How does cognitive interest arise in preschoolers?
Cognitive interest is not formed out of nowhere or at the will of parents. It appears when a child encounters something completely new that does not fit into the “matrix” of his knowledge and experience. Surprise and puzzlement appear. The riddle haunts the preschooler until he clears up the keys to the answer.
Example. Deniska, 3.5 years old, saw a small tractor with a body in front. The first thing the kid asked was: “Why is the tractor driving backwards?” After listening to the answer, he walked a few steps backwards, just in case. Then came the conclusion: “So the driver sees that he is lucky.”
The child saw a flower bloom on the windowsill, and he is ready to water the indoor plants every day to repeat the phenomenon. He watches his grandmother knead the dough, and he certainly wants to practice turning loose flour into plastic dough.
The preschooler wants to join activities that awaken emotions and experiences. Even putting together puzzles and construction sets gets the child interested in the fact that the result should be a beautiful picture or model.
Some objects and phenomena captivate the child for a short time, others hold attention for a long time. The main forms of expression of interest can be identified:
- Curiosity is a primary interest in a subject, object or event.
- Curiosity is the desire to study a subject in more detail, to find its still hidden properties. At this stage, the joy of learning new things is formed. Research is carried out using trial methods or questions.
- Direct cognitive interest is characterized by the emergence of a task or situation in which the child seeks to understand independently, to understand the true essence of the phenomenon. At this stage, the mechanisms are dismantled into individual screws or the doll is disassembled into its components to find out what’s inside.
What maintains cognitive interest in preschool age
Cognitive interest can easily fade away if it is not nourished. Adults play a certain role here, encouraging the child to continue, but the main factors that stimulate continuation are cognitive independence and the presence of motivation.
In the process of learning something new, there is a combination of feelings and the intellectual component. A preschooler feels a sense of admiration when he learns that the seasons in the southern hemisphere follow different principles.
The joy of learning new things causes impatience and complete fascination with a toy or book that contains new information. Dismantling an alarm clock or kitchen appliances provokes such excitement that the young explorer may not notice his parents watching him.
Small experiments that can be carried out with the help of numerous sets of young physicists and chemists make you freeze in anticipation of the result. And finally, nothing motivates you to continue learning more than a solution achieved on your own.
Cognitive independence
Starting from the age of five, a preschooler increasingly asks chains of clarifying questions. He becomes interested in a specific subject or process, asks the main question that worries him, but the answer he receives prompts him to further research and new questions.
The essence of cognitive independence lies in the fact that the child himself, without additional incentives, feels ready to acquire new knowledge.
Older preschoolers can express their disagreement with the answer, offer their own version and persistently find out where their assumption is wrong. If it is necessary to obtain additional information, preschoolers themselves initiate a conversation with an adult and ask questions, filling in gaps in their knowledge.
One of the main conditions for the manifestation of cognitive independence is the sufficient development of the volitional sphere. When solving a task set for yourself, you need to finish the job, even if you encounter obstacles: screws don’t unscrew, parts don’t fit together, you can’t draw as your imagination suggests.
Cognitive motivation
Motivation is the second pillar on which cognitive interest stands. An adult’s verbal offer to assemble a model or read a book is not valid. It is necessary that the child is passionate about the process himself and strives to continue or begin the study.
The formation of cognitive motivation in preschool children is closely related to the development of voluntary attention.
A task that previously intrigued a child may turn out to be quite difficult for him. To continue to solve it, you need to maintain attention and remember the goal. This is beyond the power of younger preschoolers who have not yet learned to manage their attention.
Psychologists identify the conditions necessary for the formation of cognitive motivation of a preschooler:
- Emotional support. A child retains attention and interest in a task longer if he is encouraged, praised, and supported.
- Activation of thought processes. Minor hints for the child, an offer to check another version, inspires the young researcher. He comes up with an immediate goal and ideas on how to achieve it.
- Discussing successes and failures, encouraging the child to independently find explanations for why it was or was not possible to find a solution.
