Feng Xiaoxia: Professor and doctoral supervisor of Beijing Normal University.
What is deep learning? Can young children learn deeply in autonomous play?
In children's games, especially autonomous games, is it possible to produce deep learning? How do we guide a child in the game so that his learning is effective and has a certain depth? This is a very important issue.
How did the concept of "deep learning" come about? American scholars Ference Marton and Roger Saljo have found that the learning process is different and the results are different based on experimental research on the learning process of students. Focusing on the educational process does not mean not wanting results, but saying that we want results that may not be the same as in the past. Based on the study of the learning process and the relationship between process and outcome, Ference Marton and Roger Saljo published the article "The Essential Difference of Learning: Outcome and Process" in 1976, which first proposed the corresponding concepts of deep learning and surface learning.
Deep learning and shallow learning are not only for the results, but more importantly for the characteristics of the learning process. For example, shallow learning is characterized by passive and mechanical; memory rather than understanding is the mainstay, and the learning process lacks in-depth inquiry and thinking; the learning content is divorced from the reality of life; it lacks relevance to previous experience; and learning is not applicable.
Deep learning is different from shallow learning in that it is an active, understanding-based learning. Deep learning has the following three characteristics: understanding and criticism - focusing on critical understanding of knowledge learning, rather than accepting without thinking; connection and construction - emphasizing the connection between old and new knowledge and the fusion of multidisciplinary knowledge; and transfer and application - focusing on the transfer application and problem solving of learning, that is, applying what has been learned to solve problems in new situations.
It is important to note that deep learning is not the same as learning beyond the child's ability to understand the difficult content. Deep learning emphasizes the learning process.
What exactly is deep learning? Deep learning is "a kind of learning in which learners take the development of advanced thinking and the solution of practical problems as the goal, take the integrated knowledge as the content, actively and critically learn new knowledge and ideas, and integrate them into the original cognitive structure, and can transfer the existing knowledge to new situations." (An Fuhai, 2014) From this passage, we can see that deep learning describes the learning process.
Many people will have a doubt: under the guidance of teachers, young children may carry out deep learning, but can young children do deep learning in games, especially autonomous games? Whether a child will produce deep learning in autonomous games depends on whether we leave the child with room for problems and stimulate him to really use his brain to solve problems. I think this is very important for deep learning. Whether in games or in teacher-led teaching, deep learning cannot happen without a problem-centric approach. So, can young children do deep learning in games?
01
"The Wind of May": an example of deep learning that occurred in Qingdao Experimental Kindergarten
Here is the "Wind of May" construction activity to illustrate the deep learning in children's play. There is a building on May Fourth Square in Qingdao called "The Wind of May", as shown in Figure 1. The children saw the "Wind of May" in May Fourth Square and wanted to build the building out of blocks.
Figure 1: "The Wind of May" on Qingdao May Fourth Square
At first, the children used the blocks to create a "May Wind" that was as thick as up and down, as shown in Figure 2. Why did the child get into this in the first place? I think we should be able to understand their behavior, and that's how their original experience plays in the building process. Because by the time the children are five or six years old, they already have the experience of how to build to keep the building stable. Therefore, the children first seek stability, so the buildings are as thick as the top and bottom.
Picture 2: Children build up the same thick "May wind"
So, the teacher showed the pictures of the "May Wind" to the children for observation, and the children found that the middle of the "May Wind" was thicker. So, how do you make the middle thicker? The children found that the semicircular building blocks were built out layer by layer, and each layer was placed a little out, and the middle would become thicker, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Children find that if you swing each layer a little out, the middle will become thicker
However, after a few layers, it collapsed. The children rebuilt it several times, but they all collapsed on it. This is shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: The building collapses as the children are on board
Why is that? How do you keep a building from collapsing? When the building collapses, the children instinctively use their hands to support it, either holding it outside with their hands or pressing it inside, so that the building will not collapse, but they cannot always press it with their hands. This is shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5: Children use their hands to press the semicircular brick so that it does not collapse
The children thought: What can be used instead of hand pressing? After many attempts, they found that it was feasible to use small bricks instead of hand pressing. This is shown in Figure 6.
