This article has a total of 3965 words and an estimated reading time of 10 minutes
summary
Play is the main way for young children to learn. This paper takes the game workshop "Pengcheng Food Street" as an example to deeply observe and analyze the process of children's play, expand game resources, explore opportunities for children's deep learning, provide experience support to improve children's deep learning possibilities, and provide scaffolding support for children's deep learning based on children's standpoint, so as to promote children's deep learning and achieve all-round development.
Play is the main way for young children to learn. The author's kindergarten creates a game workshop according to the needs of young children. Observing children's performance in the play workshop "Pengcheng Food Street" led the author to think about "how to promote children's deep learning in the workshop" and "how teachers should provide scaffolding support", and tried to provide strategies for workshop play activities that can stimulate children's deep learning.
The "Pengcheng Food Street" game workshop is a role-playing game. "Pengcheng Food Street" refers to a "food shop" with the special food of his hometown of Xuzhou as the background, the game includes role-playing components such as waiters, cashiers, and customers, food making game components such as "baked steamed buns" and "steamed buns", mathematical components of the composition and application of numbers, and children's communication components. Montessori believes that children's active play is a kind of "work", in which children can combine their hands and brains, devote themselves wholeheartedly, show lasting interest and concentration, and achieve self-development and growth. The author found that every child who entered the workshop was able to fully participate in the game and take on their own "tasks" in the game.
The author recorded the time of three children's games, and the overall situation is: a total of 7 children have "work" tasks in the "food street", of which 2~3 children can play the game throughout the game, 3~4 children can insist on 30~40 points, and only 1 child can only insist on 20 points. Other children take turns playing the role of customers, and many children will come several times. It can be seen that children have a strong interest in "Pengcheng Food Street" and are willing to "work" in the food street, which is an opportunity for children to learn deeply.
Observing children's behavior is the basic and main way for teachers to understand and interpret children, and it is also an important measure to promote children's deep learning. By observing children's play, teachers can understand children's development levels in five areas: body and mind, thinking and needs, and emotional attitudes, so as to better support children's development. Through the fixed-point observation of the game workshop "Pengcheng Food Street", the author analyzes and thinks about children's problems and needs in a timely manner to promote children's deep learning.
Observation one
"Pengcheng Food Street" is a role-playing game, with characters such as "staff" and "customers", as well as some game rules based on real life, which the author regards as "preset goals". Children play according to the rules of the game, not only can play in an orderly manner, but also grasp the social rules in the game and develop a sense of rules. During one of my games, I observed such a situation.
The original purchase process designed by the teacher was to select food→ exchange currency→ issue food stamps→ exchange for food. However, during the game, many "customers" threw food stamps on the ground and went directly to pick up the purchased food, without following the designed process to complete the game. So, the "waiter" comes to report the problem to the "boss" (the teacher joins the game as the "boss" in order to better develop the game).
Waiter 1: Boss, there is a customer who buys something, I give him a "food stamp", and they just throw it on the ground. Waiter 2: Yes, boss, many children have taken it, it's very messy, do you want to call the police?
This phenomenon leads me to think that young children's learning is based on direct experience, and there is no such thing as "food stamps" in their daily lives. Therefore, this preset rule is beyond the cognition of young children, and the direct experience of young children cannot be reached. The author realizes that this rule needs to be adjusted.
Children are the masters of the game, and the rules should be changed to respect children's ideas. After the game, they had a discussion about the issue.
Waiter 1: I saw that my mother directly scanned the code to pay, and then the waiter gave it to her.
Waiter 2: Sometimes I go to a crowded place to eat, and I know that I need to call the number, and I can only pick up the food when I call my number.
Waiter 3: I also think it's a good way to call the number, so that you can go to rest and wait, and you don't have to stand in line all the time.
Waiter 4: Well, I agree to call the number! Then let's change the rules to take the number to receive the meal!
There are differences in the development of children's awareness of rules. Several children who participated in the discussion were slightly older and could understand and abide by the rules of "calling the number to pick up the meal", but the "Pengcheng Food Street" was also open to children aged 3~6 years old, and the game ability of the children in the small class and the middle class was low, so could they abide by the rules to play the game?
Waiter 1: Or just let your younger siblings pick up the food?
Waiter 2: No, my brother is also 3 years old, and he was able to buy his own lollipops last time!
Waiter 3: Then let's arrange a waiter to be the "manager", specially guided, and help the guests!
The results of the discussion not only retained the form of play experience for children of all ages, but also met the developmental needs of children of all ages, and the "boss" strongly agreed. As a result, the "waiters" agreed to change the rules of the game to "take the number to receive the meal", and they added digital pieces of paper to the workshop to pick up the number to receive the meal according to the order in which the guests came. In addition, one of the "waiters" is selected as a "manager" to guide the guests to buy, and then another "waiter" is recruited in the form of "recruitment" to continue their game.
After discussion, the rules of the workshop were changed, and the process became: select the food→ exchange currency→ take the meal number→ exchange it for the food. (See Figure 1)
This phenomenon of the workshop is a process in which children take the initiative to discover and solve problems on the basis of preset goals, and children can provide new rules and suggestions based on their own direct experience and discuss rules together. Teachers add children's games, put forward more thinking directions based on the theoretical basis, guide children to formulate more perfect game rules, and feel the rules in the game. Children complete a "deep learning" in the social field in the game, which promotes social development.
Observation two
A teacher came to the food court and joined the children's game as a "customer", and this conversation occurred.