Cultivating curiosity gives rise to the independent habit of looking for everything unknown and incomprehensible in the surrounding space. Learning new things becomes a need for a child and motivates him to take cognitive actions, be it learning to read or compiling a collection.
Cognitive development of preschool children in the conditions of Federal State Educational Standards of Education
“Cognitive development of preschool children
in the conditions of the Federal State Educational Standard "DO"
It is known that preschool age is the age of formation and development of the most general abilities, which will improve and differentiate as the child grows older. One of the most important abilities is the ability to cognition.
Cognitive development of children is one of the important areas in working with preschool children. A child is born with an innate cognitive orientation that helps him adapt to new conditions of his life. Gradually, cognitive orientation develops into cognitive activity - a state of internal readiness for cognitive activity, manifested in children in search actions aimed at obtaining new impressions about the world around them. As the child grows and develops, his cognitive activity increasingly begins to gravitate towards cognitive activity. Developed cognitive activity is characteristic of adults.
The Federal State Educational Standard for Preschool Education (FSES DO) states that the work of a teacher should be aimed at developing cognitive activity and research skills in children.
The Federal State Educational Standard for Preschool Education identifies “Basic principles of preschool education,” among which is “the formation of the child’s cognitive interests and cognitive actions in various types of activities” (clause 1.4.7.).
Let's look at the basic concepts found in the Federal State Educational Standard for Education and directly related to the cognitive development of preschool children:
-cognitive development;
-cognitive interests;
-cognitive activity;
-cognitive actions.
Cognitive development is a set of quantitative and qualitative changes that occur in cognitive mental processes due to age, under the influence of the environment and the child’s own experience. The basis of cognitive development is the development of mental abilities. And abilities, in turn, are considered as conditions for successful mastery and performance of activities.
Cognitive interests are the child’s desire to learn new things, to find out what is unclear about the qualities, properties of objects, phenomena of reality, and the desire to delve into their essence, to find connections and relationships between them. Interest is a real and particularly important reason for any action, including cognitive ones. It is one of the constant, powerful motives of activity.
How do you know if your children in the group have educational interests? (Answers)
Of course, this is mainly evident in the quantity and quality of questions that children ask.
Do you remember what questions your children asked you recently? Why do questions change with age? (Answers)
Cognitive activity is a child’s activity aimed at studying the world and the surrounding space. In the process of this activity, the necessary methods, skills and abilities are mastered, with the help of which the child acquires knowledge. Cognitive activity presupposes the ability to focus one’s attention on the proposed material and act in accordance with the instructions of the teacher. The child strives to gain new experience and is interested in a positive assessment of his activities.
Cognitive actions are the activities of children, with the help of which they strive to acquire new knowledge, skills and abilities. At the same time, internal determination develops and a constant need is formed to use different methods of action to accumulate and expand knowledge and horizons.
Have you observed such actions in your children? (Answers)
Yes, besides questions, which are also a manifestation of cognitive actions, these are all research and experimental actions, with the help of which the child himself obtains the information he needs about the world.
Let's turn to the Standard and highlight the main points that are in one way or another related to the cognitive development of preschoolers.
Let's look at the first section of the Standard and find points related to the cognitive development of preschoolers.
In paragraph 1.2. it is said that the Standard was developed on the basis of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the legislation of the Russian Federation and taking into account the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which are based on the basic principles. One of them: implementation of the Program in forms specific to children of a given age group, primarily in the form of games , cognitive and research activities,
in the form of creative activity,
P.1.4.7.
The main principle of preschool education is the formation of
cognitive interests
and
cognitive actions
of the child in various types of activities.
Let's turn to the second section of the Federal State Educational Standard. Do you remember what it's called?
Yes, these are requirements for the structure of the educational program and its volume. Here, among other educational areas, the content of cognitive development is determined.
Clause
2.6
defines five areas of child development and education (educational areas), one of which is “cognitive development”.