Fig. 6: Children use small bricks instead of hand-pressed semicircular blocks
So, they used small blocks to first press the semicircular blocks below, and then swing the semicircular blocks upwards. This is shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7: Children use small blocks to press the semicircular blocks below and then place the semicircular blocks upwards
The children climbed up layer by layer, creating a symmetrical "May wind" on all four sides, as shown in Figure 8.
Figure 8: Children set up a symmetrical "May wind" on all four sides
At this time, the teacher again asked the children to carefully observe the pictures of the "May Wind" building and found that the actual "May Wind" was asymmetrical in the middle. So, the children let one side come out a little more, but the side that comes out more is easy to collapse. They still used the original way to press the inside with small blocks, but the side that came out more would still collapse, as shown in Figure 9.
Figure 9: The children let the side out a little more
The children tried to replace the small ones with long ones and found that the long blocks pressed against the sides to keep the building stable. This is shown in Figure 10.
Figure 10: Children replace small bricks with long ones, pressing semicircular blocks
So, the children built up layer by layer, and finally built the "May Wind". As shown in Figure 11 and Figure 12.
Figure 11: Children build up layer by layer
Figure 12: The "May Wind" of children
In the activity of building the "Wind of May", we can see a variety of characteristics of deep learning: the initiative of young children, real problem solving, experienced application, acquisition and transfer of new experience, criticism and reflection, the connection between content and the real world, the construction and understanding of relevant concepts (center of gravity, balance, symmetry, etc.) and principles (to keep the structure from collapsing, the gravity of each block must fall on the support surface).
In fact, in the game activities, for some intellectual results, children can also obtain. Although the child does not say these words, such as center of gravity, balance, symmetry, etc., the child's behavior shows that he has a basic understanding of these.
Knowledge is not always spoken, but it is knowledge that can be expressed in words. Knowledge also has various forms: what can be expressed in language, which we call declarative knowledge; and some knowledge that cannot be expressed in language, but can be displayed in a way that can be done, we call procedural knowledge.
In the past, we often attached importance to declarative knowledge, thinking that "to be able to say it is to learn" and "to say it is not to learn it". Actually, this is not the case. Because there is some knowledge (more special knowledge), it is not the kind of declarative knowledge that everyone usually thinks, but it does exist.
For example, when a child is five or six years old, he basically understands what he says. He can pronounce accurately, using accurate vocabulary and grammatical structures. However, if you ask him how he combines words into grammatical sentences, he certainly doesn't know how to answer you. Because he has not yet mastered the knowledge that can be stated, but he has the knowledge that can be applied and can be actually done. So, there are different types of knowledge.
Why did we always think that if a child can say something, he has learned? That's because we lack an understanding of the types of knowledge. Now many parents see whether kindergarten is taught or not, whether their children have learned or not, and it is more from how many words their children recognize, how many questions they count, and how many Tang poems they memorize. In today's parlance, the higher the degree of "primary schooling" of kindergartens, the more welcoming parents are.
Why? They felt they could see what kindergarten was teaching. Kindergartens say "play as a basic activity," and parents sometimes don't believe it. Why don't they believe? They said they asked the child what he had learned in kindergarten, and the child could not say it. Parents don't know there are other types of knowledge. In fact, children have learned a lot of concepts and principles (such as the construction and understanding of the child's center of gravity, balance, and symmetry in the "May Wind" activity), but these concepts and principles are shown in action, not stated in words. Therefore, we cannot ignore this kind of procedural knowledge, and we must break the cognition that "if you can say it, you have learned" and "if you can't say it, you have not learned".
