Kindergarten learning program: Kindergarten Full Learning Program – School Zone Publishing Company

What’s going on

The Ministry of Education proposed to unify educational programs at all levels of education, including preschool. In this regard, on September 24, 2022, Federal Law N 371-FZ “On Amendments to the Federal Law” On Education in the Russian Federation “” was adopted, on October 6, a working group was created to develop the Federal Educational Program for Preschool Education (FOP DO) , and already on November 3, less than a month later, the draft program became available for public discussion – and provoked a big discussion on the future of preschool education in Russia. Educators and educators, kindergarten directors, methodologists, psychologists, associate professors and professors specializing in preschool education came up with their assumptions and concerns about what would happen if this program was approved. And it – in one form or another – will be approved and published on January 1, 2023. nine0003

Together with the expert community, we are sorting out what the project involves, what alerted preschool teachers, and what awaits preschoolers in kindergartens starting next year.

As it was before

Preschool education in our country is more than a hundred years old, during this time it has undergone a number of significant changes, but something remained unchanged: all preschool education programs were developed by eminent authors-experts – teachers of preschool education (and not just teachers) and child psychologists. The programs were based on many years of scientific research, and were also tested for many years. nine0003

So, among the most significant programs that existed and were successfully applied in all kindergartens in the country, it is worth highlighting the Model Program (it took more than 5 years to develop it!), Adopted back in 1984, the authors of which included one of the founders of the nursery psychology Alexander Zaporozhets, as well as the “Program of education and training in kindergarten” in 1985, edited by Margarita Vasilyeva. Subsequently, it was on the basis of these two programs that many modern comprehensive programs of preschool education were created. nine0003

In 2013, the Federal State Educational Standards were adopted, and all programs had to be brought into line with them. A new milestone in preschool education has begun in Russia, and the milestone is generally not bad. At the moment, there are 21 items in the Navigator of Preschool Educational Programs. Many of these programs are successfully implemented in kindergartens, and the most popular is the program “From Birth to School” edited by Nikolai Veraksa. It is followed by “Origins” (based on the theses of Alexander Zaporozhets) and “The Golden Key”. This list includes both the excellent Montessori Kindergarten program and the PRO Children program, which is based on a cultural-historical approach to education, developed by Lev Vygotsky. nine0003

The advantage of the Federal State Educational Standards adopted in 2013 is that each kindergarten has the right not only to choose any preschool education program, but also to write its own based on it, while maintaining the proportion: 60% of the base and 40% of the changes. That is, each kindergarten could take one or two programs, depending on the needs, and rewrite them based on their resources, staffing capabilities and spatial and subject environment.

What will happen to all these programs after the entry into force of the FOP DO is a question. nine0003

What’s wrong with the draft of the new program

The goal of the new Federal Program is not bad from the outset — to create a single “educational space”, taking into account the national color and moral and spiritual values ​​of different peoples of Russia, so that preschoolers in Moscow and St. Petersburg , both in Makhachkala and Nakhodka received an equivalent preschool education.

However, the four weeks that have passed since the creation of the working group until the appearance of the draft program is clearly not enough to work out such a serious, fundamental document, according to which preschool children will develop at least in the next 10 years, and possibly longer. As Doctor of Psychology, Professor of the Directorate of Educational Programs of the Moscow State Pedagogical University and the UNESCO Chair of Cultural and Historical Psychology of Childhood Vladimir Kudryavtsev put it mildly at the public discussion of the project: “It feels like a four-week pregnancy of the program.” Other experts were sharper in their statements: “an awkwardly written document”, “an abstract of two-year students”. nine0003

The first thing that catches your eye when reading a document of 140 pages is an infinite number of spelling and stylistic errors, repetitions, or, conversely, fragments in which the authors forgot to add something, such as, for example, in the section of the planned results of artistic aesthetic activities (they simply do not exist). But these are trifles.