Cognitive development involves:
— development of children’s interests, curiosity and cognitive motivation; -formation of cognitive actions, formation of consciousness; -development of imagination and creative activity; - the formation of primary ideas about oneself, other people, objects of the surrounding world, about the properties and relationships of objects of the surrounding world (shape, color, size, material, sound, rhythm, tempo, quantity, number, part and whole, space and time, movement and peace, causes and effects, etc.); - the formation of primary ideas about the small homeland and Fatherland, ideas about the socio-cultural values of our people, about domestic traditions and holidays, about planet Earth as the common home of people, about the peculiarities of its nature, the diversity of countries and peoples of the world.
Clause 2.7.
The specific content of educational areas depends on the age and individual characteristics of children, is determined by the goals and objectives of the Program and can be implemented in various types of activities (communication, play,
cognitive and research activities - as cross-cutting mechanisms of child development)
This
three
cross-cutting mechanisms
are
those
types of activities that are leading for a preschooler at different stages of his
development
and continue to remain very significant throughout the entire period of preschool childhood.
: in infancy (2 months - 1 year)
- direct emotional communication with an adult, manipulation with objects and
cognitive-exploratory actions,
perception of music, children's songs and poems, motor activity and tactile-motor games;
at an early age (1 year - 3 years)
- object-based activities and games with composite and dynamic toys;
experimenting with materials and substances (sand, water, dough, etc.),
communication with an adult and joint games with peers under the guidance of an adult, self-service and actions with household objects (spoon, scoop, spatula, etc.), perception of the meaning of music , fairy tales, poems, looking at pictures, physical activity.
READ
In Object activity, children learn such properties as color, shape, surface character, weight, location in space, temperature, etc. This activity helps children solve the problem through trial and error, i.e. with the help of visual and effective thinking. In Experimenting with sand, water, dough, etc. properties hidden at first glance are revealed: water flows, it is wet, objects sink or float in it….
From Communication with adults, children learn a huge amount of necessary information: the names of objects, actions, properties, the attitude of adults to everything around them. Joint games with peers under the guidance of adults allow children to apply the knowledge and skills acquired earlier. Self-care and actions with household objects-tools enrich children's sensory experience, create conditions for the development of visual and effective thinking, develop small muscles, which has a beneficial effect on the formation of the frontal lobes of the children's brain.
Poems, fairy tales, songs not only provide emotional pleasure, but also enrich children’s ideas about the world, taking it beyond the limits of the directly perceived.
Looking at pictures helps enrich sensory experience and develop visual-figurative thinking.
Motor activity, to a lesser extent, but also affects the cognitive development of children. Firstly, it relieves stress, and in addition, here children receive a lot of information about their own body, its capabilities, and learn to understand through outdoor games.
For preschool children (3 years - 8 years)
- a number of types of activities, such as gaming, including role-playing games, games with rules and other types of games, communicative (communication and interaction with adults and peers),
cognitive-research (researching objects in the surrounding world and experimenting with them),
as well as perception of fiction and folklore, self-service and basic household work (indoors and outdoors), construction from various materials, including construction sets, modules, paper, natural and other materials, fine art (drawing, sculpting, appliqué), music (perception and understanding the meaning of musical works, singing, musical-rhythmic movements, playing children's musical instruments) and motor (mastery of basic movements) forms of child activity.
The most important indicator of the development of a preschool child is the level of his mastery of various types of children’s activities, which, on the one hand, serves as the source and driving force for the child’s development, and on the other hand, it is in them that all his achievements are most clearly manifested.
Types of activities in which the content of children’s cognitive development is most effectively realized:
gaming, communicative, cognitive-research, perception of fiction and folklore, self-service and basic household work, design, visual, musical, motor.
In preschool age, play comes first in importance among the types of activities in which cognitive development occurs.
The main types of games are role-playing, directing, theatrical, because in these games the child’s desire for independence and active participation in the life of adults is satisfied. A game for a preschooler performs the same function as a textbook for schoolchildren; it helps to understand what is happening around them.
Communication activity, compared to communication at an early age, becomes more meaningful.
Children are able to express their opinions, ask “chains” of questions, discuss serious issues, and insist on something.
Cognitive and research activities, when properly organized, teach children to see a problem, look for ways to solve it, record the result, analyze the data obtained.