02
Procedural characteristics of deep learning
From the "May Wind" building activity, we can conclude that young children can also do deep learning in regional games. Deep learning is a meaningful and therefore long-term learning. As I have repeatedly emphasized earlier, deep learning describes the characteristics of the learning process. The process is different, and the things that children get are different.
The child's ability to solve problems will become stronger and stronger through hands-on operation and way to solve problems, and he can try to abstract the core experience from problem solving, which can be transferred to other similar problems in the future. That's what's important learning. Instead of how many pinyin children can say in the past, how many times can be counted is learning. Conversely, just because a child can count doesn't mean that the child truly understands the relationship between quantities.
For example, Teacher Zhou of the Central Institute of Education once went to a preschool class in a rural area to watch activities. The first class she watched was math. The teachers in this class take math classes that are basically the same as the math classes in elementary school. Children do addition and subtraction operations very quickly, and the accuracy rate is also very high. In the afternoon, when the children are free to do activities, they use some local natural materials to make pastel paintings.
There was a kid who stuck an avatar. Teacher Zhou asked what the child was sticking to, and the child replied that it was the mother's avatar. Teacher Zhou asked him how many melon seed skins were used to stick his mother's eyebrows, and he counted the points and told Teacher Zhou the number. Teacher Zhou then asked him how many melon seed skins he used to stick to his mother's other eyebrows, and the child then counted the points.
Teacher Zhou asked him how many melon seed skins were shared on both sides of his mother's eyebrows, so he counted the melon seed skins from one side of his eyebrows to the other. Teacher Zhou was very surprised and asked him: "In the math class in the morning, didn't you learn addition and subtraction?" Can you add up the number of melon peels on both sides of your mother's eyebrows and see how much it is? Don't count from start to finish". The child stared at her for a long time, then counted from the beginning.
From this example, we can see that although the child remembers the addition and subtraction operations, he does not really understand the relationship between quantities. Therefore, we cannot be superstitious about the knowledge that can be said, and the knowledge that can be said may be memorized by rote. This mechanical memory and learning is a kind of shallow learning. Because it is not based on understanding. True understanding, for young children, requires both direct perception, hands-on operation, and brain thinking.
In the past two decades, there has been considerable progress in international research on learning theory. Many studies have found that an important feature of deep learning is solving problems, and problems are often designed into context. Learning in context tends to be much better than learning abstract knowledge out of context. Therefore, in this context, concepts and formulations such as situational cognition and situational learning, situational teaching, and creating a meaningful learning environment are increasingly entering the field of educators. Situationality is a characteristic of deep learning and an important condition for its generation.
Situational cognition and situational learning, simply put, refers to learning in an applied context. That is, "where to use, learn where". The idea of "situational learning" is no stranger to preschool educators. Play can be said to be a typical situational learning activity for young children, and the purpose of "creating an activity area" is to provide a meaningful learning situation for young children.
In 1989, the "Kindergarten Work Regulations (Trial)" proposed to "create an environment suitable for education" in fact, which implied that we should turn children's learning into a kind of situational learning, and turn teaching into a concept of teaching in a situation, although we did not use the word "situational teaching" at that time.
I think the biggest advantage of the preschool education industry now is that it loves to learn, but sometimes it is also "too much love to learn". We just see a new concept and want to introduce it to kindergarten. In fact, the ideas and connotations of many concepts have long been reflected in documents such as the Kindergarten Work Regulations (Trial) (1989) and the Guiding Outline for Kindergarten Education (Trial Implementation) (2001).
For example, the "learning story" that was particularly popular in the first two years, its ideas and connotations have long been very obvious in the "Education Evaluation" part of our "Kindergarten Education Guiding Outline (Trial)", such as the "Kindergarten Education Guiding Outline (Trial)" proposed that "evaluation should naturally accompany the entire educational process, comprehensively using observation, conversation, work analysis and other methods" "Children's behavior and development changes have important evaluation significance, teachers should regard it as an important evaluation information and the basis for improving work", This is consistent with the idea and connotation of "learning stories".