Contradictions with the Federal State Educational Standard and SanPiN

If you carefully read the text, it becomes obvious that the program is a compilation of two documents – the Federal State Educational Standard (from where, as one of the experts put it, “whole pieces of text were cut”) and the Sample Work Program education, which was adopted a couple of years ago, was sent by directive to gardens, but never found its application. At the same time, experts ask logical questions: why does the Federal Program make such obvious nods to the Federal State Educational Standard and what is more important in the end – the Federal State Educational Standard or the FOP DO? nine0003

At the same time, the new draft of the Federal educational program for preschool education completely abolishes the individual approach to children and ignores the individual pace of development of each child, namely, they are repeatedly emphasized in the Federal State Educational Standard and largely form their basis. In addition, the periods within which children must show certain educational results are greatly narrowed – and this also does not correspond to the specifics of preschool childhood, clearly spelled out in the Federal State Educational Standard.

A number of concepts within the FOP DO occur in one part of the project (educational) – and never occur in another (educational), which leads to a lack of a traceable connection between parts of the program. In addition, the FOP DO violates SanPiN in relation to the time of sleep for preschool children and the time of free play, strictly regulates the time of classes, leaving not a single minute for a break.

Confusion of concepts

On the pages of the program, one can meet both “educator”, and “teacher”, and “teaching worker”, and even just “adult”. Moreover, it is completely incomprehensible who all these people are, or is it still one person? And if so, are not too many functions and obligations imposed on one employee? It is assumed that the teacher (or is it the educator?) Will be responsible for the development of speech in children, and for mathematical skills, and for artistic and aesthetic education, as well as for labor and patriotic education, and for all other areas of development, education and training . Here, by the way, there is also absolute confusion and it is not clear what should be done with preschool children: teach, educate or educate? And how many people should do it? nine0003

However, as experts rightly point out, the confusion with these concepts specifically arises from the fact that the same Exemplary Work Education Program migrated unchanged to the Federal Program, which also did not pass peer review in due time – largely because in she had the same confusion.

Preschool education, as almost all experts note, cannot be considered separately from upbringing – they cannot be separated. And hence all the problems of the new project. According to Elfiya Dorofeeva, Innovation Director of the International Academy of Preschool Education and President of the Association for the Development of Preschool Education, this shortcoming could be eliminated by compiling at least a glossary. There is no glossary in the FOP DO project. nine0003

According to the expert community, the planned program mixes up the principles and approaches, stages and levels of education, you can find strangely presented information (for example, in the “Introduction to Professions” section, the driver is for some reason called the colloquial word “driver”). The authors of the project introduce a number of new concepts: “educational situation”, “project activity”, “cultural practices, “positive socialization”, “social navigation”, “adult navigator” – but the decoding of the concepts is not given anywhere. nine0003

Cancellation of play activities

At each age, the child solves certain tasks, and the leading activity for each age is different. For preschoolers, this is a game and research activity. However, neither one nor the other is represented in the FOP DO project.

Play activity is mentioned several times in connection with physical education and in connection with playing musical instruments. And if you follow the proposed Way of the kindergarten (read: the daily routine of a preschool institution), then preschool children in the preparatory group have at best 5 minutes for free play per day – the rest of their time is occupied by teaching and educational activities that do not correspond to the leading activities in this age. But it is precisely “accounting for leading activities” that is declared in the document as one of the principles of the program. nine0003

The main verb that most often describes the tasks of a kindergarten in FOP DO is “teach”. And it turns out that the child turns from a personality and a subject of upbringing, development and education into an object of learning.

Holidays not by age

The calendar plan of educational work in the Federal Program is impressive: from two to five holidays per month. But educators (teachers? adults?) need time to prepare each event. At the same time, it is assumed that educators should prepare activities according to the age, physiological and psycho-emotional characteristics of the pupils. Experts have a natural question: how does the celebration of the Day of an internal affairs officer of the Russian Federation, for example, correlate with these requirements? nine0003

Experts say: “We simply do not have the appropriate methodological base.” But even if it were, then when following the program, the kindergarten will have absolutely no time left to prepare regional, national holidays. Recall that one of the tasks of the Federal Program is to create a unified educational space, taking into account the national color and moral and spiritual values ​​of different peoples of Russia.