Waiter: Hello customer, what do you need to buy?
Customer: I want two buns.
Waiter: For you, a total of 6 yuan.
Customer: Huh, why is it so expensive? How much does that bun cost?
The waiter did not answer immediately, but turned his head and counted the account with his small hands. After the calculation, he turned to the customer and said: Hello customer, a bun costs 3 yuan.
The key to children's deep learning in the game workshop is whether they are given the opportunity to think and solve problems independently, and whether they can stimulate children's enthusiasm for active learning and problem solving. Young children's interest in problems is essential for deep learning. Teachers should also help children find problems in the game, discover opportunities for deep learning, and support children to carry out deep learning.
1. Provide game materials and time guarantee
Game materials and time guarantees are the foundation of the game. Feng Xiaoxia proposed that although children's free play (role play, construction game, performance game, etc.) has obvious unpredictability (affected by factors such as interest, motivation, opportunity, experience, and development level of the activity subject), it is still affected by materials and environment. Therefore, teachers should integrate learning and development expectations through the creation of play environments and the provision of play materials. Teachers should ensure the materials and time for children's play, let children play fully, fully think about the problems and findings in the game, and help children realize their ideas when conditions permit. For example, during the game, a "waiter" suggested that a "customer" wanted to eat "at home", so he asked the "boss" if he could add "delivery service" to add "delivery person". The "boss" gladly agreed. So, the children first went to the station to borrow a car, made a simple decoration and turned it into a "takeaway car", and then several "waiters" discussed the selection of "takeaways". However, there was a lack of packing materials. The toddler offered to use the steamer to deliver it directly, or to make some packing bags. At this time, the teacher provided the kraft paper bag in time, and the children began to draw on the kraft paper bag and make the packing bag. After a while, the bag was ready, and the "takeaway service" began.
The important purpose of deep learning is to solve problems. Teachers actively cooperated with the idea of adding a "take-out service", and when it came to the problem of "no bags", teachers and children worked together to find ways to support the children, but instead of directly providing bags, they invited the children to make them together and solve the problem together. As the game progresses, children begin to learn deeply, with more ideas, more time and space required. Supporting young children is not only about providing them with an adequate amount of age-appropriate materials, but also about allowing them to make their own materials that they think are most appropriate.
2. Teachers integrate into the game as gamers, and appropriately "make difficulties" to support
Vygotsky believed that young children have the potential to acquire higher mental functions with the proper guidance of an experienced peer or adult. As teachers, we need to seize the opportunity of deep learning in time to stimulate children's interest in learning, stimulate children's curiosity about things, and promote children's active learning. As in the second observation above, the teacher "makes a difficulty" as a player: "Why is it so expensive, how much is that bun?" to stimulate children's desire to solve problems.
"Difficulty" also requires skills, which can not be separated from the direct experience of children, higher than the age and development characteristics of children, so that children are powerless to solve, and hit their self-confidence, but also can not be lower than children's cognition, and can not play a guiding role. Teachers need to predict the problems or difficulties that children may find or encounter according to the characteristics of children's age and on the basis of children's original experience, and skillfully "make difficulties" in the children's recent development area, so that children can think deeply in activities or certain behaviors, so as to increase the learning effect and arouse children's desire for "deep learning". In Observation 2, the sale of multiple items into a single item is the embodiment of the teacher's initiative to "make difficulties", which can allow children to think in the game and achieve the goal of the kindergarten children's science field. If you are dealing with kindergarten children, the teacher should change the strategy of "making difficulties", and instead of starting from the "composition of numbers", you can consider "making difficulties" appropriately according to "the classification of objects" and "the color of objects". Teachers should observe the game and think flexibly, so that children can achieve the development goal of "jumping and picking a peach".
3. Pay attention to post-game evaluation, so that children can improve their original level
Children's game evaluation is the fulcrum of children's growth, which can allow children to better carry out in-depth learning. After the game, guide the children to use drawing records, language expressions and other ways to communicate and share interesting things in the game, problems encountered, conflicts, etc., and use group discussions or class collective discussions to guide children to think deeply and seek solutions to problems. Finally, the teacher summarizes and evaluates, based on the direct experience in children's life and the experience gained in the game, guides and improves on the basis of the original experience, and excavates the educational value contained in the game. Seize the learning opportunity to stimulate children's interest in in-depth exploration in the next game, generate activities that children are interested in, and conduct in-depth learning.
Deep learning is a learning method that can improve children's thinking, and it is of great significance to the cultivation of children's abilities. The creation of game workshops also enriches children's play scenes and plays an important role in children's play. Deep learning in play workshops is precious and sustainable for young children. In kindergarten life, teachers should pay attention to the organizational form of "game workshop", pay attention to the state and effect of children's deep learning in specific game workshops, and give appropriate and timely scaffolding support, so that children's abilities can be sustainable in game workshops, and deep learning can occur sustainably in game workshops.
This article is from the 4th issue of China Teacher magazine in 2024.
The Second Experimental Kindergarten of Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province
WeChat editor|leaxyi
Supervisor: Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China Sponsored: Beijing Normal University Publishing: Beijing Normal University Publishing Group Editor: "Chinese Teacher" Editorial Department Submission E-mail: [email protected] Email Subject: Name + Author's Affiliation + Submission Column + Manuscript Title Domestic Unified Serial Number: CN 11-4801/Z International Standard Serial Number: ISSN 1672-2051▌ Cooperative Database