So, when we really understand educational practices and understand the meaning of new concepts, our learning will become much easier. Our original experience can be used to understand and accept new concepts. When we have a thinking, brain-stirring view of learning, we analyze these new concepts.
In fact, there is no case in which new concepts are completely unrelated to our original experience. However, if we do not transfer our original knowledge and experience when we learn, all new concepts will be completely new for us. Of course, this does not mean that we do not learn new content. The new concept may be a step forward in how it works, but don't think of the new concept as something completely new and completely zero-starting.
Many kindergarten teachers say that you experts mention fewer new concepts, and we kindergartens can't keep up with your rhythm barefoot. In fact, kindergarten education is basic, as long as we can analyze, then our learning will not be so passive. Therefore, I have always believed that on the road of curriculum reform, preschool education is at the forefront.
03
Create game scenarios that contain problems
Deep learning is a learning based on problem solving and a learning based on practical inquiry. The complexity of the problems that learners actually face and need to solve will reflect the depth of learning in a certain sense.
Young children's play often involves inquiry and problem solving, and the complexity of the problem also affects the depth of learning in the game activity. However, it is not that the more complex the problem, the better, but the problem should be challenging, and at the same time, it can be solved by young children through hard work.
The complexity with which young children can explore and solve problems is influenced both by their level of development and by the play material and context. Here is an example of the "Food Street" activity that many kindergartens have done.
Kindergartens do "food street" activities are generally divided into two types: the first situation is the teacher's carefully designed activities and various shops; the second situation is the children's independent initiation of the "food street" activity, the material is a variety of cartons, cartons, a variety of materials and tools that can be replaced and processed...
How do we evaluate these two approaches? What do you have to look at to evaluate an environment? I found that in some places, the administrators of the education department went to the kindergarten to do graded classification and acceptance, and when evaluating the environment, the children often did not have activities in it, and we looked at how many self-made play teaching aids were in the environment, and whether the materials were rich.
Of course, these are also very important, but I think it is more important to look at the child's activities, to see what he is doing in the activity area, how to use these materials, what his behavior is. Because what really affects a child's learning is his activities, what he is doing and how he is doing it.
I summarized the two different "Food Street" activities as follows, see Table 1. When the material we provide is different from the situation, the child's activities will also be different. In the various shops designed by the teacher, the children's activities are basically fixed, and the problem to be solved is usually familiar with different roles and their behaviors. This is not to say that there is no learning in this case, there is also learning, such as negotiating the division of labor, practicing role behavior. It's just that learning in this case stays at the shallow level, and children rarely have new experiences to gain.
In the activities initiated by the children, the children's learning and experience are richer. Such as discussing which stores to open, the rational layout of the store; arranging the environment and making signs according to the characteristics of their respective stores; discussing menus, preparing and making food; preparing character costumes...
Table 1: Two different "food streets" (TaiPan)
I believe that teachers need to create a certain environment, but teachers should not take over the place. Teachers should not work hard to deprive their children of learning opportunities. Now some kindergartens in order to meet the acceptance, invest a lot of money into kindergarten hardware, those hardware and environment look tall, but may be to some extent deprived of children's learning opportunities. This is something we often overlook when creating environments.
Although children's free play (role play, construction play, performance play, etc.) is obviously unpredictable (affected by the interests, motivations, experience, level of development of the activity subject, etc.), it is still affected by the situation and material. Therefore, teachers embed learning and development expectations through the provision of game situations and game materials. Low structure, high open materials and uncertain situations contain more problems that need to be solved, so they can provide children with more space for independent inquiry, experience, thinking and creation, triggering deep learning.