Experts are sure that three holidays are enough in a kindergarten – New Year, Mother’s Day and Graduation Day, and everything else is fun holidays for children. nine0003

Correctional program without executors

The existence of a section on the correctional program in FOP BEFORE is a wonderful fact. However, the project does not specify who will implement this program in practice. As Patimat Omarova, Dean of the Faculty of Special (Defectological) Education of the DSPU, noted during the discussion of the FOP DO, it is very important in the program not only to refer to regulatory documents, but to clearly state the presence of defectologists in kindergartens, otherwise there will be no one to carry out all this. So, according to her information, there are 1600 schools in Dagestan – and only 253 speech therapists. nine0003

Defectologists and speech therapists have long been removed from the staff of kindergartens – they are not there. And it turns out that correctional work falls again on the shoulders of the educator (or teacher?). But he does not have the competencies for such work – and there is no time either, given the amount of educational and educational work.

Moreover, speaking of competencies, experts note that the FOP DO does not specify what kind of education a kindergarten teacher should have. And this is an extremely important point: both now and according to the draft of the new program, a chemistry or biology teacher can easily get a job in a kindergarten, but he has no idea how to work with children: he does not have the appropriate knowledge and qualifications. He does not know that a parent is always right, and children should always smile: he was not taught this. nine0003

Patriotic education outside the environment

One of the main tasks of preschool education, according to the FOP DO, is “upbringing and development of a child of preschool age as a citizen of the Russian Federation” and “educating the growing generation as knowing and loving the history and culture of their family, big and small Motherland”. In the draft program, a lot of space is given specifically to the patriotic education of preschoolers – with the raising of the flag, holding educational events on this topic. nine0003

According to Sergei Plakhotnikov, educational psychologist and developer of educational environments, preschool education should certainly help you see and love your homeland and become a patriot. “But,” according to him, “this should not be due to the hanging of flags, coats of arms and portraits. Children perceive their homeland thanks to the objects that are around them: this is a theater, a hairdresser, a store. We must bring them into these rooms, but not through the main entrance, but through the back door. Introduce and acquaint with the life of these objects from the inside. And then they will walk down the street with their parents and know something that their parents do not know. And they will play for two or three more weeks at the store and the hairdresser, the theater and the fire station, acting as researchers. nine0003

“Through herbarium and through knowledge, patriotism does not become a person’s value orientation,” Alexander Asmolov, Academician, Doctor of Psychology, adds to this idea.

What will happen in the end

After the adoption of the Federal Educational Program for Preschool Education, all comprehensive and author’s programs, which were sometimes developed over decades, will simply be forgotten – they cannot be put into practice. There will be one single FOP DO for all kindergartens in Russia. And this means that, most likely, not only the colossal work of dozens of authors and scientists will be forgotten, but parents will also be deprived of the right to choose. It will no longer be possible to choose an individual program specifically for your child. And if earlier it was possible to send a child to a kindergarten according to the Montessori system or to a group of different ages working according to the Waldorf system, then after the adoption of the FOP TO, there will be no such diversity anymore. nine0003

But it is not very clear how the program will be implemented. The program does not include economic aspects at all: where will the money come from for the retraining of educators, the money to supply all kindergartens, for example, with skis? Indeed, according to the FOP DO, skiing in kindergarten should be from the age of four! And what about educators (teachers?) in regions where there is no snow?

However, the greatest concern among experts is the fact that after the adoption of the FOP DO in the form in which it is now submitted for discussion, all kindergartens will, in fact, turn into small schools. Preschool children will be completely deprived of childhood as such: no free play, initiative and creativity. As Sergei Plakhotnikov noted at the public discussion, “a creative story is more important than a performance story, and we will raise performers with this program.” nine0003

According to the candidate of psychological sciences Zhanna Sugak (she is one of the developers of the Golden Key program), the authors of the FOP DO “see and treat a child as a mature middle-aged schoolboy. ” Indeed, the authors of the program, whoever they are (and in this case it is really unknown who is the developer, author or compiler of this project), according to most experts, are clearly not familiar with the psychology of childhood and the age characteristics of preschool children. nine0003

Teaching centimeters and decimeters in kindergarten, isn’t it an elementary school curriculum? The ability to independently compose fairy tales and stories – is this not the level of high school or elementary school in a linguistic class? And the skill “must follow the instructions of an adult” and, according to Sergei Plakhotnikov, endangers a child’s life, since adults are different and blindly following their instructions can subsequently harm children.

The expert community collected all the comments on the draft of the new program, listened to all the proposals, prepared a resolution and sent it to the Ministry of Education. If at least some of the suggestions for improvement are worked out and included in the document, the program will certainly change for the better.