadened. Children learned to see interesting things in nature around them, observe plants and animals, make simple conclusions, distinguish between living and inanimate objects of nature, and understand their interconnection. This allows us to believe that the developmental education system helps to increase the level of intellectual and cognitive development of children and their development in general.

Organization of educational and research activities with children of primary preschool age

Bibliographic description:

Voronkova, N.V. Organization of cognitive and research activities with children of primary preschool age / N.V. Voronkova, T.I. Silina. — Text: direct // Questions of preschool pedagogy. - 2022. - No. 10 (27). — P. 6-8. — URL: https://moluch.ru/th/1/archive/145/4696/ (access date: 01/13/2022).


The sooner we begin to instill in children the desire to achieve their own goals, the sooner we will create strong, and therefore independent and free people.

M. Montessori

Preschool age is the most important period in the development of a person’s personality. In accordance with the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard for Education, each educational institution is faced with the task of creating conditions for the development in preschoolers of the ability to obtain knowledge from sources, to think independently and creatively. The main tasks that the Federal State Educational Standard will help solve are the creation of favorable conditions for the development of children in accordance with their age and individual characteristics and inclinations, the development of the abilities and creative potential of each child as a subject of relationships with himself, other children, adults and the world. The subject-spatial developmental environment is formed taking into account the characteristics of the basic level of the general education system; the age of the children and the need to implement educational tasks are also taken into account.

Each child is unique, has unique individual traits and characteristics, interests and abilities. To achieve good results in raising children, it is important to know and take this into account. The teacher needs to constantly monitor the activities of children and promptly notice changes in their development. Children are explorers by nature. They are interested in everything, their attention is always directed to what is interesting. And interest is accompanied by positive emotions. By learning new things, the child realizes himself independently, acquires skills and abilities.

The developing subject-spatial environment should provide the child with support in developing a sense of confidence, develop self-confidence in the child, establish himself as an active figure and develop his own self-image. Our observations have shown that children develop curiosity and interest. Learning becomes more interesting due to the fact that we do not pass on our knowledge to children, but the child obtains it himself in independent activities. The child is the “builder” of himself. By learning new things, he independently realizes himself, acquires new skills and abilities.

Sukhomlinsky V.A. argued: “In order not to turn a child into a repository of knowledge, a storehouse of truths, rules and formulas, we must teach him to think. The very nature of children’s consciousness and children’s memory requires that the bright surrounding world with its laws not be closed off for a minute.” [3]

In order for children to experiment, self-educate and gain knowledge themselves, we tried to create an appropriate developmental subject-spatial environment.

We placed the “Explorer’s Chest” in it. It contains accessories for simple experiments and experiments: a magnifying glass, measuring spoons, cups for measuring and weighing. Children could change the contents of the “Explorer's Chest” themselves, adding those items that, in their opinion, they needed for experiments and research.

We showed the children the algorithm of experimental games “The wind blows across the sea”, “Making colored ice floes”, “Blowing soap bubbles”. The children had fun “painting” the water in different colors. After watching the cartoon “About a Little Droplet,” the children learned what the water song is. From their own experiments, the children learned that water has no smell or taste, that light objects do not sink in water, but objects as heavy as pebbles do.

Playing with sand was added to experiments with water. Sand and water have psychotherapeutic properties and promote relaxation. Playing in the sandbox develops tactile sensitivity in children, which is the basis of “manual intelligence.” In addition to the fact that sand and water can simply entertain a child, playing with sand develops all cognitive functions: perception, memory, thinking, attention. The most popular games among children were “Colored Sand”, “Finger Drawing”, “Pouring Sand”, “Hourglass”. The tasks we set: to expand understanding of the properties of sand, the development of speech, thinking, curiosity, were successfully solved with the help. When children had questions, we did not always rush to answer, but gave the child time so that the children could find the answer on their own through search and experimentation.