When teachers create environments, they need to learn to analyze. When I was at Massey University in New Zealand 20 years ago, I found that their preschool department trained students in a very different way than we did. There is an oval glass room next to the building where Massey University's Department of Preschool Education is located. There is sand and water in it. I said it was nice, the kids were playing inside and the students could watch outside. As a result, the head of the department said that these sand and water are not for children to play, but for students to play, we want students to think about how to play in the process of playing, hope that the teacher to provide what materials to make themselves play better, students as prospective teachers, in the process of playing, need to think about what materials to prepare in order to let children play better.
At that time, this way of training in the department of preschool education at Messi University in New Zealand was still very shocking to me. Our universities will tell students what their children experience during the play, but we don't give students the opportunity to experience it first-hand. This is a relatively big problem in our teacher education. It causes students to enter kindergarten and not know how to apply theory.
When I go to some normal schools now, I will suggest that they build activity venues for students to do and experience for themselves. Students have such an experience, after they enter the kindergarten, they will know what kind of play situation is more beneficial to the child's learning, how to create a problem space for the child, rather than as soon as the school starts, the teacher begins to do various handicrafts, arrange walls, activity areas, etc.
I'm not saying that none of this should be made, but at least in many kindergartens, the existing environment creation is already abundant. What we need to do is to see creating children's own play environments as an important way to learn and educate, rather than teachers getting everything ready for children to play. Why can't we come with our children to prepare the environment for his play? Especially in the second semester of the middle class, the child is able to prepare the play environment with the teacher. Why do you have to make teachers work so hard?
Now we have undertaken the evaluation of the quality of kindergarten education commissioned by the Ministry of Education. We will focus on children's play behavior and experience gained in activities as important indicators of quality evaluation, rather than simply looking at how many activity areas the kindergarten has and whether the materials are rich.
04
Provide time and space to conduct in-depth research on an ongoing basis
Learning is a cumulative process. Learners cannot be expected to explore and solve more complex problems in a short period of time. Gardner (1997) once pointed out that "the biggest enemy when understanding things is hiding", and teachers often hide many important contents in the classroom because of various pressures, paying attention only to the breadth of learning and ignoring depth. Only by giving children the right time and opportunity for in-depth discussion can we help them construct and truly understand knowledge.
The "May Wind" construction activity carried out by Qingdao Experimental Kindergarten is not something that can be completed in a short period of time. It took a month from the time the child started to build it to the end. Children will encounter many problems in the construction, need to constantly ponder, test, improve, etc., it is an iterative process, this process contains deep learning.
The Food Street campaign also lasted longer. From children discussing what to do, to making a food street, to the division of roles, cooperation, and games, the learning contained in this process is much greater than the value of the teacher's carefully designed "food street".
In his book Game Dream Imitation, Piaget divides the game into two phases: the first phase is called the exploratory phase. He believes that the most important learning often occurs in the exploratory phase. The second stage is called the symbolic representation stage, which is the transition stage of the child's development from action thinking to conceptual thinking. Piaget placed great emphasis on the imaginative and representational functions of the game. Too much simulation material in kindergartens today actually deprives children of the ability to imagine and characterize.
I also found that one of the manifestations of the "elementary school" of kindergartens now is to catch up with the progress like elementary schools. Some kindergarten administrators believe that if children are given time to continue to explore, the teaching materials will not be taught. I think that kindergarten textbooks, especially teacher guidance books, only allow teachers to finally learn to design activities through practical verification and self-teaching reflection in the process of doing it, rather than letting kindergartens complete as many class hours a day, month, and semester like primary schools.
We urgently need to reflect: How much time do we give young children a day to play in the area? In our kindergarten, how many opportunities do children have to play continuously in the activity area?
In the "deep learning" study initiated by the American Institutes for Research (AIR), most experimental schools borrowed from the way projects learned. Project-based learning is often a learning model in which learners engage in open-ended inquiry around topics from real situations and ultimately construct meaning. Project-based learning contains key elements of deep learning, such as problem solving, deep understanding, and knowledge transfer, and the project takes a long time to carry out. In kindergarten regional games, deep learning is often also an ongoing project activity. STEM is also carried out through project activities.
