Elena Shuvalova
Consultation for educators "how to develop curiosity in preschool children"

Consultation for educators

"How develop curiosity in preschool children»

What is curiosity? AT "Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language" S. Ozhegova and N. Shvedova give such a definition. Curiosity- this is a tendency to acquire new knowledge, inquisitiveness. S. L. Rubinshtein, an outstanding psychologist and philologist, curiosity associates with cognitive interest, an indicator of which is the number and variety of questions asked by the child. L. I. Arzhanova proposes to characterize curiosity"a complex feeling of love for knowledge", arising in the process of mental work and manifested in the tendency to acquire more and more new knowledge. In the study of N. A. Pogorelova curiosity considered as a personality trait, the structure of which includes three component: knowledge, emotions, active search nature of human activity, aimed at mastering new knowledge. At the same time, knowledge acts as a source, property, indicator and means. curiosity development.

Curiosity is a valuable quality of the individual and expresses the attitude to the surrounding life, nature. Knowing nature, the child begins to consciously and carefully treat it. In the process of cognition, the foundations of ecological culture are laid. Introducing the child to nature, we comprehensively develop him as a person, educate interest, care for her.

Young children are explorers by nature. The world awakens interest in the child "pioneer". He is interested in everything new, unknown. Every day brings him a lot of discoveries, many of which he draws from nature: either the icicle turned into water, or the icy path, sprinkled with sand, stopped sliding. They want to experience everything themselves, to be surprised by the unknown. They form curiosity- the desire to know the patterns of the world around. That is why we, adults, need the interest of the child, curiosity make it a manageable process, and most importantly, useful for it in terms of cognitive, moral, aesthetic development. Agree, it is unacceptable to ruin a tree for the sake of cognitive interest, pour water into galoshes to check their tightness, etc.

The cognitive interest of the child should give rise to good feelings in him, be directed to the benefit of his development.

Before proceeding to development of curiosity in children some features must be taken into account.

AT development of curiosity in preschool children playing and practical activities are of decisive importance. Curiosity expressed in numerous questions with which they turn to adults. These questions arise from the need for orientation in the surrounding world. The reasons for posing questions are usually the emergence of uncertainty in something, the violation of the primary order, and in general various noticeable changes in the world of things and processes surrounding the child.

Curiosity in preschool initially caused mostly by the external properties of objects and phenomena. The lack of knowledge and life experience limits this age steps the opportunity to penetrate into the essence of things, to highlight in them the main, most significant features. Then the questions are directed to get verbal designations of observed objects and phenomena and an explanation of purely external, sometimes secondary and insignificant, but striking in their unusualness of objects and phenomena.

Targets of the Federal State Educational Standard preschool education provide that senior preschooler"manifests curiosity, asks questions to adults and peers, is interested in causal relationships, tries to independently come up with explanations for natural phenomena and people's actions, tends to observe, experiment.

We must encourage children's curiosity. Children's questions should not be left unanswered. It is necessary, if possible, to briefly, clearly and easily answer his question. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the level of mental preschooler development based on his life experience.

It is important to arouse the child's interest in familiar subjects. For example, you can invite children to watch dandelions for a walk. Many discoveries will be made. Children may note that the dandelion turns its head towards the sun, and closes its eye in the evening, that many insects flock to the fragrant smell of the flower, that the seeds of the plant are light, like parachutes.

A child's knowledge is an unnecessary burden if he does not know how to use it.

Therefore, you need to teach the child how to use their knowledge, developing direction of his imagination.

A child, playing with a cube, can imagine it with anything and anyone in his fantasies, and an adult must help the child to clothe his fantasies in some kind of game plot, create a complete plot.

It is very good to teach this by writing fairy tales with children. Everyone pronounces several of his sentences in turn, the task of an adult is to direct plot progression to completion. Can fairy tales be used for development of the child's imagination, change its end or beginning, distort the plot or compose a sequel.

Very effective curiosity develops through riddles who teach in many ways and figuratively perceive the world. The main feature of the riddle is that it is a logical task, to guess it means to find a solution to the problem, to perform a mental operation. “The castle is like a small dog, because it does not let you into the house. The bulb resembles a grandfather dressed in a hundred fur coats.

The use of riddles in curiosity development enriches the child with new knowledge, encourages further reflection, observation.

I would like to recall the wise advice of V. A. Sukhomlinsky “Know how to open one thing in front of the child in the world around him, but open it so that a piece of life plays in front of the children with all the colors of the rainbow.”

