Veraksa a n project activity of preschoolers. Project activities of preschoolers

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The proposed article is devoted to the issues of supporting children's cognitive initiative in the conditions of preschool educational institutions and families. This topic is very relevant for a number of reasons. First, a person needs to get a positive social experience of implementing his own ideas as soon as possible. The uniqueness of a person is manifested not in her appearance, but in what a person contributes to his social environment. If what seems to him the most significant is also of interest to other people, he finds himself in a situation of social acceptance, which stimulates his personal growth and self-realization. To do this, it will be enough to continue to be yourself, meaningfully realizing your attitude to the world. Secondly, the ever-increasing dynamism of people's economic and social relations requires the search for new, non-standard actions in a variety of circumstances. Non-standard actions are based on the originality of thinking. We proceed from the fact that creativity is a quality of the individual and develops if it is of social value, i.e. its manifestations are welcomed by others. Thirdly, the idea of harmonious diversity as a promising form of social development also implies the ability to take productive initiative.

This skill must be taught from childhood. However, there are certain difficulties on the way of its formation. One of them is the formal relationship of the adult to the activities of the child. For example, when a baby is busy with something, an adult, seeing that he is not bothering him, says: “Well, do it, do it, well done.” At the same time, the adult does not bother to analyze the child's activities. It would seem that the reverse picture should be observed when analyzing productive activities, such as design, visual activity, modeling, etc. According to the teacher's instructions, preschoolers perform various tasks and create specific products. These products can be presented to others, but they are not an expression of the child's creative ideas, but are the result of mastering the program content. Such works are characterized not so much by the search for a new solution or the expression of the child's own vision of the surrounding reality, but by the embodiment of the teacher's intentions, that is, they are also products of object relations. Of course, preschoolers can reach a level of development of productive activities that will reflect their vision of reality. However, even in this case, the results of the activities of preschoolers are evaluated conditionally, i.e., as results obtained within the framework of children's activities, and therefore having a limited, conditional value.

Project activity acts exactly as project activity only if direct, natural action is impossible. In other words, if a child wanted to draw something, then took a pencil, a piece of paper and carried out his plan, then this would not be a project activity - all the child's actions were performed within the framework of traditional productive activity. The difference between project activity and productive activity is that the first involves the movement of the child in the space of the possible. The preschooler explores various options for completing the task, chooses the best way according to the criteria defined by him. Choice of possibilities means that the child is not just looking for a way to perform an action, but is exploring several options. This means that, first of all, the preschooler clearly determines what he needs to do. For example, he wants to make a stand for pencils or brushes. In the case of project activities, the implementation of this task is not carried out immediately. First, the preschooler tries to imagine several options for how to do this. Since figurative thinking dominates in preschool age, the presentation of various options for completing the task can be presented in the form of a picture. Having made several images, the child holds in his mind a number of options. If there are several options, it becomes possible to analyze them by comparing them with each other, identifying their advantages and disadvantages. In fact, each such option allows the preschooler to better understand what he is going to do and understand the sequence of actions that is necessary to create a product. Returning to the coaster example, we see that children can use a variety of materials to create it. Therefore, the comparison of drawings can go, in particular, from the standpoint of the possibilities of using materials. In addition, the comparison can go along the line of attracting people to jointly carry out the project. Here it is necessary to take into account the fact that the child’s intention, as a rule, is far ahead of his technical capabilities, therefore it is important to assist the preschooler in the implementation of his plan. In this case, it is difficult to count on the help of other children. For the implementation of project activities, the participation of adults, especially parents, is necessary. It is the joint implementation of the plan that allows children and parents to better understand each other and establish warm relations.

It is important to note that most preschool teachers are very sensitive to children and support them emotionally. However, this emotional support should not result in a willingness to perform a creative action for the child, whether it be the formulation of a creative idea or the promotion of possible ways to solve a problem. The difficulty lies in the fact that the teacher must organize a problem situation for children, but should not offer his own solutions, i.e. should get away from the traditional and habitual action according to a predetermined pattern. Otherwise, the child will be in an object position.

In project activities, subjectivity means the expression of initiative and the manifestation of independent activity, but the subjectivity of a child can manifest itself with varying degrees of severity. So, the child can offer an original idea (that is, not previously expressed in the group), or support and slightly modify the idea of another child. In this case, the task of the educator is to emphasize the originality of his idea. Let's take an example. When discussing gifts for March 8, one boy suggested drawing a postcard for his mother. Another supported his idea, adding that he could also draw a postcard for his sister. From the point of view of an adult, the same idea is voiced: the creation of a postcard. In this case, an adult can say: “Vasya already said about postcards. Try to think of something else." Another way is more productive: you can support the initiative of the second child, emphasizing that no one has yet offered a card for the sister. In this case, the teacher receives several advantages: firstly, it opens up a new space for creative activity (one may wonder how the postcards for mother and sister differ, but you can still remember grandmothers, educators, etc.), and secondly, secondly, it supports the initiative of the child who receives a positive experience of utterance, and next time, most likely, he will also offer some version of the idea. The general recommendation is to support and positively celebrate the very fact of the statement, even if it literally repeats the statement of another child. This is especially important for passive children who do not have a positive social experience of taking the initiative.

So, one of the main features of project activity is that it unfolds in a problematic situation that cannot be solved by direct action. If a child decides to build a garage for a car out of cubes, then it is obvious that he has a problematic situation - the garage must be stable, the car must fit freely inside the garage. However, the solution of such a problem during the game is not a project activity, since the child builds a garage, estimates the dimensions, increases or reduces it. But as such, there is no exploration of the space of possibilities.

The second feature of the project activity is that its participants must be motivated. But mere interest is not enough. It is necessary that both the teacher and the child realize in project activities not only their understanding, but also their meanings. Let's take an example. Preparation for the holiday is a familiar event, the technology of organization and conduct of which is described in detail in many programs. The child may be interested in preparing for the holiday, but project activities will begin only at the moment when the teacher, together with the child, tries to discover the meaning of the holiday. After all, what is a holiday? This is a special day in the life of a person or country, reminiscent of some important event. Therefore, you need to understand what this day or this event means for each child or for the teacher. How do we treat it? Why do we celebrate it? In what ways do we express our attitude to the holiday? Etc. It is obvious that such questions make you think about the meaning that the holiday carries for each participant in the project activity. And once the meaning is defined, you can look for ways to present it.

The third important feature of project activity is its targeted nature. Since in the course of the project activity the child expresses his attitude, he is always looking for the addressee - the person to whom his statement is addressed. That is why the project activity has a pronounced social coloring, and ultimately is one of the few socially significant activities available to a preschooler.

Despite the general features of the structure, three main types of project activities can be distinguished: research, creative and normative - each of which has its own characteristics, structure and characteristic stages of implementation. Let's turn to research projects. Its originality is determined through the goal: research involves getting an answer to the question of why this or that phenomenon exists, and how it is explained from the point of view of modern knowledge. At the same time, it is necessary to maintain all the above characteristics of the project activity:

a real research problem can never be solved by direct action and involves an analysis of the space of the possible;
the child must realize and formulate for himself and others the reason why he is included in the study;
it is necessary to immediately orient the child to determine the audience to which the project will be presented.