There has always been a dilemma in kindergarten education practice that has not been broken: kindergartens need to carry out project activities or theme activities for a long time, but the daily work and rest time of kindergartens is still carried out according to the time schedule of sub-field education in the 1981 "Guiding Outline for Kindergarten Education (Trial Draft)". Therefore, whether the kindergarten carries out project activities or theme activities, children only have half an hour a day to carry out projects or theme activities.
True project activities require children to go all out around the problem, constantly exploring, it is continuous, and there is no boundary between which activity is a game activity and which activity is a teaching activity.
05
Appropriate introduction of "themes" to build bridges between teaching and play
The experience of Qingdao experimental kindergarten children in building the "May Wind" shows that the combination of teaching themes and regional games can enrich the content of regional games, enhance dialogue, exchange and sharing, inspire multi-angle thinking, expand learning space, and promote experience integration.
Of course, the combination of the two is not a unified requirement, but to provide experience, arouse the interest of young children, and stimulate them to spontaneously explore and characterize content related to the teaching theme.
Rich representation activities are full of inquiry and creativity, and are full of deep learning. Young children may encounter many problems in representation activities, for example, how to represent things in three dimensions in two-dimensional space? How to grasp the typical characteristics of the thing to be represented? How do you reflect the characteristics of things with a limited amount of geometric material? How to express vivid movements? How to express the spatial relationship between things? Such as the relationship between the whole and the part... These questions imply the possibility of deep learning.
06
Respect children's interests, stimulate and guide children's exploration and in-depth thinking in play
We all know to respect the interests of young children, but what is interest? Dewey emphasized that interest is "a signal and symbol of a child's ability in growth" and "a sign of what state the child has developed", and that true interest contains the requirement of will and effort.
The task of teachers is not to simply follow and let go of children's interests, but to analyze the learning opportunities contained in the things they are interested in, grasp the difficulties that may be encountered and the degree of effort that needs to be made, and even introduce "difficulties" or "problems" that are "motivating rather than losing confidence", so as to complicate children's activities and ultimately let children think deeply and learn effectively in activities.
Regional games are a particularly worthy area to study. If we can create an activity area into a play situation with real problems that children need to solve, its role in promoting children's deep learning can be fully exerted.
Professor Feng Xiaoxia talked about the characteristics of kindergarten:
The curriculum is for children, not to play with concepts and tricks
In the past ten years, China's preschool education has achieved rapid development, with the continuous deepening of kindergarten education reform and the higher requirements for kindergarten education innovation, many kindergartens have carried out the exploration of connotation construction and pursued the characteristic development of kindergartens.
What is a feature? In fact, many times, our understanding of characteristics is relatively one-sided. For example, when some kindergartens introduce themselves to others, they will say that we are doing musical features, and we are doing art features. It is certainly possible to use a certain field as the main entry point, but it must not be forgotten to promote the overall development of young children.
Once in a lecture, a teacher's question impressed me, she said: "Teacher Feng, I have always had a puzzle, the "Guide" requires the education of children's all-round development, and now it emphasizes the characteristic curriculum of kindergartens, I think that no matter how much emphasis is placed on characteristics, it cannot affect the overall development, but according to my understanding, some kindergartens around me are basically engaged in characteristics at the expense of children's all-round development. ”
This teacher actually touched me quite a bit, she was actually thinking about this problem very deeply, and she also saw some essential things. On this question, I think it is necessary to return to the professionalism to answer. If the kindergarten is really particularly distinctive in a certain aspect, such as the teacher has the advantage of carrying out art education, the overall concept and the overall artistic level are high, then it is of course possible to choose art as a breakthrough and integrate the development of various fields and aspects into it. But the problem is that many times we may not have a good understanding of the essential characteristics of the field, such as mistakenly believing that art is a skill and technique for expressing beauty, ignoring that it is "also a unique way of expressing our own understanding and emotional attitudes towards the world around us."