Curiosity does not develop in a vacuum. To develop curiosity in a child, needed terms:

Basic conditions curiosity development is widely known children with the phenomena of the surrounding world, with nature, upbringing active interest in them;

Properly organized developing the subject-spatial environment will stimulate the emergence of new questions for children, respectively, the solution of new problems;

Necessary condition curiosity development and cognitive interest children is a diverse activity that carries a cognitive function (motor, play, communicative, reading fiction, productive, musical and artistic).

Methods development of curiosity in children can be divided by 3 groups:

Visual - these are observations, illustrations, watching video presentations about studying phenomena;

Verbal - these are conversations, reading fiction, the use of folklore materials;

And practical - these are games-experiments, games-experiments, didactic games, role-playing games with elements of experimentation, board games, transformation games, tricks, entertaining games.

One of the main practical methods that contribute to the formation curiosity, is experimentation. In our modern society, a creative person is in demand, capable of active knowledge of the world around him, the manifestation of independence, and research activity. In a rapidly changing life, a person is required not only to possess knowledge, but, first of all, the ability to obtain this knowledge himself and operate with it, to think independently, creatively. Experimentation meets these requirements of life.

The main advantage of using the experimentation method in kindergarten is that in the process experiment:

Children get real ideas about the various aspects of the object being studied and its relationship with other objects and with the environment;

There is an enrichment of the child's memory, his thought processes are activated (because it becomes necessary to perform operations of analysis and synthesis, comparison, classification, generalization);

- speech develops(there is a need to report on what he saw, to formulate patterns and draw conclusions);

There is an accumulation of a fund of mental skills;

Independence, goal-setting, the ability to transform any objects or phenomena to achieve a certain result are formed;

- develops emotional sphere of the child, creative abilities;

Work skills are formed, health is strengthened by increasing the overall level of physical activity.

Children love to experiment. This is due to the fact that they are inherent in visual-effective or visual-figurative thinking, and experimentation, like no other method, contributes to these age characteristics.

Knowledge, emphasized not from books, but obtained independently, through the work of one's own thought, is always conscious and more durable.

Chinese proverb says"Tell me and I'll forget, show me and I'll remember, let me try and I'll understand."

To organize the work on experimentation in groups, centers for experimental activities should be created.

In the process of practicing experimentation, praise more often children for resourcefulness and ingenuity. Confident, thanks to praise and support, in their abilities, children begin to strive for knowledge no longer dependent on praise, their cognitive activity improves.

I have been running the circle for five years "Young Explorers", just for experimentation. And in practice, I was convinced that experimental activity, like play, is the leading and most interesting and attractive for the child. In my work, I have carried out various types of experimentation: with real and abstract objects. With a real object, this is experimentation with animate and inanimate nature. What do you think abstract objects mean?

Abstract objects are word, representation, and relation objects. Children can guess what can be done with an object, where this object can be used, come up with new words, and engage in word creation.

And how this method of experimentation is applied in practice, you will understand in the course of our further work.

Practical part.

Now I propose to conduct an experiment with an object of inanimate nature. With what, you will find out, guessing guess riddle:

Which note and product have the same name?

That's right, salt. Today we will transform salt. I propose to make such an original craft "Rainbow in a jar" from colored crayons and salt. Salt can be painted with gouache, food coloring, acrylic paints. Also colored crayons.

Everything you need to get the job done is right in front of you. Someone has crayons worn on a grater into powder, and someone will need to roll the crayon over salt.

Work plan.

1. You need to take a clean sheet of paper and pour some salt on it.

2. Take chalk any color and roll it over the salt, pressing it a little for better color release. The color should be saturated.

3. Who has colored chalk powder, just add it to the salt and mix thoroughly. I prepared seven flowers, like a rainbow.

4. Who managed to color the salt in the desired color, carefully pour it into the finished bag, and from it into a glass jar, alternating like the colors of the rainbow. To make the craft look more interesting, you can pour the salt into the container at an angle by turning the jar. Be careful not to mix the layers.

While you're at work, I'll talk a little about salt.

In ancient times, people mined salt by burning some plants at the stake, and used the ash as a seasoning. It took a very long time before people learned how to get salt from sea water by evaporation.

Nowadays, salt is the only mineral substance that people consume in its pure form. Salt is a food product, and we know it as small white crystals. In fact, salt of natural origin has a grayish tint. Salt is produced in different types: unpeeled (stone) and peeled (cooking, large and small, sea.