As practice shows, research projects are most often individual in nature and contribute to the involvement of the closest environment of the child (parents, friends, brothers and sisters) in the sphere of his interests. Moreover, communication becomes meaningful, and the child opens up in a new way.

Let's take an example. Misha K. had no friends among his peers: he was rarely accepted into the game. When project activities were organized in the group, Misha announced a research project dedicated to the design of a car. As a result, he understood the structure of the main blocks of the car, learned to distinguish between brands and describe their advantages and disadvantages. After the presentation of the project, Misha became a kind of expert on cars and gained unprecedented authority among the boys, which could not but affect the nature of his communication with his peers.

If we describe research project activities through the stages of its implementation, then for the most part they are associated with the design of a research project.

First stage involves the creation of a situation in which the child independently comes to the formulation of a research problem. There are several possible strategies for teacher behavior. The first strategy is that the teacher sets the same problem situation for all children, and as a result, a general research question is formulated. So, the question of where electricity comes from can be discussed by the whole group. The second strategy involves carefully observing children's activities and identifying each child's area of interest, and then creating a special situation in which the child asks a research question. For example, a girl who loves to play with dolls and dress them up can be led to the question of what the dolls looked like before, what they were dressed in, etc. The third strategy involves the involvement of parents who, together with the child, formulate a research problem for the project. Over time, children begin to independently formulate a research problem, based on an attempt to understand the real situations in which they find themselves.

At the second stage the child draws up a project. Parents help the baby, but it should be remembered that the organizer is the child, the parents perform an auxiliary function, following his plan.

The first page is devoted to the formulation of the main issue of the project and, as a rule, is a colorful headline created by joint efforts: parents write, the child helps to decorate the page.

The second page reveals the importance of the question posed, from the point of view of the child, peers, parents and acquaintances. The child must independently conduct a survey and draw illustrations depicting the content of the answers given by peers, parents, acquaintances and himself. In the first projects, it is not necessary to involve the entire circle of people in the survey, but it is important that several different points of view (belonging to the child and two or three others) are presented.

The third page is devoted to various answers to the question posed. Sources can be people, books, TV programs, etc. The child can use clippings, photographs, make drawings on his own. Of course, adults should assist in writing down the answers that the child wants to present.

The fourth page is devoted to choosing the most correct answer, from the point of view of the child. The child must not only choose and fix the answer, but also give his own explanation - why he was chosen.

The fifth page is devoted to expressing the child's own position on this issue. He can express an original opinion or join the already expressed and formalized in the project.

The sixth page is devoted to possible ways of checking the answer proposed by the child, which are shown as a picture. It is important that various strategies for obtaining an answer are formed in the child's mind - turning to an adult (parent, teacher), turning to a peer, a book, watching a program, etc., that is, a new space of possibilities is being formed. At the bottom of the page, the child must draw the method of obtaining information that he used and justify the advantages of the chosen method (the latter is necessarily discussed with the child, but not necessarily displayed in the form of a verbal record - you can use pictorial icons that will help the child restore the meaning of the argument).

The seventh page shows the result of checking the correctness of the answer. It is displayed whether it was possible to check how difficult the selected method turned out to be.

The last page reflects the possibilities of applying the project in practice, which are realized or invented by the child: he can talk about the project in a group, with his friends, organize a game, etc. (possible areas of application depend on the content of the project).

Third stage- protection of the project. The child, together with their parents, must apply for the protection of the project: that is, go to the teacher and sign up for the defense schedule. It is important that parents confirm the possibility of their presence at the defense of the project and help the child prepare a story about the work done. On the day of the defense of the project, the child brings his folder with sheets and hangs them on the stand before the start of his speech. The teacher helps him fix the sheets and arrange them in the correct sequence. Then the child talks about the work done, pointing to the corresponding images, records, etc.

Fourth stage. After protection, work with projects does not end. The teacher organizes an exhibition of projects and comes up with various tasks and intellectual games to consolidate and systematize the knowledge presented in children's projects. At the end of the exhibition, the projects go to the library of the kindergarten group, are sewn into a book and are freely available.

Projects not only enrich preschoolers with knowledge and stimulate their cognitive activity, but also influence the content of role-playing games. So, for example, on the basis of the project "Space - far and near", a game in space was organized. The room was divided into explored space and unknown planets. In the corner there is a science center with maps, models and drawings of the starry world. From the materials at hand, the children made various attributes of the game on their own: fabric capes turned into spacesuits, twisted sheets of paper became telescopes, boxes and jars - equipment for flying to distant galaxies, etc.

Working on research projects is interesting because the range of children's knowledge is extremely wide, and it is constantly increasing, as kids begin to acquire knowledge on their own, attracting all available means.

(Continued in the next issue.)

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Current page: 1 (total book has 10 pages)

Nikolai Evgenievich Veraksa, Alexander Nikolaevich Veraksa

Project activity of preschoolers. Handbook for teachers of preschool institutions

Library "Programs of education and training in kindergarten" under the general editorship of M. A. Vasilyeva, V. V. Gerbova, T. S. Komarova

Personal website address - www.veraksaru

Foreword

Such a skill must be nurtured from childhood. However, there are certain difficulties on the way of its formation. One of them is related to the fact that society is a strict normative system in which a person must act according to certain rules, that is, in a standard way. The initiative always involves going beyond the limits defined by tradition. At the same time, this action must be culturally adequate, that is, it must fit into the existing system of norms and rules. A child who shows initiative must orient himself in the reality around him, understood as a certain culture that has its own history. General abilities are called upon to provide such an orientation. We understand abilities in the context of the cultural-historical theory of L. S. Vygotsky and the theory of activity. Abilities act as a psychological tool that allows the child to move in the space of culture. At the same time, we emphasize once again that the cognitive initiative is a way beyond the limits of culture. But how, in a culturally appropriate way, can a transcendence of culture be presented? The project activity will help to solve this problem. It is this that allows not only to support the children's initiative, but also to formalize it in the form of a culturally significant product, that is, in the form of a certain cultural model (or norm).

Such an interpretation of the children's initiative and its implementation in project activities is based on a study conducted under our supervision (since 2000). It was carried out in pre-school educational institutions in Novouralsk and on the basis of the Little Genius resource center in Moscow. The results of the work showed that preschoolers can successfully carry out project activities. At the same time, there are distinct positive changes in the cognitive development of children, there is a personal growth of preschoolers, which is expressed in the desire to perform original creative work. The interpersonal relations of preschoolers change significantly, children acquire the experience of productive interaction, the ability to hear others and express their attitude to various aspects of reality. There are changes in the relationship between children and parents. Children become interesting for parents as partners in joint activities.

Children's cognitive initiative

Personality is a special social characteristic of a person, which has two features. The first is related to the fact that a person does something that distinguishes him from other people. The second feature is that this difference turns out to be important and useful for other people.

The main feature of this or that achievement lies in its novelty and connection with the sphere of need. Let's take an example. The well-known domestic inventor A. S. Popov created a device that was called "radio". This device made it possible to transmit information wirelessly over long distances. Such an invention proved to be extremely useful for a large number of people. In the same way, V. Van Gogh, who painted the painting The Lilac Bush, created such a work that continues to delight and thus satisfy the aesthetic needs of the Hermitage visitors. Undoubtedly, both A. S. Popov and V. Van Gogh are unique personalities extremely significant for society.