Introducing children to reading fiction and folklore allows us not only to replenish children’s literary baggage, but also to raise a reader who is capable of feeling compassion and empathy for the characters, and identifying himself with the characters of the book.
Self-service and basic household work become noticeably more complicated and allow children to identify more properties of objects and gain new knowledge.
Construction, visual activity, and musical activity, of course, mainly solve the problems of the artistic and aesthetic development of children, but at the same time they learn a lot about the means and materials with which they work, and get acquainted with works of art.
As part of motor activities, we introduce children to various sports, famous athletes, the Olympic Games, and form ideas about a healthy lifestyle.
Thus, we can conclude that each type of activity makes it possible to realize the content of cognitive development, integrating it with other educational areas.
P.3.1. Requirements for the conditions for the implementation of the Program include requirements for the psychological, pedagogical, personnel, material, technical and financial conditions for the implementation of the Program, as well as for the developing subject-spatial environment. The conditions for the implementation of the Program must ensure the full development of the personality of children in all main educational areas, namely: in the areas of social-communicative , cognitive
, speech, artistic, aesthetic and physical development of children’s personality against the background of their emotional well-being and positive attitude towards the world, towards themselves and towards other people.
According to clause 3.3.4. The organization of the educational space and the variety of materials, equipment and supplies (in the building and on the site) should ensure:
-game, cognitive, research and creative activity
all pupils, experimenting with materials available to children (including sand and water);
- emotional well-being of children in interaction with the subject-spatial environment; - periodic change of play material, the emergence of new objects that stimulate play, motor, cognitive and research activity of children...
3.2.5.
The conditions necessary to create a social situation for the development of children that corresponds to the specifics of preschool age presuppose:
2) ...non-directive assistance to children, support for children’s initiative and independence in various types of activities (play, research, project, cognitive
etc.);
4) construction of variable developmental education, focused on the level of development that is manifested in the child in joint activities with adults and more experienced peers, but is not updated in his individual activities (hereinafter referred to as the zone of proximal development of each child
)…
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
- the level
of development
achieved by a child in the process of his interaction with an adult, in the course of joint activities with him, but not manifested within the framework of individual activities.
The concept of “zone of proximal development ”
was first discovered by L. S. Vygotsky in the early 1930s and is considered as one of the most important in
developmental
and educational psychology.
To determine the zone of proximal development
it is necessary to know the zone
of current development
.
Current development zone
- these are the child’s mental functions, abilities and skills that have already been formed and matured, and the child performs tasks related to these abilities and skills without the help of adults.
Children grow very quickly: what required help today will be done independently tomorrow. In the zone of proximal development, tasks are solved
that the child is not yet confident in performing independently and needs help.
The tasks that children do today with the help of an adult will be done by themselves tomorrow, and this will already become an actual development
.
In other words, when a skill moves into the zone of actual development
, it opens up new opportunities for the child, since mastered actions are the support for further
development
.
Conversely, every action for which a child has to strain mentally or physically spurs his development
.
And this is very important to understand! of development
occurs .
The third section of the Federal State Educational Standard defines “Requirements for the conditions for the implementation of the basic educational program of preschool education.”
There are no special requirements for the conditions for the implementation of the educational field “Cognitive Development”. All requirements for the psychological and pedagogical conditions for organizing the educational process should be taken into account.
Of course, if a child feels like a significant person, understands that he is respected, he is taken into account, he is confident in himself and makes his own efforts to acquire the necessary knowledge. In this case, the child is not afraid to make mistakes and asks questions in order to solve the problem correctly.
A child strives for independence, but he cannot understand the world without the help of an adult. It is important what position the teacher chooses.
At a young age, the teacher acts as a source of information for the child. At an older age, the teacher creates conditions and guides cognitive activity. Therefore, the best position is that of a partner who is knowledgeable, capable and authoritative, whom you want to imitate. In this case, it is possible to “Build educational activities based on the interaction of adults with children, focused on the interests and capabilities of each child...” (clause 3.2.1.(3)).
But children learn not only from the teacher, but also from other children. It is easier to imitate peers, especially if there is “adult support for children’s positive, friendly attitude towards each other and children’s interaction with each other in various activities” (clause 3.2.1.(4)).