Rock salt is mined in deep mines. How did she get there? Rock salt deposits are found high in the mountains. In the Paleozoic era, these mountains were replaced by an ocean. In a dry and hot climate, sea water evaporated, and salt crystallized and compressed into thick layers.

Salt kills germs - this is one of the most important properties of salt. Salt is an antiseptic.

In the Middle Ages, salt played the role of money, that is, they paid with it, and it had a very high price.

Salt is a very interesting object to study. It can be used for various experiments and learn completely different properties of salt.

Salt is soluble;

Salt is odorless;

Salt has a taste;

Salt can hold various objects on the water;

Salt can be used to grow various crystals, etc.

All this is interesting and the children like it very much.

You can implement various long-term projects where you can observe salt, find out the beneficial properties of salt from a medical point of view, why salt is needed, how harmful it can be, etc.

Well, have you finished your work? Let's see how beautiful it turned out.

Now come up with a name for your work, but such that the word SALT sounds in it.

("Salty Rainbow", "Do, mi, salt", "Salty Fantasy" and etc). - Good.

Now imagine that you need to give this craft as a gift. Who will you give it to? What feelings do you think he will experience? (joy, admiration, delight). Okay, well done.

Now we tried to experiment with the word - an abstract object, coming up with a title for your work, we assumed what would happen if? Imagine who we want to give?

AT this case, our real object is a multi-colored jar, and the abstract object is a word, an assumption.

Thank you all for your active participation.

Curiosity is an important trait not only for children, but also for adults. It was curiosity that allowed many brilliant personalities to make discoveries that we use now. Albert Einstein talked about the importance of never stopping asking questions and never losing your holy curiosity.

Unfortunately, many adults have largely lost the curiosity they had as children. This, of course, is affected by the functional development of the nervous system, but not only it, but also the loss of personal interest in something new. Especially after graduating from high school or university. And in vain, because curiosity is important because:

• It gives life a sincere interest and thus allows you to fill every day with meaning. Agree, because our hobbies bring more joy to life.
• It activates the thought process and develops mental abilities. Thus, brain cells (neurons) do not age, retain memory and the most important mental functions.
• It allows us to expand our understanding of ourselves and the richness of the world around us. And this, in turn, allows us to discover something new that was imperceptible or inaccessible.

If curiosity dies, then old age has come. Many American studies confirm that a common feature of all centenarians is curiosity. Many of the planet's centenarians have several different hobbies, take life lightly and have a great interest in everything that happens. Therefore, scientists say that it is important to develop these qualities.

How to develop curiosity:

1. Forget what you know. Often our idea that we know something is just an idea. It is difficult to learn something new if you are an expert in everything. Get rid of this notion. You can only be an expert in one particular thing.
2. Do not scold yourself for the fact that you knew something before, but now you have forgotten. At any point in time, you can refresh your memory and discover new interesting details that you didn’t notice before.
3. Try to look deeper. Any process, any action can include both explicit and hidden details. Find the "secret ingredient" or create your own.
4. Experiment and be open to new things. Try to do something that you haven't done before. For example, attend a parent training, a roll making course, or a glass painting workshop.
5. Ask questions to yourself, relatives, acquaintances: Where was it invented? Who created? When did it appear?
6. Treat learning with interest. Change your inner attitude towards learning, make it an exciting and important part of your life.
7. Increase the number of different interests and do not limit yourself to one thing. Choose something with which you are not yet familiar, and then you can expand your understanding of the world even more.
8. Share new knowledge, and perhaps others will follow you into a new world of discoveries and hobbies.

Then I learned a lot about myself, my habits and characteristics, one of which was curiosity. Now I understand how useful this trait is for those who are lucky enough to have it. It may sound a little strange, but being curious is essential, especially if you want to become an entrepreneur.

Natural curiosity contributes to the development of innovative and innovative thinking, and these are the main qualities in the work of an entrepreneur.

What does it mean to be inquisitive?

Think about it for a minute - if you are interested in everything, you have no time to be bored. Curiosity is a natural state that generates new ideas and the development of innovations. When you are interested in everything, then you are involved in the process, you listen, you WAKE UP!

One interesting thing I've noticed is that inquisitive people use information as a means of inspiration. They, like a sponge, absorb information and, accordingly, receive knowledge from all channels available to them. Curiosity is the fuel for creative ideas and innovation.