Important characteristics of a person are the thinking and imagination of a person, which allow, in a figurative way, to first present the idea of a work, consider its various options and find the best one, and then bring it to life. In fact, by creating a work, an inventor, an artist, a teacher embody their idea of an ideal, which at the same time becomes an ideal for the people around them. Thus, personality always involves the creation of something new, the acceptance of this new by others.

What contributes to the personal development of a person?

One of the main conditions is to support the activity of the individual. Such support is impossible without a positive social assessment of activities aimed at creating something new. As a rule, the new is the result of solving some problem in which the creative person is interested. Therefore, we can say that it is creative activity that is the main feature of personality. An equally important condition contributing to personal development is an adequate social presentation of the results of human activity.

Personal support is largely related to the attitude of society to the presented creation. As soon as a creative product is completed and presented to society, it ceases to be new. This phenomenon can be especially clearly seen in the example of songs that composers compose. Quite often a new song, which at first struck with its novelty, loses popularity and can be completely forgotten. Support for the composer's personality is provided by the fact that the song continues to be performed, that is, it becomes some traditional content of various social situations. In fact, the song is institutionalized, becomes the norm. For example, the song of Crocodile Gena from the cartoon about Cheburashka is quite often performed at children's birthdays, although it has clearly lost its novelty.

The main task associated with supporting the creative beginning of the individual, which faces preschool education, is to find forms in which such support can be carried out.

The cognitive activity of children is carried out in a specific cultural space, which is a system of norms set by adults. Hence the need to consider the activity of the child in the normative situation.

A child who finds himself in a normative situation can act both in accordance with the given norm and in accordance with the possibilities conditioned by external circumstances. There are several types of child activity in a normative situation. First of all, all the actions of the child can be aimed at identifying the possibilities that exist in the given circumstances. This form of activity is characteristic of a creative person. In addition, it is easy to identify cases of direct imitation when the child follows the norm set by adults. Such behavior of the child is formal, it is not always successful. Its main feature is that the child seeks to repeat the action in accordance with the given pattern without entering the space of possibilities. For a child, there is only a rigidly set cultural norm. Another type of activity can be distinguished in the case when the activity takes place in the space of possibilities, but at the same time it is mediated by a cultural norm, that is, it is carried out in the context of a task set by an adult. In this case, the child himself is looking for a cultural norm as a special opportunity.

The intellectual development of preschoolers can be activated in the course of educational work aimed at creating normative situations that support the initiative of children in the space of possibilities and ensure the assimilation of culturally given means and methods of analyzing reality.

An analysis of the educational work carried out in preschool institutions shows that the entire system falls into two directions. In accordance with one of them, children are given maximum freedom of action, and in accordance with the other, on the contrary, the actions of preschoolers are very limited, they must follow the instructions of adults. Both of these approaches have significant drawbacks. In the first case, it would seem that the child moves in the space of possibilities and his creativity develops. However, this does not guarantee the level of child development that is necessary for learning at school, where the child finds himself in a situation of extreme normativity caused by the rigid logic of constructing subject content. As an extreme measure in solving this problem, the widespread imposition of school programs on preschool education is used. In another case, the child is deprived of the opportunity for self-realization and personal growth in the forms available to him. In this regard, a special problem arises in the formation of a child's personality in the system of preschool education. The free movement of the child in the space of possibilities and the acquisition of school knowledge do not allow the preschooler to present himself as a person in the world around him. In one case, all his activity, although it has an individual character, does not find adequate cultural forms of expression, in the other, although it is cultural, it is deindividualized. That is why it is necessary to give the child the opportunity to express their individuality in a meaningful way in a cultural form. To do this, the child must not only move in the space of possibilities, but also be able to formalize the results of this movement, creating their own cultural products.

The development of cognitive abilities determines the further process of the formation of children's intelligence. As already noted, the child's cognitive activity takes place in a specific cultural space, which can be viewed as a system of normative situations that support or, conversely, hinder cognitive initiative. Stimulation of the initiative of the child or its suppression can be carried out in a variety of situations.

Consider the following example. The teacher conducts a lesson aimed at developing the elements of logical thinking. At the same time, he assumes that at the end of the lesson, after about 25 minutes, the children will be able to classify the presented set of objects into three groups. However, in practice, the lesson proceeded as follows. The teacher showed the children objects and was going to formulate a problem. At this time, the preschooler said, “I know. All items can be divided into three groups. The teacher is frustrated. Instead of supporting the child's initiative and discussing his reasons for such a conclusion, the educator pretended that nothing was happening. He continued the lesson, at the end of which, as the preschooler said, all objects were successfully divided into three subgroups, but the child's initiative was suppressed.

The very phrase "creative initiative" implies going beyond the established limits. It is clear that in a preschool institution, in the course of the educational process, a child must master a certain system of norms. For example, he must learn to interact without conflict with peers, create buildings according to the model, master various techniques of visual activity, etc. In all these cases, there is practically no space for the manifestation of children's initiative, if by initiative we mean an attempt to create something new.

Many believe that a preschooler is essentially helpless: physically weak, his thinking is not developed, he cannot engage in any type of activity for a long time, etc. Therefore, the tasks that can be offered to children should be extremely simple and understandable. This position is justified to a certain extent. In infancy, the child is really completely and completely dependent on the adult. At the same time, the child is mostly at home, and all meetings with other children and adults are episodic. The situation changes dramatically when the child goes to kindergarten. Now social life begins to open before him. In his mind, the image of a peer appears as an equal partner in joint activities and the image of an educator as a bearer of certain social norms and rules of behavior. It is important to note that it is in interaction with a peer that a child can show genuine initiative and receive a genuine assessment of his actions (which may or may not be liked by a peer). It is this experience, irreplaceable by anything, that will have an impact on the personal development of the child in the future. Unfortunately, it is difficult for adults to change their attitude towards a child as an object of their own love and care and see him as an independent developing personality. This is why adults often treat children condescendingly.

However, the child faces real life tasks: for the first time he must enter a group of peers, take a certain, worthy place there, learn to negotiate with others, he must be interesting to others. In other words, the child must learn to be successful, which will help him gain confidence and pride in his own achievements, will serve as the basis for a trusting, friendly attitude towards the world. But the fulfillment of any task requires an appropriate attitude on the part of an adult. If the child feels that he is not perceived as an active participant in social interaction, then he refuses this role due to the meaninglessness of his own activity. Therefore, it is very important to communicate with the child as a person, trying to clarify his position and contribute to the expression of his own. A formal (and not personal) attitude towards a child is manifested, for example, in a situation where parents do not want to transfer the child to another preschool institution, despite the fact that the reasons for the preschooler's unwillingness to attend kindergarten can be quite weighty (for example, conflict relations with peers) . This fact once again convinces that adults often do not take seriously the problems and desires of a preschool child, do not seek to establish relations with them “on an equal footing”. In case of any conflicts, the parents of the guilty, in the opinion of the teacher, child are called to conduct an appropriate conversation. This implies that the child is not able to adequately describe the situation, so the teacher solves this problem at the level of parents, who, in turn, require only submission from the child (assuming that this is the main condition for successful upbringing). Such a strategy of interaction between adults and a child leads to the fact that, in the end, his initial natural activity is inhibited, he becomes passive, obedient and, in this respect, convenient for an adult.

