Pedagogical technologies in environmental education of preschool children
The technology of organizing labor in nature is carried out in the logic of organizing the work activities of children - from familiarization with the work of an adult in caring for animals and plants to learning feasible methods of care and independent implementation of work activities in nature.
A characteristic feature of work in nature is the focus on helping a living creature or natural object, and therefore the child’s responsibility for the condition of the plant or animal in the process of care increases.
In work activity, the emphasis shifts from activities for oneself (“I water the plant so that it is beautiful and makes me happy”) to activities for another living being (“I water the plant - it needs my help”).
Most children are interested in activities in nature in which they can realize their need to communicate with living objects. For older preschoolers who have a fairly broad understanding of nature, experience interacting with it, and a high level of development of manual skills, practical activities with natural objects are quite interesting and attractive. Many children prefer it to other types of children's activities. Currently, the values of labor, including labor caring for animals and plants, are becoming expressed, and the need for basic labor activity is emerging, which children clearly lack today. Therefore, in kindergarten it is necessary to create conditions to satisfy this need and at the same time develop the practical skills of older preschoolers.
GAMING TECHNOLOGIES
An important role in children’s knowledge of natural objects is played by practical modeling actions, when the teacher depicts with his hands the shape, size, height or length of natural objects: he “draws” a round tomato, an apple, a long carrot, a large round watermelon or a head of cabbage in the air. Asks the children to do the same with their hands - movements and actions reinforce what the eyes see and what is indicated by the word.
The teacher carefully introduces the game as a method of environmental education. At this age, story play is just beginning, it is not yet the leading activity, so the teacher’s task is to select simple and familiar images, play actions and words through which the environmental content will be expressed. The best images for this purpose are the images of the fairy tales “Ryaba Hen”, “Turnip”, “Kolobok”, “The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats”, “Zayushkina’s Hut”.
The theme of domestic animals is easy to imagine with the help of Baba and Grandfather from “Ryaba the Chicken”, who, in addition to chickens, have a cow, a goat, a horse and other animals. Either Grandfather or Baba “comes” to classes, they talk about a cow with a calf, then about a goat with kids, show how they feed them with grass, hay, and water. The teacher gives the children the opportunity to participate in these operations as assistants - they feed toy (or depicted in the picture) cows and goats with hay, graze them, build barns for them, and imitate their actions and sounds. This game allows children to explore rural reality, develops their gaming skills, imagination, and consolidates their knowledge of fairy tales.
Innovative technologies for environmental education of preschool children
Nature is a great teacher! Environmental education is very closely related to moral education - this is the education of humanity, kindness, mercy, and a responsible attitude towards nature and the people who live nearby. Our task is to teach the child to treat every living organism as a valuable, unique entity that has the right to life. The best result can be achieved if you begin to form the foundations of environmental culture in preschool age.
To make every day of children’s stay in kindergarten interesting and eventful, we try to implement the tasks of environmental education through an integrated approach to teaching and use innovative technologies in our work.
A way for children to understand the world around them is through play. Role-playing is a method in which children act out a life situation. Children model their own behavior and build relationships. In role-playing games, the child’s social competencies are actively formed. We give role-playing games an ecological character: “Journey to the Forest”, “Journey to Neptune”, “Journey to the Moon”, “Zoological Store”, “Vitamin Lunch”, etc.
In our work we also use puzzle games, experiment games, research games, meditation games
(“I am Rain”, “I am Sun”, “I am Wind”, “Sun and Cloud” and others) give new impressions about the life and work of people, about the state of nature and its changes; awaken interest in nature and develop a value-based attitude towards it. Form motives and practical skills for environmentally appropriate activities; provide opportunities for independence, initiative, cooperation, responsibility and the ability to make good decisions. In these games, children use their life experience and reflect what interests, excites, and pleases them.
An interesting game technique in working with children is receiving letters of complaints from residents of a living area, residents of a forest, garden, or vegetable garden. When children receive such a letter, they think about its contents, discuss various environmental situations, decide how they can help this or that living creature, how they need to preserve and protect the nature of their land and the entire planet.
To develop in children the ability to analyze various problems and find solutions, as well as the ability to work with information, we use case technologies in our work. A technology case is an analysis of a situation or a specific case, a business game.
