The Cognitive Function of Children's Literature
(a) approaching science in cognition
Curiosity is the nature of children, and it is also the key and source of enlightenment cognition. Children are in the primary stage of cognition, the tentacles of knowledge extend to any corner that can be touched, and the eyes of exploration tirelessly search for the unknown world. Therefore, it is the inevitable responsibility and content of children's literature writers and children's literature works to interpret the "100,000 whys" in children's minds. Considering children's limited literacy, kindergarten teachers and parents can read to them. When reading aloud, the expression and tone should echo the context of the text, so that children can concentrate easily when listening. About three and a half years old is a critical period for the development of children's attention, observation and other abilities, as well as the establishment of independence. Let the children read some illustrated story books by themselves, exercise and cultivate their comprehensive ability at the same time, and teach them to read and know the natural world without losing the opportunity. While telling and reciting works, we should pay attention to cultivating children's understanding of the contents of the works and learning the skills of reciting. Children's science and technology literature is a work that mainly teaches scientific knowledge. Combine science with literariness, and give people scientific enlightenment and artistic enjoyment with vivid and easy-to-understand language. Mainly introduce scientific common sense, publicize scientific ideas and methods, and praise scientific achievements. Among them, Wu Chenggu's Turn and Turn, Fang Sheng's scientific fairy tale Little Tadpole Looking for Mother, his children's science poem Our Native Mother and Fan Fajia's children's science poem Home are all excellent works in this respect. Children feel the charm of science at the same time of cognition.
(B) Language intelligence is the premise of cognition
First of all, children's literature and Chinese education are similar in cognitive function, and language function is their intersection. Strictly speaking, language is the premise of cognition and all social practice. In the cultivation of children's intelligence, the cultivation of language intelligence should be put in the first place, especially the cultivation of oral ability. Spoken language is a form of language, and both spoken and written language are tools for people to communicate and think. Through oral English, we can exchange ideas, accumulate knowledge and carry out simple thinking activities. Childhood is the main period to master spoken English. Children's brains develop rapidly and they are very curious. Studies have shown that children before the age of four have amazing language learning ability, which is because children have super memory, which provides convenience for children to master the language as soon as possible. This is what normal children have, not a genius. Children over the age of ten are poor at learning languages. Therefore, early childhood is the best time to cultivate language ability.
Secondly, China's ancient poems are the most refined language in the world, and also the most imaginative and passionate language. Imagination and passion are only important components of people's emotions. No matter the description of natural scenery or human emotions, without imagination and passion, it is not enough to constitute the ultimate goal of poetry. In kindergarten language activities, besides reciting poems, there are also retelling stories, guessing riddles, looking at pictures and talking. The vivid images and plots in the works can harvest a large number of new words and enrich the language. We can also develop children's coherent language by inspiring them to write stories themselves, so as to further improve the quality of speech, that is, the accuracy of pronunciation and the expression of emotions, which is also an important means to develop language intelligence. Regarding the role of speech, Mr. Chen Heqin, a pioneer of early childhood education in China, pointed out: "Speech is one of the main factors for human beings to establish social relations. With the help of language, people can exchange ideas. Although pictures and words are also important in the communication of social relations, the simplest and most basic tool is words. " In daily life, children often encounter problems. When thinking and asking questions, they can't do without the help of language, such as: "What is this? Why is this? What is that? Why is this? " Wait, sometimes adults are at a loss. Generally speaking, the better the language development, the stronger the thirst for knowledge, the faster the knowledge accumulation and the better the intellectual development. It also has a great influence on the formation of children's personality. Children with good language development often have the advantages of being lively, cheerful, active in thinking and strong in communication skills; Poor language development is the opposite. This shows that children's oral ability is directly related to psychological or mental health problems. At present, mental health has surpassed physical health and become the biggest and most intractable problem of human health. There are many reasons for people's mental health problems, one of which is language barrier or poor language ability. Therefore, language education and the cultivation of oral ability are the prerequisites for cultivating cognitive ability.