Curiosity allows you to look at things in a new way

Inquisitive people often have a natural desire to break stereotypes, which, in turn, contributes to the development of innovation. Such people are constantly looking for new ways to improve everyday things, based on the results already achieved.

They find a positive approach to things - and this is not to point out other people's mistakes, this is a natural desire to improve things that already exist.

People who are interested in everything usually think quickly because they absorb a lot of information. Their insatiable thirst for knowledge requires quick thinking. When you are interested in something, you get to think more flexibly. This helps to achieve success in our rapidly developing world. If you look at the most successful companies of the past few years, such as Google and Facebook, you will see that they have one thing in common - they quickly respond to changes, and, thanks to this, always maintain their leadership positions.

Curiosity helps solve problems

Curious people usually focus not on the problem itself, but on its solution. As a result, the skills to quickly solve problems are formed. This applies to any problems: not only within the framework of work, but also at home. When you master the ability to quickly solve problems, you can solve them anywhere, which will give you the opportunity to enjoy life.

Curiosity turns difficulties into fun adventures!

When you suddenly have difficulties, what will be your first reaction - fear or interest? When we are interested, everything becomes an adventure for us! There is no problem that curious people cannot solve because they look at life positively and have a problem-solving mindset. Curiosity always asks questions, instead of immediately answering “I can’t.”

Compare the inquisitive and inquisitive approaches:

Uninquisitive people usually talk and think like this:

“I can't believe this happened to me!” (Note that there is fear in these words);

“This system is useless!” (This is a complaint that has nothing to do with solving the problem);

“Why try in vain - I still won’t find the answer” (Negative thinking).

And vice versa When we are interested, we ask questions such as:

“Can we do it differently?”

“What if we look at it from a different perspective?”

“Why doesn't it work? I bet there is a better way to make this work.”

If life is boring for you and you need a fresh look at solving a problem, then I strongly recommend that you get into such a habit as curiosity. You will not even have time to fully realize it yet, when you will be inspired and motivated to generate new ideas, projects and ways to solve problems!

Here are some ways to become curious:

1. Try to always update your “knowledge bank” with the latest innovations (find new forms of media)
2. Get in the habit of constantly doing something new (a new recipe, a commute to work, or even new exercise routines)
3. Be like a sponge - absorb new information from different sources (at work, at home, from people on the street, from books, magazines, movies, from your phone - anywhere!)
4. Listen to other people's opinions and draw lessons for yourself (ask people what they think about this or that issue)
5. Don’t be afraid to argue and break the “status quo” (constantly change topics of discussion)
6. Stop constantly brainstorming about innovation for a while (about your own and others' entrepreneurial ideas)
7. Think of ways to improve something (You never knew, but your idea might be the best!)

Curiosity is at the heart of all ideas, inventions and creative actions. It creates inventors, innovators, pioneers, creators, craftsmen. The result of curiosity can become valuable both for the person himself and for his environment.

What is curiosity

Curiosity is an interest in acquiring new knowledge, internal openness to people, phenomena, the surrounding world, a sincere desire to satisfy cognitive needs and gain new experience or impressions.

In the process of life, the mind needs new information, and the soul needs experiences. Curiosity is inherent in open people who are characterized by trust, which is incompatible with malice. Curiosity implies a willingness to learn, gaining experience from those who know. It encourages development.

Advantages

Curiosity involves a person in the world of discoveries, brings positive emotions, frees from indifference, encourages action, broadens horizons and allows you to look at the world without stereotypes.

Thanks to the curiosity of researchers, science does not stand still, combined with diligence, this quality gives unsurpassed results.

Curiosity "makes" the best students.

An inquisitive person is distinguished by full perception and genuine attention to the interlocutor. There are no boring topics for him, in any of them he will find something exciting.

Flaws

Rarely is curiosity a negative experience. If, as a result of knowledge, it is found that something cannot be changed, this state of affairs is depressing.

Sometimes the desire to acquire new information or conduct a risky experiment leads to big trouble. There are enough examples of how the curiosity generated by the ban turned into not only accidents, but also lifelong complexes in the use of ordinary things (matches, water, electricity).

Interest can play into the hands of gloating or turn into a lever of control, help to understand the psychological causes of failure. Thus, curiosity is an interest in one direction or another, which can be equated with virtues, and curiosity simply goes beyond the limits of a person’s own interests and can bring both benefit and harm.