However, the time comes to enter the first grade, and adults (both parents and teachers) face the following problem: the child is not really ready to take on the responsibility associated with entering school. Such a result is the result of the imperfection of the upbringing strategy chosen by adults, in which the child obeys them and therefore cannot achieve anything on his own without instructions from an adult. In the future, any new situation will be obviously difficult for the child, because he did not manage to master the forms of independent behavior. The child will constantly wait for help and seek support from a person who will say "how to do it." Even if the child manages to find such a person in school, any achievement obtained with his help will never be the child's own achievement.

The condescending-regulatory behavior of others does not allow the child to express himself in solving adult problems that he faces already at preschool age. Teachers are well aware that children discuss the same problems as adults (problems of life, death, love, childbirth, work, etc.). An adult, as it were, pushes the child out of the circle of his problems, creating a kind of artificial, schematic space of life. Adults should support the initiative of a preschool child.

As already noted, such support can be carried out in two forms - in the form of creating conditions for activity and in the form of appropriate social acceptance of a creative product. However, on this path it is easy to fall into formalism. For example, an adult, seeing that the baby is busy with something, does not interfere with him and says: “Well, do it, do it, well done.” At the same time, the adult does not seek to analyze the activities of the child. You can also often see that children's works (for example, plasticine crafts) gather dust on the shelves, that is, they remain unclaimed for a long time. In both cases, we are faced not with support for creative activity, but with a formal attitude towards the child's activity.

The subjectivity of the child is best manifested in play activities, which are leading in preschool age. From the point of view of A. N. Leontiev, the leading activity has a decisive influence on the development of the psyche at a particular age.

The preschooler perceives the social environment through play, which reveals to the child the meaning of interaction between people in various situations. A special role in the development of social relations is assigned to the role-playing game - a special form of cognition of social reality. It occurs when the child is able to imagine the actions of adults and imitate them. However, due to limited opportunities, the child cannot accurately reproduce the actions of an adult. There is a contradiction between the desire to act as an adult and the capabilities of the child himself, which is resolved in the role-playing game. For the emergence of a role-playing game, it is necessary that the child be able to use substitute objects that allow simulating the social actions of adults. The child, mastering various social roles (doctor, military man, etc.), masters those social motives that characterize the behavior of adults (the doctor is the one who treats people, the military man is the one who protects, etc.). At the same time, the preschooler retains his own initiative and gains experience in social partnerships with participants in gaming activities.

The main feature of the game lies in the conditional, symbolic assimilation of reality, and therefore is not considered by adults as a serious attempt to penetrate the essence of social relations. It is this circumstance that determines the nature of the demands that an adult makes on a preschool child. In fact, the child is allowed to show his own initiative only during the game. In all other cases, he must obey the requirements of adults. In other words, only in the game can a preschooler be the subject of social action.

At the same time, it should be noted that although the game is a space in which the child acts as the author of his own behavior, the results of his activity are of a procedural nature. This means that a preschooler cannot present the product of play activity to others, that is, he cannot enter into equal social interaction with an adult.

A different picture is observed when analyzing productive activities, such as design, visual activity, etc. In the course of such activities, preschoolers, as a rule, create various works according to the teacher's instructions. These products can be presented to others, but they are not an expression of the creative ideas of preschoolers, but are the result of mastering the program content. They are characterized not so much by the search for a new solution or the expression of the child's own vision of the surrounding reality, but by the embodiment of the teacher's ideas. Of course, preschoolers can reach a level of development of productive activities that will reflect their vision of reality. However, in this case, the results of the activities of preschoolers are evaluated conditionally, that is, as the results obtained in the framework of children's activities, and therefore, having a limited, conditional value.

As we have already said, preschool children willingly show their personality, going beyond the limits of established norms and attitudes. However, such an exit is not welcomed by others. In preschool educational institutions there is a system of norms, which in some cases prohibits children's activity. These are the so-called prohibitions. For example, quite often you can hear the following appeals of a teacher to children: “you can’t run up the stairs”, “you can’t walk alone in kindergarten”, “you can’t offend comrades”, etc. The presence of such prohibitions is largely due to the fear of adults for the lives of children . In the 80s of the XX century, T. A. Repina studied the prohibitions that adults impose on a child in a family. As a result, four groups of prohibitions were identified: 1) prohibitions aimed at keeping things safe and maintaining order in the house (do not touch the TV, do not climb into the wardrobe, do not draw on the windowsill, do not open drawers, etc.); 2) prohibitions designed to protect the child (do not take scissors, matches, do not jump from the sofa, do not go out alone, do not go to the stove, do not watch TV closely); 3) prohibitions aimed at protecting the peace of adults (do not scream when dad comes home from work, do not run, do not make noise, etc.); 4) prohibitions of a moral nature (do not tear books, do not break trees, do not speak rudely, etc.).

The first group of prohibitions was the most common, followed by prohibitions relating to the safety of the child, followed by prohibitions related to the protection of the rest of adults. The fourth group of prohibitions turned out to be the smallest (8% of the total number). The prohibitions of the first group came mainly from mothers (48%). In the second group of prohibitions relating to the safety of the child, the lion's share belonged to grandparents (56%). If all prohibitions aimed at protecting the peace of adults are taken as 100%, then 70% of them are prohibitions coming from fathers, and only 30% from mothers.

Thus, we see that there is a kind of prohibitive culture. The product of this culture is children who become passive, since any of their initiatives is prohibited by an adult. A more favorable situation is when the prohibition is translated into a prescription: instead of the statement “you can’t run”, the teacher says “walk and hold on to the railing”, instead of “you can’t offend a friend” - “you need to help a friend”, etc. However, even in this case, the result may be the same as in the implementation of prohibitions. Thus, spontaneous prosocial reactions of a preschooler (when, for example, he himself offers a toy to a neighbor, that is, in fact, voluntarily refuses the desired object in favor of another, although he did not ask him about it) in a number of cases cause negative behavior of peers. This phenomenon is explained not so much by the erroneous interpretation of prosocial behavior (behavior oriented for the benefit of others) by peers, but by the egocentric position of the child demonstrating it - after all, the peer did not ask, and therefore did not expect such actions. As a result, behavior that is regarded by the teacher as positive and, of course, pro-social, is perceived by peers as an invasion of their personal space. This assumption is confirmed by the fact that in the case of “requested” prosocial behavior, the level of positive responses of peers to the corresponding actions of the child almost doubles.

In Japanese preschool educational institutions, there is a different system of norms for preschool children. So, if in Europe and America cases of physical rudeness between children are considered as antisocial behavior, then in Japan the attitude towards such incidents is different. Teachers actually ignore such incidents and intervene not in order to punish the instigator, but in order to establish harmonious relations between children involved in the conflict (for example, the teacher tries to convey to the children that both children are always to blame for the conflict, and shows preschoolers how to apologize). The act of violence itself is not considered a crime - according to Japanese teachers, it is only a consequence of social immaturity, the inability of a preschooler to express his feelings.