Second, the enlightenment of children's literature to moral quality
(A) the moral function of children's literary works
Children's literature is of great help to the enlightenment education of children's moral quality. The sense of justice, love for the country and healthy psychological quality in the works will have a positive impact on children. First of all, there are a lot of materials in fairy tales, stories and fables that can enlighten moral quality. Children like to imitate, and naturally they will worship the role models in the story and imitate them. This is a great impetus to moral education. Secondly, patriotism in the works will have a great influence on children's young minds. Patriotic enthusiasm and national consciousness should be cultivated in early childhood, and it is impossible for young minds to naturally produce national ideas and national consciousness, so patriotic education in early childhood is particularly important. Thirdly, the early cultivation of psychological quality must also rely on the role of children's literature, and cultivate complete personality, strong will, healthy psychology, strong interest and good habits from an early age. Thirdly, another important aspect of moral education is "prohibiting development". When children are at a loss and confused, they can often get help through a story. A good children's literature can give children courage and strength.
(B) cultivate curiosity and interest
First of all, Mr. Jin Bo, a famous professor of children's literature at Beijing Normal University, once pointed out: "Imagination is the unique potential of children." "Respect for children, the first is to respect the child's nature. Since childhood, they like to learn with curiosity, learn in exploration and learn in games. " "We should fully understand, tolerate, respect, affirm and appreciate children's imagination." "Young readers may be more interested in the short story in the book, but it is not an ordinary story. It is not satisfied with knowing a plot. It leads to thinking outside the story-turning the brain, expanding the thinking space, or re-creating by analogy, and so on. " Therefore, stories with appropriate materials, rich connotations and extremely enlightening are more welcomed and favored by young readers; It is also to cultivate moral feelings, thinking ability, extensive interests and good habits; It is the best way to establish a scientific world outlook and a healthy lifestyle. No one does not love their children. what is love ? In fact, the greatest and most complete love is "full understanding, respect and appreciation." . Although children lack rationality, their emotional world is quite rich, with an expression of "appreciation"; An "understanding" smile; A "respectful" inquiry will make children feel great satisfaction and comfort, and it will also become a direct driving force for continued development.
Secondly, interest is one of the factors of mental health, and cultivating interest is one of the measures to ensure mental health. If any educational institution awakens or cultivates an interest of the educated, no matter whether this interest will reach utilitarian value in the future, the educated will have a sense of fulfillment and expectation, and will be willing to invest wisdom and enthusiasm for it. Interest can lay the foundation for our spiritual life. Without the support of interest, any learning activity can't be carried out deeply, persistently and effectively only by cheap encouragement and pale preaching, because children are only interested in things and activities that they can understand and perceive. Under the guidance of interest, children can actively learn and improve by engaging in activities enthusiastically, immersing themselves in activities, and giving full play to their various potentials can enable them to gain positive emotional experience, thus forming a sound personality. If the content and methods of education do not meet the development level and needs of children, they will lose interest and cannot develop. Therefore, interest is the starting point and motivation for children to actively participate in learning activities. At the same time, interest is a sign, and it is a sign to judge the success of our education.
(C) the formation of good habits
Excellent moral behavior is the basic requirement of being a man. The cultivation of children's moral behavior habits is an important part of children's quality education and plays an important role in children's future growth and development. Confucius said, "Less is nature, and habit is nature." For those active children, in the process of reciting poems, teaching children to do some actions with poems will help them gradually develop the habit of concentration. Those "active" children are attracted to the right track, and their operational ability has also been exercised to some extent. The habit formed when a person is young is very stable and will play a role all his life. The new "Kindergarten Guiding Outline" points out: "Kindergarten moral education should focus on emotional education and cultivate good behavior habits, paying attention to subtle influence and running through children's lives and activities." Childhood is the enlightenment period of life, and it is an important period for shaping healthy personality and forming good moral quality. In educational activities, "infiltration" is the main feature of moral education in kindergartens, that is, it permeates the whole process of children's play, study, labor, entertainment and daily activities, and permeates all kinds of relationships between children and peers and adults. Over time, children have formed good habits in their words and deeds.
Thirdly, aesthetic education in children's literature.
People naturally love beauty and pursue it all their lives, but their aesthetic ability varies from person to person. Aesthetic education for children in early childhood can lay a solid aesthetic foundation for their life. Therefore, aesthetic education is an important part of preschool education, which greatly promotes the development and formation of children's emotion, personality and overall quality. Appreciation and learning of literary works is one of the ways of aesthetic education, and the beauty in children's literature is endless.