The relationship of curiosity with other qualities

The more knowledge a person gets, the stronger his curiosity. Educators, teachers also base the educational process on the fact that the development of children's curiosity and learning are interrelated.

Thanks to observation, the ability to notice details, interest easily arises and reflection is activated. Curiosity and observation are directly dependent on each other.

An inquisitive person is well informed. By receiving news about the people, the country and the world, a holistic perception develops.

Curiosity is stimulated with professional development, without it there is no professional success.

1. It is worth discarding the opinion that everything a person needs is already known, because in any direction there remains the unknown, and there is always something to learn.

2. Feel free to ask. Each stupid question removes from ignorance and brings you closer to enlightenment.

3. It is not necessary to strive for an ideal, it is enough to adhere to a balanced state: to supplement interest with getting pleasure from a new experience. Development should please, and then everything will happen by itself.

4. You need to work regularly, albeit little by little, so that appropriate habits are developed. Avoid extremes.

5. Don't back down: Everyone fails, even the great ones.

6. Develop intuition. Combined with fundamental logic, intuition produces amazing results.

Eternal questions like "what's inside?" we ask since childhood. And if a person split the atom, invented electricity and much more, then only thanks to his curiosity!

Albert Einstein considered the ability to ask questions one of the main conditions for success. Curiosity, self-criticism, stubborn endurance, according to him, led him to startling ideas.

The history of science is replete with examples of inquisitiveness that have resulted in dizzying success. There are also cases when the researcher managed to get very close to the discovery, but the laurels of the discoverer went to others! For example, the famous Michael Faraday in the process of electrolysis could have discovered an elementary electric charge, but, apparently, he was too focused on the process of electrolysis.

Curiosity contributed to the emergence of the theory of Charles Darwin. Thanks to the perseverance of the researcher, he was able to take place as a revolutionary in science.

Peter I was endowed with inquisitiveness to the highest degree, as history speaks eloquently. Massive reforms and transformations in the state are proof of this.

For Leonardo da Vinci, curiosity became one of the seven qualities that contributed to the development of his genius, and, as he believed, can help anyone become a genius. According to Leonardo, he was never satisfied with just one answer "yes".

1. Listen to your child's questions, don't shy away from them. Do not be silent, do not pull the child under the argument of fatigue, his importunity, because questions may completely disappear from his life. Your answers are needed for his experience and development.

2. Allow your child to experience. The research activity of the baby with your participation can be transferred to the direction where its result will suit both the parent and the child: instead of testing toys for strength - sculpting figures from clay, plasticine, dough; instead of scattering sand, sifting it through a sieve; instead of painting on wallpaper - dissolving food coloring in water, and so on.

It is no secret that the development of the curiosity of preschoolers depends on the ability to express themselves, independence, self-confidence. Allow your child to plant flowers, draw with chalk, press the call button, talk on the phone, cook the dough. Experience opportunities are everywhere.

It is desirable that the baby's room allows you to arrange experiments, does not hold back the child's imagination. It is necessary to explain to the child that in his experiments you may not be satisfied with only the result, and not the process itself.

3. Watch and show. Park, lawn, playground, museum, zoo, shop, street - any place can become an educational space. It is good to attend exhibitions and concerts, performances, invite guests. Ask your child questions, share observations, discuss interesting things for him.

4. Encourage your child's imagination. In addition to educators and reality, the baby is surrounded by a fantasy world: cartoons, games, books, his imagination. Let the child improvise, "be an adult", play the role of fairy-tale characters, portray animals, characters of people. Let the kid come up with his own story. Stimulate his imagination with a non-standard development of the plot: "what would happen if ...", "how would the heroes live?"

TV is the enemy of active knowledge of the world, even the most sophisticated transmission includes passive expectation. The child understands that any issues will be resolved without his participation. An exception may be the joint viewing of educational programs.

5. Incorporate learning into your daily routine. Introduce your child to numbers, ask simple questions: "one candy or two?", "red or blue?", "what does it look like?", "what letter?", and so on. The task of such communication is to awaken interest, which will make the learning process simple.

6.Encourage your child to express their opinion. Change the environment, rearrange toys, put things in order, look for the best option, taking part in a single process.

7. Think of learning as a game. Criticism, ridicule, punishment for failure, coercion against will - all this will make the child think that learning is a very difficult matter, can cause isolation and fear in relation to learning.

8. Be an example for your child. Let the child understand that you are also passionate about the process of knowing the world, that it is interesting and can last a lifetime.