As an example (given by L. Peak), we can consider the behavior of a four-year-old boy Satoru during classes in a Japanese kindergarten: “The teacher reads the story, the children listen. Satoru pushes the two girls, then starts pushing the boy next to him. The teacher pays no attention. Satoru jumps up from his seat and starts pushing the other kids. The teacher's assistant comes up to Satoru, puts his hand on his shoulder and smiles... Satoru waves it off, throws off the assistant's hand, runs up to the girl, hits her, she starts crying. The teacher stops reading and says, "If you do something that your friends don't like, they will cry." Then he continues reading… Satoru punches the teaching assistant and starts running around the room…”

After what she saw, L. Peak turned to the teacher for clarification and this is what he said: “Satoru grew up very spoiled. In the family, he is the eldest child and his parents do not pay as much attention to him as he wants ... Some children can say: “Come to my house for tea,” and this is how they make friends. Others act more simply - they pounce like puppies and wait for them to be chased ... We tell Satoru that he needs to be more careful, otherwise no one will become friends with him. He does not know how to communicate with others, but if you separate him from them, he will never learn to get along with his peers.

The position of Japanese teachers in relation to the aggressive manifestations of children is well represented in the following words: “... A fight between children is an important experience of social interaction. Through it, children learn to communicate their needs and respect the needs of other people ... If parents from an early age tell the child “don’t fight”, “play together with others together”, then his natural inclinations will be suppressed ... In this case, the children will come running and snitch … and adults will have to solve all the problems for them.”

Such a culture is hardly acceptable for European preschools, but it certainly represents the desire to support the initiative of children, even if it is expressed in immature behavior. In our culture, the main forms of raising a child are, as a rule, encouragement and punishment. They are aimed at organizing the process of assimilation by the child of the norms presented by adults. Both direct reinforcement (when adults reward the child for the desired behavior) and indirect (for example, when a preschooler tries to avoid punishment) act as encouragement. Adults quite often consider rewards and punishments as equivalent ways of influencing the behavior of a preschooler. However, there is a significant difference between them. With positive reinforcement, the child will perform the reinforced action as best as possible, and with negative reinforcement, the preschooler's behavior will be directed only at avoiding punishment. Punishment limits the child's initiative without changing the content of his activity. At the same time, punishment is a forced measure to limit the undesirable behavior of the child.

However, J. McCord found that even strong punishment (which directly threatens the child or affects his interests) does not prevent an undesirable form of behavior - as soon as the source of punishment disappears, that is, control over the child weakens, his negative, asocial forms of behavior may reappear. To give an example: “When his father was at home, Billy was just a model child. He knew that for bad behavior his father would punish him quickly and impartially. But as soon as his father left the house, Billy went to the window and waited for the car to disappear around the corner. And then he changed dramatically ... He climbed into my closet, tore my elegant dresses ... broke furniture, rushed around the house and pounded on the walls until he plunged everything into complete ruin.

Punishment, of course, forces the child to follow the norm, but this norm is very clearly associated with the adult who implements certain sanctions. As noted by J. Bowlby, there are two common methods of fixing the norm (in the case when the child does not follow it). “The first is a powerful expression of disapproval of the child's behavior through punishment; the second - more subtle and exploiting his sense of guilt - is to instill in the child a sense of ingratitude and emphasize the pain, physical and moral, that his behavior caused his devoted parents. Although both of these methods are intended to control the vicious passions of the child, clinical experience shows that neither is very successful and that both contribute heavily to the unhappiness of the child. Both methods tend to create in the child fear of their feelings and guilt about their manifestation, to drive them underground and, thus, make control over them for the child more, not less difficult. Much more effective is this form of punishment, in which the child is given the opportunity to correct the consequences of undesirable behavior. In this case, the preschooler, without coercion and excessive restriction, independently eliminates the consequences that are unacceptable for an adult, which allows the child to maintain an active position and avoid feelings of guilt.

Library "Programs of education and training in kindergarten" under the general editorship of M. A. Vasilyeva, V. V. Gerbova, T. S. Komarova

Veraksa Nikolai Evgenievich- Doctor of Psychology, Professor, Head of the Department of Social Psychology of Development of the Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, Head of the Laboratory of Pedagogy and Psychology of Abilities of the Institute for the Development of Preschool Education of the Russian Academy of Education, Editor-in-Chief of the journal “Modern Preschool Education. Theory and practice".
Personal website address - www.veraksaru
Veraksa Alexander Nikolaevich- PhD student, Faculty of Psychology, Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, lecturer at the Faculty of Social Psychology, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, Master in Psychological Counseling (University of Manchester, UK).

Foreword

The book offered to the reader is devoted to the issues of supporting children's cognitive initiative in the conditions of preschool educational institutions and families. This topic is very relevant for a number of reasons. Firstly, a person should get a positive social experience of implementing his own ideas as early as possible. The uniqueness of a person is manifested not in her appearance, but in what a person contributes to his social environment. If what seems to him the most significant is also of interest to other people, he finds himself in a situation of social acceptance, which stimulates his personal growth and self-realization. Secondly, the ever-increasing dynamism of economic and social relations requires the search for new, non-standard actions in a variety of circumstances. Non-standard actions are based on the originality of thinking. Thirdly, the idea of harmonious diversity as a promising form of social development also implies the ability to take productive initiative.
Such a skill must be nurtured from childhood. However, there are certain difficulties on the way of its formation. One of them is related to the fact that society is a strict normative system in which a person must act according to certain rules, that is, in a standard way. The initiative always involves going beyond the limits defined by tradition. At the same time, this action must be culturally adequate, that is, it must fit into the existing system of norms and rules. A child who shows initiative must orient himself in the reality around him, understood as a certain culture that has its own history. General abilities are called upon to provide such an orientation. We understand abilities in the context of the cultural-historical theory of L. S. Vygotsky and the theory of activity. Abilities act as a psychological tool that allows the child to move in the space of culture. At the same time, we emphasize once again that the cognitive initiative is a way beyond the limits of culture. But how, in a culturally appropriate way, can a transcendence of culture be presented? The project activity will help to solve this problem. It is this that allows not only to support the children's initiative, but also to formalize it in the form of a culturally significant product, that is, in the form of a certain cultural model (or norm).
Such an interpretation of the children's initiative and its implementation in project activities is based on a study conducted under our supervision (since 2000). It was carried out in pre-school educational institutions in Novouralsk and on the basis of the Little Genius resource center in Moscow. The results of the work showed that preschoolers can successfully carry out project activities. At the same time, there are distinct positive changes in the cognitive development of children, there is a personal growth of preschoolers, which is expressed in the desire to perform original creative work. The interpersonal relations of preschoolers change significantly, children acquire the experience of productive interaction, the ability to hear others and express their attitude to various aspects of reality. There are changes in the relationship between children and parents. Children become interesting for parents as partners in joint activities.