Cognitive development presupposes some “discoveries” of the child, solving some problems that are significant for him independently. This becomes possible with “Supporting children’s initiative and independence, allowing children to choose materials and types of activities” (clause 3.2.1.(5,6)).
As an important condition for cognitive development, the Federal State Educational Standard for Preschool Education names “Developmental subject-spatial environment, which should ensure playful, cognitive, research activity of all pupils, experimentation with available materials (including sand and water) (clause 3.3.4.( 1)).
The fourth section of the Federal State Educational Standard for Preschool Education “Requirements for the results of mastering the basic educational program of preschool education.”
These requirements formulate targets. It is now important for us to highlight those targets that allow us to assess the effectiveness of the cognitive development of preschool children.
Remember the term in which these requirements are formulated?
Yes, these are targets
. It is now important for us to highlight those targets that allow us to assess the effectiveness of the cognitive development of young children and preschoolers.
So, for the early ages
It is important that the child is interested in surrounding objects, actively interacts with them and with toys, showing persistence in achieving results.
Preschoolers can achieve more
.
Firstly, they master the basic cultural methods of activity, show initiative and independence in play, cognitive and research activities, and construction.
They have a more developed imagination, and this is one of the cognitive mental processes.
An important indicator of cognitive development is the manifestation of curiosity. This means that the child asks questions, is interested in cause-and-effect relationships, and tries to independently come up with explanations for natural phenomena and people’s actions.
Another indicator of successful cognitive development is the tendency to experiment.
The presence of knowledge about oneself, the natural and social world in which a preschooler grows up is also one of the target guidelines that characterizes the child’s quality of preschool childhood and his readiness for school.
By the end of his stay in kindergarten, we must help the child master basic concepts in the field of natural science, mathematics, and history. To teach, based on one’s own knowledge, to make independent decisions in different types of activities.
You should also pay attention to the point
4.7. The Program's targets serve as the basis for the continuity of preschool and primary general education. Subject to compliance with the requirements for the conditions for the implementation of the Program, these targets assume the formation of prerequisites for educational activities in preschool children at the stage of completing their preschool education.
Prerequisites for educational activities
-Nurturing cognitive interests and needs. In a state of interest, all human powers arise. If a child learns everything that is required of him without interest or passion, then his knowledge will be formal. Such training will not foster the development of an inquisitive, creative mind.
— Children’s mastery of general methods of action, i.e., methods that allow them to solve a number of practical or cognitive problems and identify new connections and relationships. Development of educational activities ,
perhaps, first of all, on the basis of the child’s conscious identification of a method of action.
— Independently finding ways to solve practical and educational problems. Already at preschool age, when solving practical problems, a reorientation of children’s consciousness occurs from the final result to ways to achieve it. Children begin to comprehend their actions and their results, that is, to realize the way through which new knowledge is acquired. Such awareness increases the success of their formation of new cognitive actions, and at the same time the formation of new, more complex knowledge.
— Teaching children to control the way they perform their actions. Since educational activity is carried out on the basis of a sample of actions, then without a comparison of the action actually performed by the child with the model, that is, without control, the educational activity is deprived of its main component. Preparation for educational activities begins with the formation of the skills to control and evaluate one’s actions.
The core of cognitive development is the development of mental abilities. And abilities, in turn, are considered as conditions for successful mastery and performance of activities. The tasks set by the Standard include the following formulation: “the formation of a general culture of children’s personality, including the values of a healthy lifestyle, the development of their social, moral, aesthetic, intellectual, physical qualities, initiative, independence and responsibility of the child, the formation of prerequisites for educational activities ” ( clause 1.6.6.).
Cognitive development involves the cognitive activity of a preschooler. And in order to support cognitive activity, it is necessary to rely on the cognitive interest of children.
Cognitive interest plays a major role in the pedagogical process. I.V. Metelsky defines cognitive interest as follows: “Interest is an active cognitive orientation associated with a positive, emotionally charged attitude towards studying a subject with the joy of learning, overcoming difficulties, creating success, with self-expression and affirmation of a developing personality.”