9. Set up experiments. A non-standard turn of events activates the curiosity of preschool children. Such an approach will include reflection, encourage independence, and contribute to the development of ingenuity. Allow the child to see the solution to the problem in several ways in everyday life. Tell us how they study and live in other countries, how they eat. Break the habit, get excited about the innovations that you create yourself. And be your child's friend.

Problems in the development of curiosity

In modern society, the development of curiosity is due to the contradictions between:

• the need to develop this quality at preschool age and the accepted practice, which is not always conducive to the development of curiosity;
• the need for a theoretical analysis of the problem of the development of the curiosity of preschool children and its insufficient study in psychological research;
• the possibility of developing children's curiosity in preschool educational institutions and the lack of program guidelines for the pedagogical process.

Experts point to a list of possible obstacles that hinder the manifestation of inquisitive human behavior, which is based on the search, assimilation and transformation of information.

These include the so-called operational difficulties: insufficiency of the cognitive sphere and the ability to analyze and generalize information, limited judgment skills and cognitive habits.

From emotional difficulties, an example is excessive self-criticism, which does not provide psychological stability, the basic basis for self-expression.

Curiosity should be considered as an independent activity: the search for information, full self-expression and interaction with the environment - these are the components on the basis of which the positive aspects of character will develop.

The formation of cognitive interest depends on external causes and individual characteristics of the individual, the task of tracking which is assigned to educators. Much depends on the environment of a person: understanding, stimulation, support, communication and mutual exchange are of great importance in the development of personality and the development of curiosity.

Sayings about curiosity

Curiosity is a component of an active mind, which at all times worried scientists, writers, artists.

Edward Phelps urged to maintain the fire of curiosity in oneself, which will not allow the meaning of life to dry out.

According to Anatole France, it is only thanks to curiosity that the world is rich in scientists and poets.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau rightly noted that a person is inquisitive to the extent of his enlightenment.

"Curiosity is the engine of progress!" - Andrey Belyanin's statement.

According to Maria von Ebner-Eschenbach, curiosity is a curiosity that concerns serious subjects, and it can rightly be called the "thirst for knowledge."

An inquisitive person is always popular in society, it is pleasant to talk with him and it is impossible to get bored, and his many-sided interests and hobbies contribute to the acquisition of new friends. Curious children are characterized by initiative, purposefulness, diligence, perseverance, confidence, academic performance. Thus, the development of curiosity is becoming one of the important tasks in modern education.

interest cognitive preschool water

The problem of cognitive interest was widely studied in psychology by B.G. Ananiev, M.F. Belyaev, L.I. Bozhovich, L.A. Gordon, S.L. Rubinstein, V.N. Myasishchev and in the pedagogical literature G.I. Schukina, N.R. Morozov.

Interest, as a complex and very significant education for a person, has many interpretations in its psychological definitions, it is considered as:

• - selective focus of human attention;
• - manifestation of his mental and emotional activity;
• - a specific attitude of a person to an object, caused by the consciousness of its vital significance and emotional attractiveness.

G.I. Shchukina believes that in reality the interest comes before us:

• - and as a selective focus of human mental processes on objects and phenomena of the surrounding world;
• - and as a tendency, aspiration, the need of a person to engage in a given area of ​​phenomena, a given activity that brings satisfaction;
• - and as a powerful motivator of personality activity;
• - and, finally, as a special selective attitude to the surrounding world, to its objects, phenomena, processes.

Interest is formed and developed in activity, and it is influenced not by individual components of activity, but by its entire objective-subjective essence (character, process, result).

Interest is an "alloy" of many mental processes that form a special tone of activity, special states of the individual (joy from the learning process, the desire to delve into the knowledge of the subject of interest, into cognitive activity, experiencing failures and strong-willed aspirations to overcome them).

The most important area of ​​the general phenomenon of interest is cognitive interest. Its subject is the most significant property of a person: to cognize the world around us not only for the purpose of biological and social orientation in reality, but in the most essential relation of a person to the world - in an effort to penetrate into its diversity, to reflect in the mind the essential aspects, cause-and-effect relationships, patterns. , inconsistency.

Cognitive interest, being included in cognitive activity, is closely associated with the formation of diverse personal relationships: a selective attitude to a particular field of science, cognitive activity, participation in them, communication with partners in cognition. It is on this basis - the knowledge of the objective world and attitudes towards it, scientific truths - that the worldview, worldview, attitude, an active, biased character, which is promoted by cognitive interest, is formed.