Children's cognitive initiative

One of the effective methods of working with children of senior preschool age is the method of project activity, which is based on understanding the role of the child's personality in the system of preschool education. Usually, a person is understood as a person with individual characteristics inherent in him (often of a psychophysiological plan, for example, aggressiveness, mobility, etc.). However, the concept of personality is associated not so much with psychophysiological qualities, but with how a person manifests himself among other people. Consequently, personality is a socio-psychological category, it is a social assessment of a person as a member of society. However, a person does not always manifest himself as a person. In some cases, he acts in accordance with accepted norms and traditions. For example, when one person listens to another, he is adhering to a social norm. It is clear that if a person does not follow social norms, then those around him direct all their efforts to subordinate his actions to generally accepted rules. For example, if a child eats carelessly or fastens buttons incorrectly, then adults try to make sure that the baby learns the appropriate rules. But when a preschooler learns to eat soup with a spoon, it can hardly be considered a unique personality.
Personality is a special social characteristic of a person, which has two features. The first is related to the fact that a person does something that distinguishes him from other people. The second feature is that this difference turns out to be important and useful for other people.
The main feature of this or that achievement lies in its novelty and connection with the sphere of need. Let's take an example. The well-known domestic inventor A. S. Popov created a device that was called "radio". This device made it possible to transmit information wirelessly over long distances. Such an invention proved to be extremely useful for a large number of people. In the same way, V. Van Gogh, who painted the painting The Lilac Bush, created such a work that continues to delight and thus satisfy the aesthetic needs of the Hermitage visitors. Undoubtedly, both A. S. Popov and V. Van Gogh are unique personalities extremely significant for society.
Important characteristics of a person are the thinking and imagination of a person, which allow, in a figurative way, to first present the idea of a work, consider its various options and find the best one, and then bring it to life. In fact, by creating a work, an inventor, an artist, a teacher embody their idea of an ideal, which at the same time becomes an ideal for the people around them. Thus, personality always involves the creation of something new, the acceptance of this new by others.
What contributes to the personal development of a person?
One of the main conditions is to support the activity of the individual. Such support is impossible without a positive social assessment of activities aimed at creating something new. As a rule, the new is the result of solving some problem in which the creative person is interested. Therefore, we can say that it is creative activity that is the main feature of personality. An equally important condition contributing to personal development is an adequate social presentation of the results of human activity.
Personal support is largely related to the attitude of society to the presented creation. As soon as a creative product is completed and presented to society, it ceases to be new. This phenomenon can be especially clearly seen in the example of songs that composers compose. Quite often a new song, which at first struck with its novelty, loses popularity and can be completely forgotten. Support for the composer's personality is provided by the fact that the song continues to be performed, that is, it becomes some traditional content of various social situations. In fact, the song is institutionalized, becomes the norm. For example, the song of Crocodile Gena from the cartoon about Cheburashka is quite often performed at children's birthdays, although it has clearly lost its novelty.
The main task associated with supporting the creative beginning of the individual, which faces preschool education, is to find forms in which such support can be carried out.
The cognitive activity of children is carried out in a specific cultural space, which is a system of norms set by adults. Hence the need to consider the activity of the child in the normative situation.
A child who finds himself in a normative situation can act both in accordance with the given norm and in accordance with the possibilities conditioned by external circumstances. There are several types of child activity in a normative situation. First of all, all the actions of the child can be aimed at identifying the possibilities that exist in the given circumstances. This form of activity is characteristic of a creative person. In addition, it is easy to identify cases of direct imitation when the child follows the norm set by adults. Such behavior of the child is formal, it is not always successful. Its main feature is that the child seeks to repeat the action in accordance with the given pattern without entering the space of possibilities. For a child, there is only a rigidly set cultural norm. Another type of activity can be distinguished in the case when the activity takes place in the space of possibilities, but at the same time it is mediated by a cultural norm, that is, it is carried out in the context of a task set by an adult. In this case, the child himself is looking for a cultural norm as a special opportunity.
The intellectual development of preschoolers can be activated in the course of educational work aimed at creating normative situations that support the initiative of children in the space of possibilities and ensure the assimilation of culturally given means and methods of analyzing reality.
An analysis of the educational work carried out in preschool institutions shows that the entire system falls into two directions. In accordance with one of them, children are given maximum freedom of action, and in accordance with the other, on the contrary, the actions of preschoolers are very limited, they must follow the instructions of adults. Both of these approaches have significant drawbacks. In the first case, it would seem that the child moves in the space of possibilities and his creativity develops. However, this does not guarantee the level of child development that is necessary for learning at school, where the child finds himself in a situation of extreme normativity caused by the rigid logic of constructing subject content. As an extreme measure in solving this problem, the widespread imposition of school programs on preschool education is used. In another case, the child is deprived of the opportunity for self-realization and personal growth in the forms available to him. In this regard, a special problem arises in the formation of a child's personality in the system of preschool education. The free movement of the child in the space of possibilities and the acquisition of school knowledge do not allow the preschooler to present himself as a person in the world around him. In one case, all his activity, although it has an individual character, does not find adequate cultural forms of expression, in the other, although it is cultural, it is deindividualized. That is why it is necessary to give the child the opportunity to express their individuality in a meaningful way in a cultural form. To do this, the child must not only move in the space of possibilities, but also be able to formalize the results of this movement, creating their own cultural products.
The development of cognitive abilities determines the further process of the formation of children's intelligence. As already noted, the child's cognitive activity takes place in a specific cultural space, which can be viewed as a system of normative situations that support or, conversely, hinder cognitive initiative. Stimulation of the initiative of the child or its suppression can be carried out in a variety of situations.
Consider the following example. The teacher conducts a lesson aimed at developing the elements of logical thinking. At the same time, he assumes that at the end of the lesson, after about 25 minutes, the children will be able to classify the presented set of objects into three groups. However, in practice, the lesson proceeded as follows. The teacher showed the children objects and was going to formulate a problem. At this time, the preschooler said, “I know. All items can be divided into three groups. The teacher is frustrated. Instead of supporting the child's initiative and discussing his reasons for such a conclusion, the educator pretended that nothing was happening. He continued the lesson, at the end of which, as the preschooler said, all objects were successfully divided into three subgroups, but the child's initiative was suppressed.
The very phrase "creative initiative" implies going beyond the established limits. It is clear that in a preschool institution, in the course of the educational process, a child must master a certain system of norms. For example, he must learn to interact without conflict with peers, create buildings according to the model, master various techniques of visual activity, etc. In all these cases, there is practically no space for the manifestation of children's initiative, if by initiative we mean an attempt to create something new.
Many believe that a preschooler is essentially helpless: physically weak, his thinking is not developed, he cannot engage in any type of activity for a long time, etc. Therefore, the tasks that can be offered to children should be extremely simple and understandable. This position is justified to a certain extent. In infancy, the child is really completely and completely dependent on the adult. At the same time, the child is mostly at home, and all meetings with other children and adults are episodic. The situation changes dramatically when the child goes to kindergarten. Now social life begins to open before him. In his mind, the image of a peer appears as an equal partner in joint activities and the image of an educator as a bearer of certain social norms and rules of behavior. It is important to note that it is in interaction with a peer that a child can show genuine initiative and receive a genuine assessment of his actions (which may or may not be liked by a peer). It is this experience, irreplaceable by anything, that will have an impact on the personal development of the child in the future. Unfortunately, it is difficult for adults to change their attitude towards a child as an object of their own love and care and see him as an independent developing personality. This is why adults often treat children condescendingly.
