First, make clear children's cognitive development level.
Piaget pointed out in his theory of children's cognitive development stages that children's cognitive development can be divided into four stages: perceptual movement stage; Pre-operation stage; Specific operation stage and formal operation stage. 0~2 years old perceptual movement stage, operation stage before 2~7 years old, specific operation stage after 7~ 1 1 year old, and formal operation stage after1/year old. Each stage has its own special development level, forming a cognitive structure suitable for its age level.
As a qualified kindergarten teacher, we should know the stage of children's cognitive development in the class. Only when teachers understand the development level of children can they adopt teaching strategies suitable for children's development level. Adapt teaching activities to children's cognitive development level. Children of every age have their own special level of development. If we ignore the characteristics of these stages, it will have a negative impact on the development of children. At present, some kindergartens and special interest classes held in society offer abacus mental arithmetic courses, some of which are not suitable for children's development level. Premature exposure of children to these contents that violate their development laws will seriously hinder their healthy development.
0~2 years old is the period when children's cognitive ability develops initially. Children know the world around them through feelings and actions, and gradually realize the difference between themselves and him, themselves and objects. The development of the concept of "object eternity" is a remarkable feature of this stage. Children at this stage mainly rely on feelings and actions to recognize things. Therefore, in early education, we should provide children with more things to explore and let them explore and feel objects through real contact. Children's cognition is developed in the interaction of the surrounding environment.
2~7 years old is a period of rapid development of children's language. They began to learn and gradually become proficient in using symbols to represent things and use symbols for simple thinking activities. In this stage of preschool teaching, teachers should pay attention to developing children's language ability and create an environment for children to communicate. At this time, children are also willing to communicate with teachers in language. It is a common feature of children at this stage to like to raise various topics of interest to them. Teachers should patiently ask such questions to children, respond positively, seize the opportunity to develop children's language ability, and pay attention to those children who don't like to talk, so as not to miss the critical period of language development and affect the development of language ability.
Second, respect children's right to active learning.
Piaget believes that children's development needs a rich environment, and the process of children acquiring knowledge is actively constructed in the process of interaction with the environment. Therefore, they criticize the traditional teaching methods. In the traditional teaching process, the whole teaching process is carried out by teachers, classrooms and textbooks. Teachers are tools to impart knowledge, teachers are leaders in the classroom, and students are containers to receive knowledge. What students should do is to constantly accept the knowledge taught by teachers. Piaget criticized this kind of teaching in which teachers take the initiative and learners are in a passive state. He believes that children's development needs a rich environment, and teachers should create conditions for students' learning and an environment suitable for them to actively explore, so that they can actively construct knowledge in their own practice.
Lively and active, full of curiosity, like to explore things by yourself. These are the innate natures of children, but these natures have been obliterated in some teachers' classes. At the beginning of each class, as soon as the teacher turns on the sound, the children will sit up straight with their hands behind their backs, just like primary school or even junior high school. Kindergartens should take game activities as their basic activities, which is the requirement of the Guiding Outline of Kindergarten Education. This is a respect for children's nature and a correct educational method that conforms to the law of children's development. Preschool teachers should make it clear that children are active constructors of learning activities, and learning activities should be carried out around students. What teachers should do is to make a good teaching plan in advance, design the main activities, create a suitable environment, let children actively construct knowledge in a rich environment, and make teaching activities easy and enjoyable through game teaching. Actively exploring things is what every child yearns for. They don't want others to disturb them when they don't need help. We should respect children's right to learn actively. Of course, this is what children should do according to their own laws of development. Only by following the laws of their physical and mental development can they promote their healthy development. What preschool teachers should do is to create conditions, respect children and play the role of a good instructor and guide.
Third, learn to create cognitive contradictions for children.
Piaget's theory holds that since cognitive development, there are four factors: biological maturity, experience about physical environment, experience and balance about social environment. Balance is the core factor and motivation of cognitive development. Balance refers to the biological driving force that produces the best balance between cognitive structure and environment. Assimilation and adaptation are two balanced processes. Assimilation and adaptation occur when children receive new information. Let's take six-year-old Alison and her father in a car for example. Their car is traveling at 6 miles per hour, and there is another car about 100 yards ahead of them. They drove behind the car for a long time, and the distance between the two cars never changed. Alison's father pointed to the car and asked her, "Which car drives faster? Is it that car or ours? Or is the speed of the two cars the same? " Alison replied that the other car was faster. When her father asked why, she replied, "Because it is right in front of us". Her father said to her, "In fact, our speed is the same." This has caused cognitive contradictions for Alison. If she assimilates information, Alison will think that her father is joking with her and her cognitive structure has not changed. If her conceptual system adapts to new information, her cognitive structure will change. In the process of assimilation and adaptation, children's cognition develops, but it needs to create cognitive contradictions. Only when the input environmental information is inconsistent with the students' cognitive structure will children's cognition develop.
Preschool teachers should be good at creating cognitive contradictions for children, because students' cognition will develop only when the input environmental information does not match the students' schema. However, when presenting learning materials to children, it is necessary to ensure that the learning materials provided cannot be assimilated by children immediately. If the learning content provided is too easy, children will not be interested and will not devote themselves to learning, but the content should not be too difficult, and children will not be able to complete it beyond the current cognitive level of students.
Fourth, provide children with opportunities for social interaction.
Piaget's theory holds that social environment is the key resource of cognitive development, children's knowledge and cognitive structure are actively constructed through their own practical activities, and children obtain cognitive development through the interaction of surrounding environment. Therefore, teachers must design some activities that can provide social interaction. Preschool children are in the age group of 2~7 years old, and they are in the pre-operation stage in Piaget's cognitive development stage. At this stage, children tend to look at things from their own perspective and think about problems. Piaget called this way of thinking "I think" or "self-centered". A simple understanding is that children think that others think and operate in exactly the same way as themselves. Children at this stage don't realize that others can have completely different ways of thinking from themselves. If children want to enter the specific operation stage smoothly, they must move towards "self-centeredness". It is important to cultivate the ability to understand other children's viewpoints, so it is important to provide children with opportunities for interaction. In the communication and cooperation with other children, children gradually understand that others have different views and different ways of thinking, which helps children to be "self-centered". When children begin to realize this, they will smoothly enter a more advanced cognitive stage.
Children's development especially needs rich environment, and children need to gain cognitive development in language, society and other aspects through interaction with others. Therefore, preschool teachers need to provide children with opportunities for social interaction and help them develop their abilities in all aspects. Thematic activities and procedural teaching are the activities advocated by early childhood education at present. The common feature of these two teaching methods is that they can fully mobilize the enthusiasm of children to participate in activities, because these theme activities and program activities are decided by children themselves or together with teachers. The smooth development of these activities requires children's active interaction, communication and cooperation, which provides children with full opportunities for interaction and is conducive to their healthy development.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) conclusion
Children, like natural plants, need their own freedom and space. They have their own thoughts and laws of physical and mental development. Knowledge and experience can be obtained through direct and indirect methods, but for children, the direct method is the most suitable and willing to do. Children have their own stages of cognitive development and their own laws of development. What a qualified preschool teacher should do is to recognize the stage characteristics of this cognitive development level, follow the laws of children's physical and mental development in teaching, respect children's right to learn actively, create cognitive contradictions for children, and provide opportunities for children to interact socially. Only in this way can our teaching really and effectively promote the healthy development of children.