Organization of cognitive and research activities of children of senior preschool age
Organization of cognitive and research activities of children of senior preschool age
Senior teacher
MBDOU d/s No. 7, Alagir
Tabolova Z.M.
The development of a preschool child largely depends on the variety of activities that he masters in the process of partnership with an adult. These are gaming activities, cognitive-research, productive activities, communicative activities, perception of fiction, and work activities.
Of course, a child learns about the world in the process of any of his activities. But it is precisely in cognitive and research activities that a preschooler gets the opportunity to directly satisfy his inherent curiosity.
Cognitive-research activity is a form of child activity aimed at learning the properties and connections of objects and phenomena, mastering methods of cognition, contributing to the formation of a holistic picture of the world.
“Modern education no longer requires a simple fragmented inclusion of research teaching methods in educational practice, but targeted work on the development of research abilities, specially organized training of children in research skills. The main feature of research teaching is to intensify the educational work of children, giving it a research, creative character, and, thus, transfer to students the initiative in organizing their cognitive activity” (A.I. Savenkov).
Cognitive and research activities of children in kindergarten are specially organized activities that allow the child, under the guidance of a teacher or independently, to obtain information and master ideas about a particular subject, object, physical or natural phenomenon. In the context of the Federal State Educational Standard of preschool education, cognitive development involves the development of children's interests, curiosity and cognitive motivation; formation of cognitive actions; development of imagination and creative activity, the formation of primary ideas about oneself, other people, objects of the surrounding world, the properties and relationships of objects of the surrounding world, organization of activities in the form of partnership activities with an adult, where children have the opportunity to demonstrate their own cognitive activity.
During cognitive and research activities, students become familiar with various ways of knowing, which allows them to stimulate interest in independent study of the world.
It is recommended to include the following types of activities in the system of cognitive and research interaction in kindergarten:
- observations (research work on the site, getting to know the habits of pets in a corner of nature, etc.);
- conducting experiments (seed germination, turning water into steam or ice, properties of a magnet, properties of soil and minerals, etc.);
- collective solution of problem situations, entertaining puzzles;
- watching cartoons or videos with educational content followed by discussion;
- work with visual thematic materials (examination of illustrations, photographs, albums, drawings, diagrams);
- design of thematic exhibitions;
- collecting collections (for example, collections of unusual toys, collections of postcards, plants, etc.);
- acting out fantasy journeys across countries and continents, during which preschoolers learn about the traditions of different nationalities, differences in climate and way of living;
- search and research projects (“Water is life”, “Unusual properties of a magnet”, “The history of my family”, “Where do books come from”, “What is in your name...”, “Earth is our common home”, “New Year’s story” toys”, “These amazing stones”).
The main advantage of research activity is that it gives children real ideas about the various aspects of the object being studied, about its relationships with other objects and with the environment. The need to give an account of what was seen, to formulate discovered patterns and conclusions stimulates the development of children's speech. It is impossible not to note the positive impact of the study on the emotional sphere of the child and on the development of his creative abilities.
The cognitive-research activity of a preschooler in its natural form manifests itself in the form of so-called children's experimentation with objects and in the form of verbal exploration of questions asked to an adult (why, why, how?).
And the task of teachers is not to suppress children’s emotions and curiosity, but to rely on them, to saturate the lives of children with various events that are significant to them. The more diverse and intense the research activity, the more new information the child receives, the faster and more fully he develops.
Satisfying his curiosity in the process of active cognitive and research activity, the child, on the one hand, expands his ideas about the world, on the other hand, masters the fundamental cultural forms of ordering experience: cause-and-effect, generic, spatial and temporal relationships that allow linking individual ideas into a holistic picture of the world.
Consequently, the more varied and intense the research activity, the more new information the child receives, the faster and more fully he develops.
The teacher uses a variety of techniques to increase the child’s activity in cognitive and research activities:
- provides interest in the upcoming activity through motivation, imagery, emotionality, significance and the need for everyone to participate in the activity;
- stimulates the child’s exploratory behavior while searching for a way to do it (“How?”, “What will you learn from this?”);
- discusses with children possible options for searching, predicting the course and result (“If so, then...”, “What will change if...”);
- helps to draw up an algorithm, clarify rules and restrictions (schemes, signs);
- uses techniques for developing creative imagination and creative pedagogy.
Children of senior preschool age actively strive to learn as much as possible about the world around them. And experimental activities are capable of mobilizing the strength of preschool children in the knowledge of reality, in the independent disclosure of its connections, relationships, and patterns. This has a positive effect on speech development, the ability to construct complex sentences, and draw conclusions.
Through cognitive and research activities, preschoolers have the opportunity to directly satisfy their inherent curiosity and organize their ideas about the world. Education should contain elements of independent research activity, it should be “problematic” and built as an independent creative search, and the use of research teaching methods in the classroom will help the teacher captivate, interest, and awaken a thirst for knowledge in every child.
You cannot blame your child for failures or spoiled material. It’s important to figure out why it didn’t work out. It is important to listen to the child and hear his thoughts and opinions.
Some children are characterized by laziness of thought: they do not want to think. It is for this reason that they often refuse to complete a task with the words: “I don’t know, I don’t know how.” At the same time, with the participation of adults, they are quite capable of doing what is offered to them. Don't give them ready-made answers, and help them find ways to act. It is better to encourage children to explore. Entertaining tasks, riddles, feasible puzzles, educational games and exercises are useful for its development.
