ConsultationDidactic games. Their meaning and application in the pedagogical process
The importance of didactic games in the pedagogical process
A didactic game is an activity whose meaning and purpose is to give children certain knowledge and skills, and the development of mental abilities. Didactic games are games designed for learning.
Didactic games play a dual role in the pedagogical process: firstly, they are a teaching method, and secondly, they are an independent gaming activity. As a first, they are widely used in classes to familiarize children with the environment, with living nature, to form elementary mathematical concepts, to develop speech in order to teach children certain methods of mental action, to systematize, clarify and consolidate knowledge. At the same time, the content of the game and its rules are subordinated to educational tasks put forward by the specific program requirements of a particular type of activity. In this case, the initiative in choosing and conducting the game belongs to the teacher. As an independent play activity, they are carried out during extracurricular time.
In both cases, the teacher leads the didactic games, but the role is different. If in class he teaches children how to play, introduces them to the rules and game actions, then in the students’ independent games he participates as a partner or referee, monitors their relationships, and evaluates behavior.
Guide to didactic games
In the management of games, three stages should be distinguished: preparation, conduct, analysis of results.
1. Preparation for the game includes the following: selection of the game in accordance with the objectives of education and training of a specific age group, taking into account the time of the game (during class hours or outside of school hours), location (in a group room, on the site, on a walk, etc. ); determining the number of participants (entire group, subgroup, one child).
Preparation for the game also includes the selection of the necessary didactic material (manuals, toys, pictures, natural material).
The teacher chooses a game, invites the children to play, starts and invites the children.
Younger ages: a visual explanation of the entire course of the game while playing together with an adult.
Middle age: explanation of 1-2 rules, specific ones are given during the game in joint activity with an adult, you can use a trial run of the game, where the teacher clarifies the rules.
Older age: verbal explanation of the rules before the game, explanation of the meaning of the rules, if complex, then demonstration and trial moves are used.
2. If the teacher carefully prepares for the game, then conducting it itself will not cause difficulties. Any didactic game must have both game rules and game actions. If one of these conditions is missing, it turns into a didactic exercise.
The teacher controls the process of the game, reinforces the ability to play, monitors the implementation of the rules, using reminders, additional explanations, assessments, questions, and advice.
Younger age: the teacher plays the role of a leader, during the game he connects game actions with the rules.
Middle age: the teacher acts through the rule and does not directly suggest game actions.
Older age: the rules are explained before the game, children are involved in explaining their content.
3. Summing up the game is a crucial moment in its management. The teacher notes those who followed the rules well, helped their comrades, were active, and honest. Analysis of the game should be aimed at identifying effective methods of playing it, as well as mistakes made (what did not work and why).
Structural elements of the game
The structure of a didactic game includes: task, action, rule, result, conclusion of the game.
Task. Each didactic game has a precisely established task, which is subordinated to the actual didactic goal. Children are offered tasks whose solution requires a certain amount of intellectual effort and mental work. By completing a task in a game, a child activates his thinking, exercises his memory and observation skills.
The objectives of didactic games come down to several types:
- Compare and select objects based on the same, different or similar characteristics (the task becomes more complicated according to the age of the children).
- Classify and distribute objects or pictures. Children classify pictures or objects by type or material from which they are made.
- Identify an object by several or only one characteristic. Children guess objects from a simple description, or one of them describes the thing, and the rest guess.
- Exercise attention and memory. Children must remember a fact or a certain composition of objects, a group of players, etc., and determine the change that occurred in their absence.
Action. In each didactic game, the task is accomplished by an action that determines and organizes the behavior of each child and unites the children into a single team. It directly attracts children's interest and determines their emotional attitude to the game.
The action in the game must meet two basic conditions:
a) be sure to obey the task and fulfill the educational purpose of the game;
b) be entertaining and exciting until the end of the game.
In a well-designed educational game, children should not suspect that they are learning anything. Here the activity should, to a greater or lesser extent, hide the educational, didactic purpose of the game.
Rule: activities in the didactic game are strictly related to the rules. They determine how the child should behave during play, what he can and cannot do. It is important that the rules correspond to age characteristics and are compensated by entertaining activities. Therefore, it must be interesting so that the child willingly obeys the rules.
Result, conclusion of the game: the result of the game is solving the problem and following the rules.
The result is assessed from two points of view: from the point of view of the children and from the point of view of the teacher. When assessing the result from the children’s point of view, we take into account what moral and spiritual satisfaction the game brought to the children. When performing didactic tasks, children show intelligence, resourcefulness, attention, and memory. All this gives children moral satisfaction, increases self-confidence, and fills them with a sense of joy.
It is important for the educator whether the task has been completed, whether the prescribed actions have been carried out, whether it has brought certain results in this regard. At the end of some didactic games, you need to reward the participants, praise the children, or assign them leading roles in the game.
Types of didactic games
Didactic games differ in educational content, cognitive activity of children, game actions and rules, organization and relationships of children, and the role of the teacher.
In preschool pedagogy, all didactic games can be divided into 3 main types: games with objects, board-printed and word games.
Games with objects: for them it is necessary to select objects that differ in properties: color, shape, size, purpose, use, etc.
Printed board games are a very exciting activity for children. Most often, didactic games with paired pictures, cut pictures and cubes are used. In this case, for middle-aged children, one or more objects should be depicted: toys, trees, clothes or dishes. Children can independently differentiate their distinctive features: size, color, shape, purpose. To work with cut pictures, older preschoolers can be asked to independently put together a whole picture from its parts without first examining the whole image.
Word games are built on a combination of words and actions of the players. In such games it is required to use previously acquired knowledge in new connections, in new circumstances. Therefore, in junior and middle groups, games with words are aimed mainly at developing speech, cultivating correct sound pronunciation, clarifying, consolidating and activating vocabulary, developing correct orientation in space, and the formation of dialogic and monologue speech.