However, the child faces real life tasks: for the first time he must enter a group of peers, take a certain, worthy place there, learn to negotiate with others, he must be interesting to others. In other words, the child must learn to be successful, which will help him gain confidence and pride in his own achievements, will serve as the basis for a trusting, friendly attitude towards the world. But the fulfillment of any task requires an appropriate attitude on the part of an adult. If the child feels that he is not perceived as an active participant in social interaction, then he refuses this role due to the meaninglessness of his own activity. Therefore, it is very important to communicate with the child as a person, trying to clarify his position and contribute to the expression of his own. A formal (and not personal) attitude towards a child is manifested, for example, in a situation where parents do not want to transfer the child to another preschool institution, despite the fact that the reasons for the preschooler's unwillingness to attend kindergarten can be quite weighty (for example, conflict relations with peers) . This fact once again convinces that adults often do not take seriously the problems and desires of a preschool child, do not seek to establish relations with them “on an equal footing”. In case of any conflicts, the parents of the guilty, in the opinion of the teacher, child are called to conduct an appropriate conversation. This implies that the child is not able to adequately describe the situation, so the teacher solves this problem at the level of parents, who, in turn, require only submission from the child (assuming that this is the main condition for successful upbringing). Such a strategy of interaction between adults and a child leads to the fact that, in the end, his initial natural activity is inhibited, he becomes passive, obedient and, in this respect, convenient for an adult.
However, the time comes to enter the first grade, and adults (both parents and teachers) face the following problem: the child is not really ready to take on the responsibility associated with entering school. Such a result is the result of the imperfection of the upbringing strategy chosen by adults, in which the child obeys them and therefore cannot achieve anything on his own without instructions from an adult. In the future, any new situation will be obviously difficult for the child, because he did not manage to master the forms of independent behavior. The child will constantly wait for help and seek support from a person who will say "how to do it." Even if the child manages to find such a person in school, any achievement obtained with his help will never be the child's own achievement.
The condescending-regulatory behavior of others does not allow the child to express himself in solving adult problems that he faces already at preschool age. Teachers are well aware that children discuss the same problems as adults (problems of life, death, love, childbirth, work, etc.). An adult, as it were, pushes the child out of the circle of his problems, creating a kind of artificial, schematic space of life. Adults should support the initiative of a preschool child.
As already noted, such support can be carried out in two forms - in the form of creating conditions for activity and in the form of appropriate social acceptance of a creative product. However, on this path it is easy to fall into formalism. For example, an adult, seeing that the baby is busy with something, does not interfere with him and says: “Well, do it, do it, well done.” At the same time, the adult does not seek to analyze the activities of the child. You can also often see that children's works (for example, plasticine crafts) gather dust on the shelves, that is, they remain unclaimed for a long time. In both cases, we are faced not with support for creative activity, but with a formal attitude towards the child's activity.
The subjectivity of the child is best manifested in play activities, which are leading in preschool age. From the point of view of A. N. Leontiev, the leading activity has a decisive influence on the development of the psyche at a particular age.
The preschooler perceives the social environment through play, which reveals to the child the meaning of interaction between people in various situations. A special role in the development of social relations is assigned to the role-playing game - a special form of cognition of social reality. It occurs when the child is able to imagine the actions of adults and imitate them. However, due to limited opportunities, the child cannot accurately reproduce the actions of an adult. There is a contradiction between the desire to act as an adult and the capabilities of the child himself, which is resolved in the role-playing game. For the emergence of a role-playing game, it is necessary that the child be able to use substitute objects that allow simulating the social actions of adults. The child, mastering various social roles (doctor, military man, etc.), masters those social motives that characterize the behavior of adults (the doctor is the one who treats people, the military man is the one who protects, etc.). At the same time, the preschooler retains his own initiative and gains experience in social partnerships with participants in gaming activities.
The main feature of the game lies in the conditional, symbolic assimilation of reality, and therefore is not considered by adults as a serious attempt to penetrate the essence of social relations. It is this circumstance that determines the nature of the demands that an adult makes on a preschool child. In fact, the child is allowed to show his own initiative only during the game. In all other cases, he must obey the requirements of adults. In other words, only in the game can a preschooler be the subject of social action.
At the same time, it should be noted that although the game is a space in which the child acts as the author of his own behavior, the results of his activity are of a procedural nature. This means that a preschooler cannot present the product of play activity to others, that is, he cannot enter into equal social interaction with an adult.
A different picture is observed when analyzing productive activities, such as design, visual activity, etc. In the course of such activities, preschoolers, as a rule, create various works according to the teacher's instructions. These products can be presented to others, but they are not an expression of the creative ideas of preschoolers, but are the result of mastering the program content. They are characterized not so much by the search for a new solution or the expression of the child's own vision of the surrounding reality, but by the embodiment of the teacher's ideas. Of course, preschoolers can reach a level of development of productive activities that will reflect their vision of reality. However, in this case, the results of the activities of preschoolers are evaluated conditionally, that is, as the results obtained in the framework of children's activities, and therefore, having a limited, conditional value.
As we have already said, preschool children willingly show their personality, going beyond the limits of established norms and attitudes. However, such an exit is not welcomed by others. In preschool educational institutions there is a system of norms, which in some cases prohibits children's activity. These are the so-called prohibitions. For example, quite often you can hear the following appeals of a teacher to children: “you can’t run up the stairs”, “you can’t walk alone in kindergarten”, “you can’t offend comrades”, etc. The presence of such prohibitions is largely due to the fear of adults for the lives of children . In the 80s of the XX century, T. A. Repina studied the prohibitions that adults impose on a child in a family. As a result, four groups of prohibitions were identified: 1) prohibitions aimed at keeping things safe and maintaining order in the house (do not touch the TV, do not climb into the wardrobe, do not draw on the windowsill, do not open drawers, etc.); 2) prohibitions designed to protect the child (do not take scissors, matches, do not jump from the sofa, do not go out alone, do not go to the stove, do not watch TV closely); 3) prohibitions aimed at protecting the peace of adults (do not scream when dad comes home from work, do not run, do not make noise, etc.); 4) prohibitions of a moral nature (do not tear books, do not break trees, do not speak rudely, etc.).
The first group of prohibitions was the most common, followed by prohibitions relating to the safety of the child, followed by prohibitions related to the protection of the rest of adults. The fourth group of prohibitions turned out to be the smallest (8% of the total number). The prohibitions of the first group came mainly from mothers (48%). In the second group of prohibitions relating to the safety of the child, the lion's share belonged to grandparents (56%). If all prohibitions aimed at protecting the peace of adults are taken as 100%, then 70% of them are prohibitions coming from fathers, and only 30% from mothers.
Thus, we see that there is a kind of prohibitive culture. The product of this culture is children who become passive, since any of their initiatives is prohibited by an adult. A more favorable situation is when the prohibition is translated into a prescription: instead of the statement “you can’t run”, the teacher says “walk and hold on to the railing”, instead of “you can’t offend a friend” - “you need to help a friend”, etc. However, even in this case, the result may be the same as in the implementation of prohibitions. Thus, spontaneous prosocial reactions of a preschooler (when, for example, he himself offers a toy to a neighbor, that is, in fact, voluntarily refuses the desired object in favor of another, although he did not ask him about it) in a number of cases cause negative behavior of peers. This phenomenon is explained not so much by the erroneous interpretation of prosocial behavior (behavior oriented for the benefit of others) by peers, but by the egocentric position of the child demonstrating it - after all, the peer did not ask, and therefore did not expect such actions. As a result, behavior that is regarded by the teacher as positive and, of course, pro-social, is perceived by peers as an invasion of their personal space. This assumption is confirmed by the fact that in the case of “requested” prosocial behavior, the level of positive responses of peers to the corresponding actions of the child almost doubles.