Algorithm of actions for carrying out research activities (according to A.I. Savenkov):
1. Identifying a problem that can be investigated and that would like to be resolved. The main quality of any researcher is to be able to find something unusual in the ordinary, to see complexities and contradictions where everything seems familiar, clear and simple to others.
2. Selecting a research topic. Research is a process of selfless search for the unknown, new knowledge.
3. Determining the purpose of the research (finding the answer to the question of why the research is being conducted). Approximate formulations of research objectives usually begin with the words: identify, study, determine...
4. Determination of research objectives (main steps of the research direction).
5. Proposition of a hypothesis (assumption, guess, unproven logically and not confirmed by experience). A hypothesis is an attempt to predict events. It is important to learn to develop hypotheses according to the principle “the more, the better” (hypotheses make it possible to see a problem in a different light, to look at the situation from a different perspective).
6. Drawing up a preliminary research plan. In order to create a research plan, we need to answer the question: “How can we learn something new about what we are researching?”
7. Conduct an experiment (experience), observation, test hypotheses, draw conclusions.
8. Indicate possible ways to further study the problem. For a true creator, the completion of one work is not just the end of research, it is the beginning of the next one.
The content of experimental activities is built from four blocks of the pedagogical process:
1. Directly organized activities with children (planned events).
2. Joint activities with children (observations, work, artistic creativity).
3. Independent activity of children (work in an experimental corner).
4. Joint work with parents (participation in various research projects).
During the experiment:
- children get real ideas about the various aspects of the object being studied, about its relationships with other objects and with the environment;
- the child’s memory is enriched, his thought processes are activated, as the need constantly arises to perform operations of analysis and synthesis, comparison and classification;
— the child’s speech develops, since the preschooler needs to give an account of what he saw, draw conclusions and generalizations.
One of the effective methods of cognitive-research teaching of preschoolers is the project method.
The use of the project method in cognitive research activities contributes to the development of the child as an independent and proactive subject of cognition. Project activity is a partnership activity between an adult and a child, which unfolds as a study of things and phenomena in the surrounding world, accessible and attractive to children, because they get the opportunity to demonstrate their own research activity, and not act as a passive listener. The knowledge acquired by children during the project becomes the property of their personal experience.
ON THE. Ryzhova identifies three main stages in an educational research project:
1st - preparatory: setting goals and objectives, determining research methods, preliminary work with teachers, children and their parents, choosing equipment and materials;
2nd - research (main): searching for answers to the questions posed in different ways;
3rd - generalizing (final): generalizing the results of the work in a variety of forms, analyzing them, consolidating the acquired knowledge, formulating conclusions and drawing up recommendations, presenting the results.
The presentation of the project results can be in any form that is interesting for children: an exhibition, a mini-museum, baby books, entertainment, a holiday, dramatization of a fairy tale, a quiz, etc.
The teacher in the kindergarten group is faced with the task of creating conditions and providing active assistance in the cognitive and research activities of children. For this purpose, experimentation corners are created in the group.
The experimentation corner includes:
1. Didactic material: diagrams, tables, models with algorithms for performing experiments; a series of paintings depicting various objects; educational books, atlases; thematic albums; collections.
2. Equipment:
- microscopes, magnifying glasses, hourglass, magnet, mirror, strainer, funnel, measuring cup;
— natural material: stones, tree leaves, moss, seeds, cones, shells, different types of soil (sand, clay), etc.;
- waste material: wire, pieces of leather, fur, fabric, plastic, wood, cork, rubber, etc.;
— different types of paper: plain, cardboard, sandpaper, copy paper, etc.;
— dyes: food and non-food (gouache, watercolors, etc.);
— medical materials: pipettes with rounded ends, flasks, test tubes, wooden sticks, measuring spoons, rubber bulbs, syringes without needles;
— other materials: balloons, butter, flour, salt, sugar, cereals, etc.;
- oilcloth aprons, rubber gloves, rags.
3. Stimulating material: a character on whose behalf a problematic situation is modeled, cue cards, mini-stands, children’s personal notebooks for recording the results of experiments.
When setting up an experimentation corner, the following requirements are taken into account:
- safety for the life and health of children;
- sufficiency (content-rich);
- accessibility of location.
The material for conducting experiments in the experimentation corner changes in accordance with the work plan.
Used Books:
- Veraksa N.E., Galimov O.R.
Cognitive and research activities of preschool children. M., 2014.
- Ryzhova N.A.
Ecological project “My Tree”. M., “Karapuz-Didactics”, Sphere shopping center, 2006.
- Solomennikova O.A.
Introduction to nature in kindergarten. M., 2015.
- Kulikovskaya I.E., Sovgir N.N.
Children's experimentation, M., 2003.
- Tugusheva G.P., Chistyakova A.E.
Experimental activities of children of middle and senior preschool age, 2007
- Savenkov A.I.
Child research as a method of teaching older preschoolers. Lectures 5-8.-M.: Pedagogical University “First of September”, 2007.
- Korotkova T.A.
Cognitive and research activities of an older preschool child in kindergarten. “Preschool education” - 2003 - No. 3.
- “Organization of experimental activities of preschool children”: Methodological recommendations / ed. Prokhorova L.N. – M.: “Arkti”, 2004.