Through experimentation, it is easier for children to establish patterns in the world around us. Children's curiosity needs to be developed from an early age, so we have compiled the main content of research aimed at developing ideas:

About materials: sand, paper, fabric, wood;

About natural phenomena: sun, water, snow and wind;

About the world of plants and how to grow them from seeds, leaves or bulbs.

About the objective world, its laws.

Teachers need to remember that children’s cognitive interest should give rise to good feelings and be turned in the right direction. We offered children for research simple materials related to the figurative-symbolic type, promoting the child to the level of figurative knowledge of the world. We offered children sets of cut-out pictures and cubes: “Animals”, “Plants and Fruits”, “Household Objects”, simple plot pictures.

Without pedagogical analysis, it is impossible to define tasks on a scientific basis. Pedagogical analysis is an effective tool for educating the teaching staff, methodological training of the teacher, and has a strong and direct impact on the final result of the activity. Therefore, we took “Planning the content of educational activities in the language of educational activities” as the basis for the implementation of educational activities of preschoolers in cognitive and research activities.

Thus, properly organized cognitive and research activities help children to better learn and assimilate the general laws of nature and create good soil for the development of curiosity in children. Children have become more independent, curious, have an interest in experimenting, and have expanded their horizons. The role of the teacher has changed: the main role in cognitive and research activities began to belong to children, and the teacher has the role of an assistant, whose tasks include correctly teaching the child to acquire knowledge, as well as monitoring the child’s achievements.

Literature:

1. Montessori M. “Children's House. Method of scientific pedagogy" [Text] M. Montessori - M: Astrel: AST.2006.
2. Federal state educational standard of preschool education (Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia dated October 27, 2014 N 1351 (as amended on March 25, 2015) “On approval of the federal state educational standard of secondary vocational education in specialty 44.02.01 Preschool education” [Electronic resource] / Access mode: https://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_law_118580/ (accessed 12/22/2017)
3. Sukhomlinsky V. A. “I give my heart to children” https://www.livelib.ru/author/237524/quotes-vasilij-suhomlinskij

Key terms
(automatically generated)
: child, water, task, knowledge, educational activity, pedagogical analysis, sand, cognitive and research activity.

Clay, its qualities and properties

 Teach to recognize things made of clay, determine its qualities (softness, plasticity, degree of strength) and properties (crumples, breaks, gets wet).  Clay objects, pieces of clay, water, work stands, containers, an algorithm for describing the properties of the material.  An adult organizes an exhibition of clay toys. After examining it with children, he finds out what all the toys are made of; what material was used; What else would children like to know about him? Then he offers them stands with pieces of clay lying on them and asks what can be molded from them and why. Children roll a ball (the clay is soft, plastic, it can be crushed: make a cake from the ball, etc.). Place a small piece of clay in a container of water and watch it soak. An adult demonstrates how a clay toy breaks easily. Together with the children, he creates an algorithm for describing the properties of the material.

HUMAN

Cheerful men playing

 Introduce the structure of the human body: torso, legs, arms, feet, fingers, neck, head, ears; face – nose, eyes, eyebrows, mouth; hair.  A set of toys (a naked doll, a fish, any animal, a bird), a “wonderful bag”, a mirror, dummies of human body parts (torso, legs, arms, feet, neck, head). An adult invites the children to play the game “Wonderful Bag”: find a little man (naked doll) in the bag by touch. Children take turns completing the task and explain to the adult how each of them found out that this is a man (he has a torso, two arms, a head, etc.), and why he didn’t choose another toy (it has a tail, wings and etc.), for emotional living and to intensify the examination of the body, you can play the musical game “Where, where are ours...” (name of body parts) and “Measurements”, when children measure themselves and find out who has longer or shorter legs and arms , who is taller). You can also offer the game “Show (do) what I say” (jump on one leg, show your ear, etc.).