Nikolai Evgenievich Veraksa, Alexander Nikolaevich Veraksa

Project activity of preschoolers. Handbook for teachers of preschool institutions

Library "Programs of education and training in kindergarten" under the general editorship of M. A. Vasilyeva, V. V. Gerbova, T. S. Komarova

Personal website address - www.veraksaru

Veraksa Alexander Nikolaevich- PhD student, Faculty of Psychology, Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, lecturer at the Faculty of Social Psychology, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, Master in Psychological Counseling (University of Manchester, UK). From the book Project activities of preschoolers. Handbook for teachers of preschool institutions author Veraksa Nikolai Evgenievich

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§ 3. Activities of health authorities and institutions to prevent the consumption of alcoholic beverages and drugs by minors

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Project activities of preschoolers

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In the context of the new person-centered paradigm, the main quality criterion preschool education is the development of the child as a subject of cognitive activities, life, culture, history.

At the present time of reform early childhood education design method more and more widely used to improve educational practice.

Method project activities based on understanding the role of the child's personality in the system preschool education.

A project activity is a project activity only if if direct action in a particular situation is impossible. In other words, if a child wanted to draw a picture, took a pencil, a sheet of paper for this and carried out his plan, then this activity will not be considered a project- the child performed all the actions within the framework of the traditional productive activities.

During project activity preschooler explores various options for solving the problem, according to certain criteria, chooses the best way to solve it. For example, a child wants to make a stand for pencils or brushes. The implementation of this task in the case project activities won't happen right away. At first preschooler tries to present several options for making the stand. Because in preschool age is dominated by figurative thinking, then the options for completing the task can be presented in the form of a picture. Having created several images, the child holds in his mind a number of options. If there are several options, it becomes possible to analyze them by comparing them with each other, identifying their advantages and disadvantages. In fact, each such option allows preschooler to understand what he is going to do and understand the sequence of actions. When making a coaster, a child can use different materials. When comparing drawings, people who will participate in a joint project. When organizing project activities must take into account the fact that in preschool As a rule, a child's conception is far ahead of his technical capabilities at a certain age. In this regard, adults, first of all, parents should provide assistance preschooler when realizing the intention. joint activity allows children and parents to understand each other, to establish a trusting relationship.

Method work projects is a relatively high level of pedagogical complexity activities.

1. It is necessary to have a socially significant task (Problems)– research, information, practical.

Further work on project is the solution to this problem. The search for a socially significant problem is one of the most difficult organizational tasks.

2. Execution project begins with planning actions to resolve the problem, in other words, with project design, in particular with the definition of the type of product and the form of presentation.

3. Distinguishing feature project activities - search for information, which will then be processed, meaningful and presented by the participants project team.

4. The result of work on project, is the product.

5. Project requires the presentation of its product at the final stage.

I.e project is five"P". Problem - design- search for information - product - presentation. sixth "P"- his portfolio, i.e. a folder in which all working materials are collected project.

Project activity unfolds in a problematic situation that cannot be solved by direct action. Members project activities must be motivated, but mere interest is not enough here. It is necessary that both the teacher and the child formulate the reason why they are included in the study. Project activity is targeted. Because during project activities the child expresses his attitude, he is always looking for the addressee - the person to whom his statement is addressed, designed in the form of a product.

Possible forms of design options projects: video film, album, natural objects, layouts, research, newspaper, game, map, costume, group design, script, holiday, excursion, etc.

There are 3 main types project activities: creative, research, normative.

Research project activity.

Target: Research involves getting an answer to the question of why this or that phenomenon exists and how it is explained from the point of view of modern knowledge. Research projects are most often individual in nature and contribute to the involvement of the child's immediate environment (parents, friends, brothers, sisters) within his area of interest.

Creative project activity.

During the creative project activities a new creative product is being created. Creative project often carried out collectively or jointly with parents. When performing a collective project each child offers their own idea project, but only one is chosen for implementation. It is clear that such a choice is not easy for children, because preschooler must learn, not only defend his position, but also evaluate it objectively, that is, understand how his idea turned out to be more successful compared to the proposals of other children.

Regulatory project activity.

Projects on the creation of norms are an extremely important direction in the pedagogical activities as they develop the positive socialization of children. These projects are always initiated by the teacher, who must clearly understand the need to introduce a particular norm.

The normative situations that accompany the life of a child can be divided into 3 groups:

a) forbidding

b) positively normalizing,

c) support the initiative preschooler, leading to the creation of a norm - rule-making.

The general strategy for working with children is to minimize prohibitive situations and increase the number of situations that support children's initiative.

It is also possible to highlight projects:

- by the number of participants: individual, pair, group, collective, mass.

- by duration: long-term, short-term, etc.

By subject matter activities: monoproject, within one area of knowledge; interdisciplinary project, at the junction of different areas.

Project activity has a number of characteristics that have a positive impact on the development of the child - preschooler. First of all, during project activities expanding children's knowledge of the world around them. In addition, the general abilities of children develop - cognitive, communicative and regulatory. Performance project involves the formation of an original idea, the ability to fix it with the help of an available system of means, determine the stages of its implementation, follow the plan, etc. already in preschool At a young age, the child acquires the skill of publicly expressing his thoughts. During project activities preschoolers acquire the necessary social skills - they become more attentive to each other, begin to be guided not so much by their own motives as by established norms.

Can't say enough about the impact project activities for the educator design makes the teacher constantly be in the space of possibilities, which changes his worldview and does not allow the use of standard, patterned actions, requires daily creative, personal growth.

During project activities the parent-child relationship develops. The child turns out to be interesting to parents, because he puts forward various ideas, discovering new things in already familiar situations. The life of the child and parents is filled with rich content.

Advantages of the method projects for modern education are discussed by many researchers. In the course of such discussions, his following positions are determined.

1. Method projects dynamically reflects the changing needs of society and thus allows preschool education to be adequate to the social order and the urgent needs of children.

2. Method projects allows to technologize preschool education: gives a clear algorithm of actions as a necessary external support for the formation of an internal structure child's activities.

3. At the heart of the method projects lies the integration of various educational areas, which allows children to form preschool age a holistic picture of the world and serves as a means of implementing health-saving technologies in preschool education which helps to reduce overload.

4. Method projects also relevant in the light of the tasks of modernizing education aimed at achieving the optimal combination of fundamental and practice-oriented knowledge; development of abilities, thinking, formation of practical skills; the use of various kinds of workshops, interactive and collective forms activities; correlation of the studied material with the problems of everyday life; development of variable educational programs based on an individual and differentiated approach.

5. Method projects allows you to optimize the style of interaction - smoothly move from an authoritarian style to cooperation between the teacher and children.

“Everything that I know, I know what I need and where and how I can apply this knowledge” - this is the main thesis of the modern understanding of the method projects, which attracts many educational systems seeking to find a reasonable balance between academic knowledge and pragmatic skills.

Literature:

1. Veraksa N. E., Veraksa A. N. Project activities of preschoolers. A guide for educators preschool institutions. - M.: MOSAIC-SYNTHESIS, 2010.

2. Davydova O. I., Mayer A. A., Bogoslavets L. G. Projects in work with family. Toolkit. – M.: TC Sphere, 2012.

3. Shtanko I.V. Project activity with children of senior preschool age. // Magazine "DOW Management" No. 4, 2004

Prepared by senior educator:

Vinogradova Natalya Valerievna

Portal for the student. Self-training

Foreword

Children's cognitive initiative

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