At the same time, it should be noted that the characteristics are not just boundaries in terms of curriculum. As far as Beijing is concerned, when mentioning which kindergarten has done a good job in childcare, everyone will immediately think of the June 1st Kindergarten; when it comes to which kindergarten pays the most attention to teaching and research to promote the improvement of the quality of kindergartens, many people may say that Shuguang, Normal University and other kindergartens. Isn't this a feature of running a park?!
Many of the so-called features cut off the original natural multi-field connection
As far as the characteristic curriculum is concerned, the integrity of the curriculum should not be neglected in order to highlight a certain aspect. Or take fine arts as an example, some kindergartens display children's works, a variety of dazzling, it seems that the children's skills are very skilled, the tools for painting are also very rich, crayon drawings, gouache paintings, lines, mixed, it seems to be very creative. But is this all about art education? How can other aspects of young children's development be integrated into this? Art, first of all, should let children feel and appreciate, children have no cognitive experience of the things expressed in the work? Do you have feelings about the work itself? What did they appreciate? The so-called art activities of many kindergartens are more of an artistic expression activity, and they lack the appreciation and feeling before the performance.
After the promulgation of the Guide, some teachers asked: "Why is it that the art field is not divided into subfields like the scientific field, and everyone knows at a glance that these two subfields are science and mathematics." Why is the subfield of art not divided into music and fine arts, but divided into feeling and appreciation, expression and creation? "I think that whether it is music or art, the common goal is to cultivate people's basic artistic literacy, and feeling appreciation, expression and creation are basic artistic literacy, and the former is more basic and more important." First, it is the basis of the latter. In the past, some people said that "familiar with reading three hundred Tang poems, can not compose poems will also chant", this "yin" is composed of poetry, "familiar reading" must contain feelings of appreciation, "familiar reading" will naturally write poetry, saying that the relationship between the two. Second, it may be that for many people, due to congenital or other reasons, it is unlikely that there will be a great development in artistic expression, but in any case, they should also know how to appreciate beauty, and should enjoy such a spiritual wealth created by human beings.
Art comes from life and is a creative expression of beauty in life. In the past, the children's works posted in the kindergarten were all the same, and now, everyone has begun to pursue the different paintings, allowing children to have their own creative expressions, but also pay attention to let them appreciate the works of art, famous paintings of famous artists, which is a kind of progress, but feeling and appreciation is not only works of art, but also including the beauty of life, so the "Guide" will perceive and appreciate the beauty of nature and life as an important goal and content. Some kindergartens have paid attention to this, but many kindergartens have not paid enough attention to establish a good connection between art and life for young children.
Art education should strengthen its connection with life. For example, if you want to paint flowers and trees, you should let the children go into nature, to observe, to feel. When he paints, he needs to observe and analyze at the same time, for example, what the tree as a whole looks like, what are the characteristics of the branches and leaves, how many petals the flower has, what shape and color it is, how it is different from another similar flower, and how to draw it better. When painting, he needs to make geometric abstractions of the whole and individual parts of the tree in his mind, and think about how to deal with the spatial relationships of the parts to combine them into a whole. In this process, children not only feel and appreciate the beauty of nature, but also recognize and explore natural things, and carry out mathematical thinking and artistic creation.
This multi-field connection is originally a natural thing, but sometimes it is artificially cut off by us, for children, many things need to return to the essence of things to be more conducive to his learning and development, what is this essence, in fact, is the child's life.
Changing the director of the park to engage in a feature may become more and more characteristic
Now some kindergartens lack a clear understanding of how the characteristics are formed, and they do not summarize and sort out the excellent practices of their kindergartens. See a new thing today, want to move over tomorrow. Changing a kindergarten director will engage in a kind of characteristics, as if it does not introduce the old, it seems that there is no achievement.