Cognitive interest, as the basis of cognitive development, consists of the following interrelated processes: - intellectual
— logical actions and operations (analysis, synthesis, generalization, comparison);
- emotional
- the experience of success, the joy of learning, pride in one’s achievements, satisfaction with one’s activities;
- regulatory
- volitional aspirations, focus, persistence, attention, decision making;
- creative
- imagination, creation of new models, images.
Cognitive interest is exploratory in nature. Under his influence, students constantly have questions, the answers to which they themselves must find. At the same time, the preschooler’s search activity is carried out with enthusiasm, he experiences emotional uplift, joy from luck, joy from the process of acquiring knowledge. When experiencing failures, he strives to overcome them through an effort of will.
Galina Ivanovna Shchukina was actively involved in the problems of cognitive interest in pedagogy. She viewed the development of cognitive interest as a step-by-step process. The following stages (stages) of its development are distinguished:
-curiosity;
-curiosity;
-cognitive interest;
-creative interest.
1. Curiosity
- this is the elementary stage of a selective attitude, caused by purely external, often unexpected, new or unusual circumstances that attract the child’s attention. It is shallow, superficial and most often dries up after a quick acquaintance with the object. The curiosity stage is typical for children aged 2 to 4-5 years. Curiosity is seen as a manifestation of situational interest. As an example of the manifestation of curiosity in a preschooler, we can cite the fact that at 2-3 years old a child focuses on the brightness of an object, without paying much attention to its essence.
This stage does not yet reveal a genuine desire for knowledge. And, nevertheless, it can serve as its initial impetus.
2. Curiosity
- the next stage, at which the interest is deeper, and it comes not from the unusualness and novelty of the object, but from the researcher himself. Curiosity is based on an innate research instinct; it is a powerful stimulant in cognitive activity.
At this stage, as a rule, strong emotions of surprise, joy of learning, delight, and satisfaction with the activity appear. Of course, in addition to emotions, there is also such a form of mental reflection as will. When raising a child, it is very important that curiosity develops in time into a love of knowledge - inquisitiveness, and the latter into a stable mental formation - a cognitive need.
An inquisitive child is inquisitive, active, and finds pleasure in intellectual and independent activity. Preschoolers, who have well-developed curiosity, always strive to get to the bottom of a phenomenon; they are interested in understanding how this or that object works, what happens to the object under different conditions. It is curiosity that pushes them to ask questions and look for answers, make assumptions and confirm or refute them using various ways of knowing.
In older preschool age, thanks to curiosity, active thinking is formed, cognitive and research skills are acquired, and children’s horizons and interests expand.
There are no uninteresting topics for an inquisitive child; any discussion will arouse keen interest in him. Curiosity allows you to establish contact with different people and gain popularity among your peers.
Thanks to curiosity, preschoolers’ mental activity is activated, performance increases, and at the same time, it is curiosity that helps reduce fatigue and internal tension.
The development of curiosity gives a person advantages in adult life, such as: works faster with information, knows how to work with new ideas, develops, is an interesting conversationalist, and is also flexible, can easily switch from one type of activity to another.
An example of the manifestation of curiosity is the fact that a child often asks questions of a cognitive nature, for example: “Why is the grass green?”, “Why does a cow have a tail?”, “Why don’t trees fall?”, “Why does the sun shine?”, “Why will children be born?” For the development of children's curiosity, an adult's ability to answer such questions is of particular importance.
To summarize, we can say that an inquisitive child:
- shows activity;
Strive to acquire new knowledge;
- receives joy and pleasure from the process of acquiring knowledge.
3. Cognitive interest is characterized by increased stability, a clear selective focus on the subject being learned, and valuable motivation in which cognitive motives occupy the main place. Cognitive interest facilitates the preschooler’s penetration into essential relationships, connections, and patterns of mastering reality. A manifestation of cognitive interest should be considered the child’s desire to independently answer questions posed, for example, during experimentation or exploration of the world around him.
