Day care preschool near me: Find Child Care / Early Learning

A feature of a healthy mentality of a child is cognitive activity. The curiosity of the child is constantly directed to the knowledge of the world around him and the construction of his own picture of this world. The child, playing, experimenting, tries to establish causal relationships and dependence. He himself, for example, can find out which objects sink and which will float. He has many questions about the phenomena of life around him. The more mentally active the child is, the more questions he asks and the more varied these questions are.
The child strives for knowledge, and the very assimilation of knowledge occurs through numerous “why?”, “how?”, “why?”. He is forced to operate with knowledge, imagine situations and try to find a possible way to answer the question.
We all know that children are inquisitive explorers of the world around them. This feature is inherent in nature. At one time, I.M. Sechenov wrote about an inborn and extremely precious property of the neuropsychic organization of a child – an unconscious desire to understand the surrounding life. I.P. Pavlov called this property the “what is it?” reflex, under the influence of which the child discovers the qualities of objects, establishes new connections between them. Subject “research” activity develops and consolidates the cognitive attitude of the child to the world around him. With the mastery of speech, the cognitive activity of a preschooler rises to a new qualitative level. In speech, the knowledge of children is generalized, the ability for analytical and synthetic activity is formed not only in relation to directly perceived objects, but also on the basis of ideas.
The nature of the child’s communication with adults is changing: personal and cognitive contacts begin to occupy a significant place.
In our difficult and contradictory time, the question is especially acute: “How to raise a child today as a man of tomorrow? What knowledge to give him on the road? The comprehension of this issue should take place through the awareness of a sharply changed social order: yesterday a performer was needed, and today a creative person with an active life position, with his own logical thinking.
Therefore, it is necessary for the child to “teach to doubt.” Preschoolers may question not the knowledge of the educator, or the correctness of their statements. The child must be taught to doubt the truth of knowledge as such, the means of obtaining it. The child can hear and remember, or he can observe, compare, ask about incomprehensible things, and make a suggestion.
(For example: metal objects sink, but the child sees: a ship made of metal does not sink. Why? When organizing appropriate experiments, preschoolers can reflect on this issue).
Without this there can be no developmental learning. Unfortunately, in the practice of the work of preschool educational institutions, another trend (direction) is often observed: to give children ready-made information that does not need to be taken critically, they only need to be remembered. Will learning be of great benefit to the child, in which knowledge does not become an object of reflection, comparison, does not require the involvement of one’s own experience, the manifestation of a personal attitude?
Therefore, doubt is the way to creativity, independence, independence in thoughts, feelings, actions. It’s time to forget the usual: “It’s still small to argue with me!”. On the contrary, children should be encouraged to argue, doubt (if this is not dangerous to life and health).
Our world… Mankind has taken a long step on the path of knowing it. But this path is difficult, and the end is still very far away. To move forward, we need inquisitive people with an indefatigable thirst for knowledge and discovery.
Of course, a single person, no matter how smart and educated he may be, cannot know everything about everything. But to preserve the joy of one’s own discoveries, a keen interest in everything that happens in the world, the desire to push the boundaries of one’s horizons is simply necessary.
First of all, this applies to you, educators! You will be one of the first to introduce kids into our world, reveal its secrets and laws to children, lay a cognitive attitude to the world.
Indeed, in the origins of knowledge lies a certain attitude of a person to the object of knowledge. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly demonstrate to children their interest in surrounding objects and the desire to learn their properties. It is necessary with all your behavior to prove and show the children that you have not lost the ability to be surprised and enjoy ordinary things, familiar and unknown events, phenomena.
You cannot tell and explain to a child everything that concerns numerous and varied objects and phenomena of the surrounding reality. But to lay a good start in relations with the world, the need for knowledge (the world is huge, beautiful and interesting) is your responsibility.
The child’s cognitive activity, aimed at examining the surrounding world, organizes his attention on the objects being studied for quite a long time, until interest dries up. The role of an adult is to support this interest through a variety of methods and techniques.
You and I know that teaching methods are the methods of work of the educator, with the help of which the assimilation of knowledge, skills and abilities by children is achieved, as well as the development of their cognitive abilities. Reception is part of the method.
First of all, it must be remembered that when organizing cognitive activity, the relationship “child-adult” must be based on participation in the activity. It is necessary to lead the preschooler to such complicity gradually: from observing the activities of adults to episodic participation in it, then partnership and, finally, to cooperation.
And so, solving cognitive problems together with adults and peers is the way to develop the ability to doubt, to think critically. In the pedagogical literature, this path is called problem-based learning.
The essence of problem-based learning lies in the fact that the educator creates a cognitive task, situation and provides children with the opportunity to find means of solving it, using previously acquired knowledge and skills. Problem-based learning activates the thought of children, gives it criticality, teaches them to be independent in the process of cognition.
Each new knowledge reveals little-known aspects of the object being known to the child, raises questions, conjectures.
How to organize the cognitive activity of children in order to develop mental processes? (sensations, perception, memory, imagination, thinking, as well as the development of speech).
In each specific case, you yourself decide in what form to work with children: in a group or individually. Nevertheless, in order to develop in children the ability to doubt, to think critically, preference should be given to group forms of work. It is easier for a child to be critical in relation to peers than in relation to an adult. Doubt, conjecture, assumption arises in him when comparing his point of view with the opinion of another person. Communication and joint activities with adults develop the child’s ability to set a goal, act, imitating him. And in joint activities with peers, the child begins to use adult forms of behavior: control, evaluate, disagree, argue. Thus, the need arises to coordinate one’s actions with the actions of partners, to accept their point of view. Therefore, cognitive activity is organized in the form of a dialogue between the child and the teacher and other children in the group. Indicators of such a dialogue are ease of communication, democratic relations.
The formulation of the problematic task and the process of solving it takes place in the joint activity of the educator and children. The teacher engages students in a joint mental search, provides them with assistance in the form of instructions, explanations, questions. Cognitive activity is accompanied by heuristic conversation. The teacher poses questions that encourage children to compare, compare individual facts based on observations, previously acquired knowledge, and then come to conclusions through reasoning. Children freely express their thoughts, doubts, follow the answers of their comrades, agree or argue.
The basis of problem-based learning is questions and tasks that are offered to children. Often questions are used that encourage children to compare, to establish similarities and differences. And this is quite natural: a person learns everything in the world through comparison. Thanks to comparison, the child better understands the surrounding nature, highlights new qualities and properties in the subject, which makes it possible to take a fresh look at what seemed ordinary, well known.
Questions for comparison are posed so that the children consistently single out first the signs of difference, then the similarities.
Among the problematic issues, a special place is occupied by those that encourage to reveal the contradiction between the existing experience and newly acquired knowledge.