Let's fix the toy

 To introduce the structure of the human body and the spatial arrangement of its parts. Introduce signs of gender (hairstyle, clothes, name, etc.), with the fact that a face can reflect a person’s feelings (his mood).  Samples of the outline of the human body, parts of the arm, leg, foot, torso of different sizes, neck, head (with ears); images of a person’s emotional states (different facial expressions); hairstyle images; clothes for girls and boys.  An adult invites children to fix toys that are broken; At the same time, he explains the need to select all parts according to size, as in the sample in the form of an outline. When all the parts have been selected and placed on the outline, the adult invites the children to glue them onto the sample. When choosing a head, draws children's attention to the fact that all faces are not the same, and finds out from them what they are

differ (in different moods), and as the children guessed (but in the lines of the mouth, eyebrows, etc.).
An adult offers to choose a face, for example, happy or sad; think about whether it is a boy or a girl; attach a suitable hairstyle; pick up clothes. Come up with names for them. Note:
leave all the dolls for further games (cut them out along the outline and sign the suggested names on the back), make two wardrobes (for boys and for girls). In the future, to develop the game, you can add furniture, dishes, etc.

Our assistants

 Introduce the senses and their purpose (eyes - to look, ears - to hear, nose - to detect smell, tongue - to detect taste, fingers - to determine shape, surface structure), with the protection of the senses.  “Wonderful box” (with holes to catch the smell, in which there is a lemon; a box with a tambourine; a “wonderful bag” with an apple; a bag of sugar; an opaque kettle of water. An adult invites children to recognize objects (lemon, tambourine, apple, etc.) with the help of different senses. Children say that they caught the smell of a lemon hidden in a box with their nose; they heard the sound of a tambourine in the box with their ears; they felt a round apple in a bag with their hands; they saw an opaque kettle with water with their eyes. Then children pour water into a transparent container and taste it with their tongue. Children do the same with sugar. An adult leads the children to the conclusion that sugar can only be recognized by taste, suggests putting it in water, dissolving it, and then tasting the water. Children compare the taste water with and without sugar. An adult asks how the taste will change if lemon is added to the water (it will become sour, sweet and sour). Children add lemon, stir and taste. An adult talks with children about the fact that people have helpers, which allow a person to learn about everything in the world. Together with the children, he thinks about what would happen if there were no assistants (sense organs), and how to preserve them (dangerous situations, rules for protecting the senses).

HUMAN. MAN-MADE WORLD

PROPERTIES OF MATERIALS

Paper, its qualities and properties

 To teach to recognize things made of paper, to isolate its qualities (color, whiteness, smoothness, degree of strength, thickness, absorbency) and properties (creases, tears, cuts, burns).  Writing paper, scissors, alcohol lamp, matches, containers of water, algorithm for describing the properties of the material.  Children look at the paper, the adult encourages them to highlight the qualitative characteristics of the material, asking questions about what kind of paper it is; how to determine whether it is smooth or rough, thick or thin. Children stroke sheets of paper with their palms, feel them, answering questions. Then the adult invites the children to crumple a sheet of paper (crumples); tear it into several pieces (torn); pull the edges in different directions (the integrity of the sheet is violated; therefore, the material is fragile); cut the sheet with scissors (cuts well); put the paper in a container of water (it gets wet). An adult demonstrates burning paper using a spirit lamp and matches. At the end of the lesson, children, together with an adult, create an algorithm for describing the properties of the material.

Wood, its qualities and properties

 Teach to recognize things made of wood; isolate its qualities (hardness, surface structure - smooth, rough; degree of strength; thickness) and properties (cuts, thorite, does not break, does not sink in water).  Wooden objects, containers with water, small planks and bars, an alcohol lamp, matches, a shoe knife, an algorithm for describing the properties of a material.  An adult shows several wooden objects and asks the children what they are and what the objects are made of. Offers to determine the qualities of the material. To do this, each child receives a board and a block, feels them, and draws a conclusion about the surface structure and thickness. To reveal properties, lowers the block into water (does not sink); tries to break it (it doesn’t work, which means it’s durable); drops to the floor (does not break). An adult cuts out a small figure from a block and focuses the children's attention on making great efforts to complete this work. Demonstrates the burning of wood. Together with the children, he creates an algorithm for describing the properties of the material.