Characteristics are not created by surprise, it is formed for a long time, and it is the inheritance, development and innovation of the past tradition. Like Beijing June 1st Kindergarten, since the Yan'an period, the protection of children's life and health has been in the first place. Even after the liberation and moving into Beijing, the kindergarten has always adhered to this tradition, of course, the times and conditions have changed, the specific content and focus of childcare work have changed, but the basic spirit has always remained the same. This is the real feature.
At present, some gardens have reversed cause and effect in the process of exploring the characteristics of their own gardens. Some are first decided what characteristics to do, and then start to find relevant resources to "build, create"; others are completely for the sake of characteristics, others already have things I do not do, I want to do others do not have content. Does the newly appointed director have to change to a new feature? This may become more and more characteristic.
In fact, we can completely sum up the experience of our kindergarten, look for things that are particularly worth inheriting and carrying forward in our original experience, and absorb new and advanced things on this basis. Inheritance does not necessarily exclude reform and innovation, and it is two different ideas to overthrow all the good experiences and good practices before to learn and receive new experiences, or to absorb new experiences and new practices on the basis of the original, and to enrich and expand the things of one's own garden. Personally, I think that perhaps the first idea is more conducive to the formation of so-called characteristics.
For some new parks, it is even more urgent, it is necessary to understand the development needs of their own education objects, understand their own teams and the resources they use, find the right direction, determine what they want to do, and then slowly take the time to explore, ten years, twenty years, gradually precipitated, and gradually form their own characteristics.
Don't deliberately pursue the characteristics of your local resources that others cannot copy
Some kindergartens are worried that if they only faithfully implement the relevant policies of the state (such as the "Outline", "Guide", etc.), will they become a thousand gardens and form their own distinctive curriculum? In fact, there is no need to worry about this. First of all, each kindergarten's understanding and interpretation of national policies and even the Guide is different; more importantly, your place, your resources, your teachers, and your children's development needs are certainly different.
For example, there was a national child development survey that showed that the best child in the country with the best leg strength was in Chongqing. This is because of the characteristics of the city of Chongqing itself, the kindergarten did not deliberately pursue, naturally it was like this. Based on such local resources, it is also a healthy exercise curriculum, and from the perspective of movement development, the work focus of Beijing kindergartens and Chongqing kindergartens may be different.
Therefore, we need to take into account the needs of children, the characteristics of kindergartens, the situation of teachers and other factors, although everyone is implementing the "Guide" and implementing the "Outline", but each kindergarten may be different. If there is a difference, it should not be distinguished in the larger educational goals, because we all create the curriculum according to the educational requirements of the country and the overall development of children. The difference is that the children we recruit are different, and the experience and development level they bring when they enter the kindergarten is different, so when developing the curriculum goals of their own kindergartens, they need to compare the goals of comprehensive development and follow the principles of "long good to save the lost" and "missing first". In the choice and implementation of curriculum content, the difference between kindergartens will be greater, because the natural conditions, social and cultural resources, educational traditions, teachers, management level, etc. of the location of each kindergarten are different, and whether each kindergarten will use and how to use its own advantages may also vary greatly, so there is no need to worry about a thousand gardens. However, whether it can form the characteristics of running a kindergarten after many years depends on the work of the kindergarten itself.
The curriculum is for children, not to play with concepts and tricks
In the previous paragraph, there was a phenomenon that in order to create a "garden curriculum" and a "special curriculum", many kindergartens paid great attention to giving their courses a different name. It seems that the name is different and it is a special course.
Education is a real thing, the curriculum is for the learning and development of young children, not to play with concepts, change tricks, can not be half to deal with. High-quality kindergarten education is not something that stays in name, concept and form, but should bring children beneficial experiences in a down-to-earth manner, so that they can start from kindergarten and form good moral character, noble sentiments, healthy body and mind and basic literacy to adapt to the changes of the times little by little. This requires the steady and unremitting efforts of preschool education workers.
Note: This article is a comprehensive compilation of network data.