4. Theoretical interest: learned theoretical questions, in turn, are used as tools of knowledge. This stage characterizes a person as a doer, a subject, a creative person.
All these steps are interconnected and represent complex combinations.
Cognitive interest enriches and activates the process of not only cognitive, but also any other human activity, since the cognitive principle is present in each of them. Therefore, our task as teachers is to form cognitive interest and develop the cognitive, creative activity of children.
Each of us has our own, already tested ways of activating cognitive interest, which we sometimes consciously and sometimes intuitively use in the educational process, regardless of the content of a specific topic and the educational field as a whole.
Method of educational games (charades, riddles, didactic games). The use of this method creates a joyful working mood in preschoolers, facilitating the transition from play to intellectual activity.
During games, children have to analyze, compare, and generalize in order to come to the right conclusions.
The method of emotional stimulation is implemented through competitions between groups or individual students.
It is well known that competition helps children experience success, the joy of learning, and pride in their achievements, which in turn affects the child’s emotional processes.
A method of creating problematic situations, for example, as a motivating beginning of GCD (thus, there is a feeling of group cohesion in finding a solution, and mental abilities are activated when analyzing the current situation).
The development of curiosity, research and speech skills is facilitated by heuristic conversations, which are based on questions and problems. A heuristic conversation is a question-and-answer form of communication between a teacher and children, when the teacher, instead of imparting ready-made knowledge to children, forces them to come to new concepts and conclusions. This is done through correctly posed questions on the part of the teacher and the use by children of their experience, existing knowledge and observations. In pedagogy, this method is called problem-based learning. An example of using question-problems during a conversation: “Why do tree branches have sufficient flexibility in the warm season, but become brittle in cold weather?”, “Why are some species of birds migratory?”
Using reference signals. Signal cards teach you to highlight the main and most important things, teach you to find and establish logical connections, and develop the ability to work independently.
The use of additional, visual means (ICT, work with educational literature) contributes to the development of creative imagination, analytical thinking, and emotionally enriches educational activities.
Effective methods for the cognitive development of preschoolers include the project method, which ensures the development of children’s cognitive interests, the ability to independently construct their knowledge and navigate the information space, and the development of critical thinking. This type of work involves the joint research activity of children and the teacher and, as an option, parents. In achieving the cognitive goal of the project, not only the child’s thinking abilities are used, but also creative skills. The teacher encourages independent construction of the course of observations and experiments, and only if necessary directs the student’s actions.
TRIZ technologies. The theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ) came to pedagogy from the engineering field and is effectively used in working with young children and schoolchildren. The essence of TRIZ technologies is to encourage the child to independently construct an algorithm of actions to solve the problem that has arisen. This method is used outside the educational process: “Is the toy not working? Determine what happened. A wheel breaks, think about how you can fix it. Compare the broken wheel with those that are in good working order.” In kindergarten, TRIZ technologies are most often implemented in the form of game tasks: “Oh, our doll Masha the Confused One has lost her cup, how can she drink juice now? And now the doll can’t find an umbrella, how can she get to her grandmother in rainy weather?” This method of work contributes to the development of an analytical type of thinking.
One of the ways to develop cognitive interest and curiosity is children's experimentation, which should become the main part of classes. Observing in practice the manifestation of various natural patterns, children acquire an interest in their discovery, in discovering what is common in specific manifestations of reality.
Also, the use of visual material when organizing experimental activities is of great importance.
Here we are not talking about the visual materials traditionally used in GCD - posters, illustrations, cards with diagrams. Research activities are accompanied by a mandatory stage of work - documenting the information received. The teacher should draw the children's attention to the fact that scientists (researchers and inventors) write down their observations and conclusions that they come to in the process of studying any phenomena or properties of various objects.
To record observations of preschoolers, the following forms can be used:
Research cards. The children fill out special forms, which are then compiled into a file cabinet of observations and experiments.
Personal diary of observations. This form offers more room for creativity and expression of individuality than cards. Children can be allowed to make notes, sketches, and diagrams in their diary.
Stands. You can record children's experimentation by designing stands: hanging a plan for conducting experiments, diagrams and photographs with the results.