First, language is beautiful. Clean words, in line with children's innocence and aesthetic acceptance of new souls, easily and naturally flow into children's hearts at a happy pace, just like a clear spring nourishing their hearts. Children's songs, a concise literary masterpiece, tell the love and understanding of children in simple and simple words. Poetry is a literary form that expresses its inner content in refined language form.
Secondly, the artistic conception is beautiful. Children's literature depicts a beautiful artistic conception for children with beautiful language. Fairy tales, in particular, present a novel artistic conception for children with their rich and interesting bizarre fantasies. For example, Robinson Crusoe and Alice in Wonderland are excellent works that children can never get tired of watching. One of the important reasons why it attracts young children is that its fantastic artistic conception is magical and beautiful.
Thirdly, the beauty of the hero's personality and noble style are the main ways for young readers to beautify their hearts, and the admirable character of the characters in the works is an example for children to learn. Especially the sense of justice, this theme is very popular with young children, such as What Is the Sea Made of, Huluwa and so on. Children all want to be the embodiment of justice like the protagonist in the story. Finally, the aesthetic effect of children's literature in language teaching activities can not be separated from the organic combination of various means, so that children can feel the beauty in children's literature works through listening, watching, doing and speaking, thus cultivating their aesthetic ability.
When talking about the educational function of children's literature, Mr. Liu pointed out that "the educational function and cognitive function of literature can only be realized through the intermediary of aesthetic function". When children are in a beautiful environment, everything around them will give them strong aesthetic stimulation and artistic edification. For example, let children enjoy the scene of the sketch "Spring is Coming": in the blue sky, there are a few newly released white clouds and kites, bright green willows are hanging upside down and swaying in the wind, swallows are flying around in the willows, and children are running and playing on the green grass. Show the beauty of spring to the fullest, show the beauty to children and let them enjoy it, so as to cultivate their aesthetic feeling and ability and arouse their strong desire for appreciation. Aesthetic education does not require teachers to teach children beautiful words, beautiful sentences and beautiful artistic conception, but to make children feel beautiful words, beautiful sentences and beautiful artistic conception through flexible ways, so that children can actively turn these into their own consciousness and interest, gain their own experience of beauty, and make children's interest, emotion, mood and attitude in beauty undisguised, like to express and create, and recreate beauty with their own feelings of beauty.
Aesthetic ability is a very important ability in life. Whether you can find your own happiness in life without getting lost in the lust of low taste, aesthetic taste and aesthetic ability play a very important role. Rodin, a famous master of art, famously said, "There is no shortage of beauty in the world, but the eyes that find it." As long as you feel it with your heart, you will find beautiful shadows everywhere in your life. Teachers' care, parents' care, friends' help, an unexpected gift, a kind smile, a pair of earnest eyes and a pair of attentive eyes ... Children's literature is just a condensed version of these beautiful things in life, and an amplification of various phenomena in life. Especially fairy tales and children's novels, you can find beautiful things from fascinating plots and explore what people cherish. Learn to be grateful, know the good and the evil, and be a person with a conscience. This shows the aesthetic education in children's literature.
Four conclusions
Good life mood is closely related to education and its experience. Although education cannot completely determine the happiness of life, a happy life begins with the experience of education. Therefore, as far as early education is concerned, what is important is not giving knowledge and ability, but the desire for knowledge and ability, the desire for knowledge and exploration, and the formation of a healthy and happy emotional world. Happiness in early education and optimistic perception of the objective world can arouse children's beautiful and happy life feelings, which is their mental preparation for the future. For preschool children, good feelings are love for good things, and love for people and nature. Therefore, "people-oriented" and "green civilization" will always be the two major themes of children's literature appreciation and expression.
Its vivid image and strong appeal deepen children's understanding and perception of the world around them, develop children's spirit of inquiry, aesthetic consciousness and creative desire, and have a good foundation for children's future spiritual quality and cultural accomplishment. Children's beautiful feelings generated by feeling these beautiful things, as well as their budding creative desire and enthusiasm. Is the goal or purpose of children's literature. Under normal circumstances, children get happy emotions and positive emotional experience in the process of appreciating the content and expression of works, just like opening a window to know the world and nature. Through this window, we can broaden our horizons, increase our knowledge, and promote physical and mental health and smooth development. Then, despite the growth of age and the passage of time, some unforgettable fragments will become permanent memories, and the experience will become more and more profound, thus becoming a purifying agent of the soul and benefiting endlessly for life. Even if it is not perfect, it is "not far".