Moreover, cognitive interest, activating all the mental processes of a person, at a high level of its development encourages a person to constantly search for the transformation of reality through activity (changes, complication of its goals, highlighting relevant and significant aspects in the subject environment for their implementation, finding other necessary ways, bringing creativity to them).

A feature of cognitive interest is its ability to enrich and activate the process of not only cognitive, but also any human activity, since there is a cognitive principle in each of them. In labor, a person, using objects, materials, tools, methods, needs to know their properties, to study the scientific foundations of modern production, to comprehend rationalization processes, to know the technology of a particular production. Any kind of human activity contains a cognitive principle, search creative processes that contribute to the transformation of reality. A person inspired by cognitive interest performs any activity with great predilection, more effectively.

Cognitive interest is the most important formation of a personality, which develops in the process of human life, is formed in the social conditions of its existence and is in no way immanently inherent in a person from birth.

The value of cognitive interest in the life of specific individuals is difficult to overestimate. Cognitive interest contributes to the penetration of the individual into essential connections, relationships, patterns of cognition.

Cognitive interest is an integral education of a personality. As a general phenomenon of interest, it has a very complex structure, which is made up of both individual mental processes (intellectual, emotional, regulatory) and objective and subjective connections of a person with the world, expressed in relationships.

Cognitive interest is expressed in its development by various states. Conditionally distinguish successive stages of its development: curiosity, inquisitiveness, cognitive interest, theoretical interest. And although these stages are distinguished purely conditionally, their most characteristic features are generally recognized.

Curiosity- an elementary stage of the electoral attitude, which is due to purely external, often unexpected circumstances that attract the attention of a person. For a person, this elementary orientation associated with the novelty of the situation may not be of particular importance.

At the stage of curiosity, the child is content only with the orientation associated with the amusement of this or that object, this or that situation. This stage does not yet reveal the true desire for knowledge. And, nevertheless, entertaining as a factor in revealing cognitive interest can serve as its initial impetus.

Curiosity- a valuable state of the individual. It is characterized by the desire of a person to penetrate beyond what he saw. At this stage of interest, rather strong expressions of emotions of surprise, joy of knowledge, satisfaction with activity are found. It is in the emergence of riddles and their deciphering that the essence of curiosity lies, as an active vision of the world, which develops not only in the classroom, but also in work, when a person is detached from simple performance and passive memorization. Curiosity, becoming a stable character trait, has a significant value in the development of personality. Curious people are not indifferent to the world, they are always in search. The problem of curiosity has been developed in Russian psychology for a long time, although it is still far from its final solution. A significant contribution to understanding the nature of curiosity was made by S.L. Rubinshtein, A.M. Matyushkin, V.A. Krutetsky, V.S. Yurkevich, D.E. Berline, G.I. Schukina, N.I. Reinvald, A.I. Krupnov and others.

Theoretical interest associated both with the desire for knowledge of complex theoretical issues and problems of a particular science, and with their use as a tool of knowledge. This stage of man's active influence on the world, on its reorganization, which is directly related to the worldview of man, with his convictions in the power and possibilities of science. This stage characterizes not only the cognitive principle in the structure of the personality, but also the person as an actor, subject, personality.

In a real process, all these stages of cognitive interest are the most complex combinations and relationships. In cognitive interest, both relapses are found in connection with a change in the subject area, and coexistence in a single act of cognition, when curiosity turns into curiosity.

Interest in knowing the real world is one of the most fundamental and significant in child development.

Preschool age is the heyday of children's cognitive activity. By the age of 3-4, the child, as it were, is freed from the pressure of the perceived situation and begins to think about what is not in front of his eyes. The preschooler is trying to somehow streamline and explain the world around him, to establish some connections and patterns in it.

In older preschool age, cognitive development is a complex complex phenomenon, including the development of cognitive processes (perception, thinking, memory, attention, imagination), which are different forms of orientation of the child in the world around him, in himself and regulate his activity. It is known that by the senior preschool age, the possibilities of the initiative transforming activity of the child are noticeably increasing. This age period is important for the development of the child's cognitive needs, which finds expression in the form of search, research activity aimed at discovering something new. Therefore, the prevailing questions are: “Why?”, “Why?”, “How?”. Often, children not only ask, but try to find the answer themselves, use their little experience to explain the incomprehensible, and sometimes even conduct an “experiment”.