Lapbooks are hand-made folding books on the topic of research carried out (“Water”, “Weather”, “Insects”, “Properties of Air”, etc.). Templates can be used to create such books. It can accommodate a huge amount of material on the topic, presented in the form of cards, illustrations, diagrams, educational games, etc.
Photo gallery: visual materials for recording research activities in kindergarten.
Research cards display the results of observations Making a lapbook helps children study an object comprehensively
The observation log displays the results of daily research
Development of cognitive interests in older preschoolers
In older preschool age, the relationship between cognitive interest and attention increases significantly. During this period, children realize that the correct result largely depends on how carefully all the details were taken into account.
The arbitrariness of the attention function is also formed; children are able to concentrate on a task without being distracted by foreign objects or situations.
The progressive development of cognitive processes leads to the fact that older children analyze more, learn to highlight the main thing and abstract from unimportant signs. On the one hand, they are more capable of finding answers to their questions, but, on the other hand, their cognitive interests cover more areas.
At this stage, a cognitive interest in mathematics is formed. Preschoolers are interested in performing simple arithmetic operations, measuring objects, and solving logic problems.
Search and experimental activities play a significant role in the development of cognitive activity. The child is an experimenter. Understanding the world through experience is its natural state. In addition, the result obtained as part of the experiment is assimilated much better than just an adult’s story.
During the experiment, the older preschooler, on his own, receives answers to questions that are significant at his age: “How?” and why?". You can tell your child all you want about the laws of aerodynamics, but he won’t understand what you’re talking about until he flies a kite.
On walks or excursions, children get the opportunity to constantly experiment: why a leaf floats down a stream, why snow melts; see that the plucked branch will dry out or, conversely, take root in a glass of water.
In essence, cognitive research activities are close to experiments. It involves experimentation, but also uses collecting to teach how to classify objects according to various characteristics. You can collect herbariums and stamps, as well as figurines from the robot collection.
Excursions help you explore a piece of space along which the route is laid. Educational activities consist of acquiring minimal cartography skills, studying the plants and habits of animals encountered along the way.
The role of an adult in the formation of cognitive interest of preschool children
The main task of adults at the stage of formation of cognitive interest is to maintain the motivation of a preschooler and use methods that help keep children’s attention and complete the task.
Parents need to make sure not only that there are reference books and encyclopedias suitable for preschool age in the house, but also regularly read with their child materials that enrich the child’s knowledge. It is useful to use non-standard developmental methods. For example, finger games for children are exciting in their practical implementation and bring tangible benefits to the development of fine motor skills.
The main lines of work in the development of children's cognitive interest:
- Supporting the child's desire to ask questions. Expressed in a favorable attitude and detailed explanation instead of short answers and excuses.
- Additional stimulation of cognitive interest. It consists of exciting stories, identifying topics that interest the preschooler, expanding answers, going beyond the topic. For example, when talking about hours and minutes, you can touch on the calendar.
- Application of games. For preschoolers, this is the main activity in which new skills are learned. You can build games in the form of “question-answer” or correct information that the child uses incorrectly when playing with peers.
- Supporting a preschooler in his research. Praise upon achievement of a result and during the activity so that the child understands that his efforts aimed at solving the problem are important.
- Help in mastering planning and goal setting skills.
Adult support for a child's curiosity in relation to any area of life will lead to the presence of developed cognitive interest. And this is a good deposit for upcoming school success and diversified personality development at any age stage.
Bibliography
- Ivanenko S.F., Formation of speech perception in children with severe speech impairment. M., 2004.
- Markova L.S. Organization of correctional and developmental education for preschoolers with mental retardation. Practical guide. – M, 2005
- Federal State Educational Standard for Preschool Education, 2013.
- Khudenko E.D., Melnikova T.S., Shakhovskaya S.N. How to teach a child to think and speak? // NPF "Uniserv". – M.: 1993. – 172 p.
- Shevchenko S.G. Preparing children with mental retardation for school. Book 1 / Generally ed. S.G. Shevchenko. – M.: School Press, 2003. – 96 p.
