In the process of carrying out games in kindergartens, there are sometimes problems such as "there are activities that ignore development, there are ideas that lack action, and there is guidance and lack of strategies". How to get toddlers to play in play?How can I improve the level of teacher support play?Qingdao West Coast New Area proposes to "play games", focusing on the game environment, game behavior, and game process through "three focuses", so that children can play independently in an open, diverse and natural atmosphere, and teachers can grow together with children in research.
Transform the environment and unleash children's nature
The environment is the foundation and guarantee of autonomous play. In view of the lack of thorough understanding of the concept of "children are the masters of the environment" in some kindergartens, and the lack of control over the class play space and materials, we break the boundaries of the place through on-site speculative teaching and research, so that children can release their nature in their favorite environment, and give full play to the role of the whole environment in establishing morality and cultivating people.
We set up questions such as "what kind of environment children like", "what is the possible development value of the environment of your kindergarten", "how to adjust it in combination with the characteristics of children", organize a forum for principals, and lead each kindergarten to dig deep into the potential of the game space, return every inch of land in the kindergarten to the children, and better serve the children's games. In the analysis, the principals reached a consensus on site transformation: to harden, to plan, to single.
1. Go to watch and create a natural and wild playground;Activate "hidden" corner spaces to create a versatile outdoor play area where challenges can happen at any time. At present, whether it is an urban garden or a rural garden, it presents a natural and wild play environment, and grasslands, soil slopes, caves, canals, bamboo forests, etc. abound in kindergartens in the new district.
At the same time, we organized teachers to track and record the children's interaction with the materials on the spot, and discussed on the spot: What materials are the children interested in?What did they play with these materials?What materials are not interested?Why?After repeated observation and discussion, teachers found that movable, combinable and changeable materials such as hollow building blocks, tires, pipes, rollers, wooden ladders, mats, etc., can stimulate children's interest in activities, and at the same time, the variety of materials, multiple quantities and multiple levels can better meet children's play needs.
At present, low-structure play materials are fully accepted in kindergartens in the district, and children can transport materials to any area, customize themes, create situations, choose equipment, set rules, and freely combine and explore. For example, the challenge area of building a large oil drum and a ladder requires both hands and feet to passThe hollow blocks placed on the ground can be a road, a maze, or a small stage ......Children play to their heart's content, enjoy themselves, and let learning Xi happen at any time in the play.
Focus on observation and listening to understand the needs of young children
When organizing games, some teachers dare not let go boldly and do not really respect the wishes of children. For example, look at children's play from the perspective of the instructor;Interrupt children's games and do everything possible to direct children's independent activities to their own preset activitiesThe development of young children in play is not visible. In response to these phenomena, we use games to follow up teaching and research, leading teachers to dare to let go, learn to observe, and understand children's games.
In order to improve teachers' game observation ability, the whole district has established a kindergarten-based teaching and research system, and each kindergarten organizes a game on-site observation and research activity once a week, and discusses according to the path of throwing out questions, observing and thinking, behavior analysis, opinion collision, reflection and adjustment. Teachers were asked to participate in the activity with three questions: "What Xi do you see children learning in the game?""What are the typical manifestations of these play behaviors in the Guidelines for Xi and Development of Children Aged 3-6 Years Old?""What are the factors that influence these behaviors?".After the observation, the teacher carried out continuous discussion and collision around the problem, and the Xi used the "Guide" to discover the learning Xi behavior of children in the game, and compared the children's game behavior with the typical behavior performance in the "Guide", and analyzed the recent development area and personality differences of each child. Through the process of problem-thinking-analysis-rethinking, teachers gradually learn to let go boldly in the game, learn to observe children's language, emotions, actions and interactions with partners and materials in the game, learn to listen to the hidden thinking logic behind children's expressions, and learn to analyze and think about the interests and needs behind children's game behaviors.
Listening provides an effective way for teachers to further understand children's behavior, and realizes the understanding and empathy between teachers and children. In order to encourage teachers to break the stereotype and stimulate the potential of young children, we organized a special discussion for teachers in the district: "How do I listen in play and what do I find?".Teachers have combined different periods before, during and after the game, from the way of dialogue, timing, content and other aspects of their own ideas, and jointly sorted out the listening principle of "patience, encouragement, response, record, and thinking", leading teachers to really pay attention to children's ideas and experiences, and follow children's games.
In-depth case study to improve teachers' ability to support games
Good game cases can guide teachers to identify the occurrence and development of games, and can also make teachers feel the success and joy of game research. In the process of case writing, we found that some teachers do not know how to write cases, they always describe them directly, lack value, and there are also phenomena such as writing in order to complete tasks. In this regard, we attach importance to case studies, guide teachers to clarify the characteristics of cases and write basic strategies, and improve support strategies through in-depth analysis and interactive discussions.
We focus on the content of the case, and help teachers clarify the basic ideas of case writing through the three-step discussion strategy of comparative analysis, actual combat training, and dialogue improvement. Step 1: Each kindergarten first selects a typical case, and asks teachers to interpret and analyze in groups around what is the basic structure of the case, what activities are described in the case, how each activity is promoted, how the teacher supports it, etc., so that teachers can jointly discover the basic ideas of case writing. Step 2: Carry out actual combat training in kindergartens, guide each teacher to find the continuous activity fragments in the daily game to narrate, skillfully write skills in the Xi, lead teachers to pay attention to the game process, analyze children's behavior, and give appropriate support. Step 3: Principals, teaching and research staff have a dialogue with teachers, analyze teachers' game cases face-to-face, and let teachers know how to record children's language, problems and solutions in the process of playing, and how to identify the problems, promotion points and value points of children's independent play. This kind of case-based discussion, multi-subject participation, multi-perspective analysis, and combination of theory and practice can not only help teachers master the skills of writing game cases, but also lead teachers to better examine and review the real situation of children's games, and see and support children's learning Xi in combing and interpreting children's game behaviors.
Effective case analysis can lead teachers to gradually pay attention to children's play process and problems, and improve the level of teachers' support for play. To this end, we have carried out multi-level wisdom sharing. At the kindergarten level, a weekly game case study sharing system is established, once a week, and each sharing is combined with children's games** and teachers' recorded texts, and teachers work together to support the continuous promotion of games. At the level of the alliance community, a monthly game case sharing system is established, and each alliance park launches a game case to share together every month, and through the display of excellent game clips, the park learns from each other Xi wonderful performance of children in different play fields and the professional wisdom of teachers. At the district level, a system of sharing game cases during the semester has been established, and a game case exhibition is held every semester to highlight the support for the all-round development of children from different levels. Experts and excellent principals are specially invited to comment on the scene for each exhibition, so that the writing of game cases is becoming a process of dialogue between teachers and themselves, children and peers.
The author's affiliation is the Education and Sports Bureau of Qingdao West Coast New Area, Shandong Province
China Education Daily, December 10, 2023, page 2
Author: Zhang Chengxia, Zhuang Xiaoqing, Xue Peng.