A characteristic feature of this age is cognitive interests, expressed in careful examination, independent search for information of interest and the desire to find out from an adult where, what and how it grows, lives. An older preschooler is interested in the phenomena of animate and inanimate nature, shows initiative, which is found in observation, in an effort to find out, approach, touch.

The result of cognitive activity, regardless of the form of cognition in which it is realized, is knowledge. Children at this age are already able to systematize and group objects of animate and inanimate nature, both according to external signs and according to signs of the environment. Changes in objects, the transition of matter from one state to another (snow and ice into water; water into ice, etc.), such natural phenomena as snowfall, blizzard, thunderstorm, hail, hoarfrost, fog, etc. are of particular interest to children of this age. Children gradually begin to understand that the state, development and changes in animate and inanimate nature largely depend on the attitude of a person towards them.

The child's questions reveal an inquisitive mind, observation, confidence in an adult as a source of interesting new information (knowledge), explanations. The older preschooler “verifies” his knowledge of the environment, his attitude towards the adult, which for him is the true measure of all things.

Psychologists have experimentally studied that level development of the cognitive sphere determines the nature of interaction with natural objects and attitudes towards them. That is, the higher the level of knowledge of children about nature, the more they show a cognitive interest in it, focusing on the state and well-being of the object itself, and not on its evaluation by adults. Psychologists emphasize that the type of activity in which knowledge is acquired is decisive for the development of the child. Cognitive activity is understood by us not only as a process of mastering knowledge, skills and abilities, but mainly as Search knowledge, the acquisition of knowledge independently or under the tactful guidance of an adult, carried out in the process of humanistic interaction, cooperation, co-creation.

Therefore, it is important for an adult in the learning process, supporting cognitive activity, to create conditions for children to independently search for information. After all, knowledge is formed as a result of the interaction of the subject (child) with this or that information. It is the appropriation of information through its change, addition, independent application in various situations that generates knowledge.

Children love to explore. This is explained by the fact that they are characterized by visual-effective and visual-figurative thinking, and research, like no other method, corresponds to these age characteristics. At preschool age, it is the leading, and in the first three years - almost the only way to know the world. The research is rooted in the manipulation of objects, as L.S. Vygotsky.

When forming the foundations of natural science and environmental concepts, research can be considered as a method that is close to ideal. Knowledge that is not drawn from books, but obtained independently, is always conscious and more durable. The use of this teaching method was advocated by such classics of pedagogy as Ya.A. Comenius, I.G. Pestalozzi, J.-J. Russo, K.D. Ushinsky and many others.

After three years, their integration gradually begins. The child passes into the next period - curiosity, which, subject to the correct upbringing of the child - passes into the period of curiosity (after 5 years). It was during this period that research activity acquires typical features, now experimentation becomes an independent activity. A child of older preschool age acquires the ability to carry out experiments, i.e. he acquires the following range of skills in this activity: to see and highlight a problem, to accept and set a goal, to solve problems, to analyze an object or phenomenon, to highlight essential features and connections, to compare various facts, to put forward hypotheses and assumptions, to select means and materials for independent activity, to carry out experiment, draw conclusions, fix the stages of actions and results graphically.

The acquisition of these skills requires a systematic, purposeful work of the teacher aimed at developing children's experimenting activities.

Experiments are classified according to different principles.

• - By the nature of the objects used in the experiment: experiments: with plants; with animals; with objects of inanimate nature; the object of which is man.
• - At the place of the experiments: in the group room; Location on; in the forest, etc.
• - By the number of children: individual, group, collective.
• - Because of their conduct: random, planned, set in response to a child's question.
• - By the nature of inclusion in the pedagogical process: episodic (conducted from case to case), systematic.
• - By duration: short-term (5-15 minutes), long-term (over 15 minutes).
• - By the number of observations of the same object: single, multiple, or cyclic.
• - By place in the cycle: primary, repeated, final and final.
• - By the nature of mental operations: ascertaining (allowing you to see some one state of an object or one phenomenon without connection with other objects and phenomena), comparative (allowing you to see the dynamics of the process or note changes in the state of the object), generalizing (experiments in which common regularities of the process studied earlier in separate stages).
• - By the nature of the cognitive activity of children: illustrative (children know everything, and the experiment only confirms familiar facts), search (children do not know in advance what the result will be), solving experimental problems.
• - According to the method of application in the audience: demonstration, frontal.

Each type of research has its own method of conducting, its pros and cons.