Case - technologies develop communicative competencies in those educational areas where there is no clear answer to the question posed, but there are several answers, and you need to find the right answer by arguing your reasons. For example, the case illustration “Does a child behave correctly in nature?”
The “Good-Bad” discussion method improves children’s knowledge about the phenomena of living and inanimate nature, animals and plants. Children are offered different situations, and they make conclusions, for example: “Why did the leaf turn yellow?”, “A lot of snow in winter - is it good or bad?”, “If all the birds on earth disappear - is it good or bad?”, “They go every day.” Is rain good or bad?”, etc. The purpose of such a case is to jointly analyze the situation, find a way out, the correct version. Business game “Who is after whom?” Shows children that in nature everything is interconnected.
Business game “What will happen if ...?” helps to learn what needs to be done in order to protect, preserve and enhance nature, develops the ability to draw conclusions and conclusions. For example: “ What happens if you don’t put out a fire in the forest? "
Business game “Take care of nature.” Invite children to look at pictures depicting plants, birds, animals, humans, the sun, water, etc. One of the pictures is removed, and the children must tell what will happen to the remaining living objects if there is no hidden object on Earth. For example: we remove a bird - what will happen to the rest of the animals, to humans, to plants, etc.
Information and computer technologies are widely used to improve and update the forms and methods of working with children.
A child, with his visual-imaginative thinking, understands only what can be simultaneously viewed, heard, acted upon, or evaluated the action of an object. This is why it is so important when teaching preschoolers to access the channels of information available to them.
Introducing children to nature, we use a variety of materials: didactic pictures, reproductions of artistic paintings, photographs, videos, sound recordings, in which children become active objects of pedagogical influence.
We use the following types of illustrative and visual materials on electronic media, such as:
1. Sound materials are recordings of the voices of birds, mammals, the noise of the forest, surf, rain, wind, etc.
2. Screen materials are slides dedicated to a specific topic.
3. Multimedia presentations are educational screensavers with beautiful, bright pictures that help teach children about the world around them. The presentation combines dynamics, sound, and colorful images, which significantly improves the perception of information.
3. multimedia environmental games both in the content of classes to get acquainted with the outside world, and in free activities: travel games, riddle games, didactic games, quizzes, physical exercises, finger games.
4. Media classes, which I conduct in a group room using a laptop or in a music room equipped with a computer, projector and screen.
An effective method of expanding knowledge on ecology is the use of pearls of folk wisdom - fairy tales, legends, sayings, riddles on environmental topics . The goal is to enrich the mind and excite the soul, and not so much to provide ready-made answers to the questions posed, but to develop the child’s ability to think independently, using his experience and previous observations: “If there is a lot of forest, don’t destroy it, if there is a little forest, take care of it, if there is no forest, plant it.” etc.
One of the forms of non-traditional environmental education for preschool children is environmental theater , which promotes the development of a sense of collectivism, responsibility, forms the experience of moral behavior, and influences the spiritual and moral development of the individual. Children reveal environmental problems through costumed theatrical performances including songs, dances, and propaganda ditties that promote environmental protection. Parents of students are involved in the organization of environmental theater. Ecological theater opens up wide possibilities for creative search, the result of which is new knowledge about our common home, about our neighbors on the planet, about the interdependence of man and nature. Ecological theater classes provide an opportunity not only to study and understand the world around us, but also to live in harmony with it.
Conducting competitions, quizzes, brain rings, entertainment and environmental celebrations, such as “What? Where? When?"; "Nature Experts"; “We are friends of nature”; "Earth Day"; "Birthday of the forest"; "Gold autumn"; “Titmouse Day” helps children feel like they are part of nature. Children are happy to perform in front of their friends, as well as in front of their parents, who are not only frequent guests, but also participants at our holidays.
Another interesting form of working with children is promotions.
In our preschool, environmental events take place throughout the school year. During the events, preschoolers receive natural history knowledge, develop environmental culture skills, and an active life position. The promotions serve as good environmental propaganda among the parent community. Children see the attitude of their parents, the organization of the event and participate in it themselves. Each action is held under its own motto and has visual propaganda (leaflets, posters, memos).
Types of actions: “Let's protect spruce and pine” ; “Feed the birds in winter” ; "Snow blanket for trees"; "Take care of the primroses" ; “Let's decorate the planet with flowers”; “Clean yard - clean planet”; “Protect the forest and its inhabitants from fire!”
As an innovative form of environmental education, we use the ecological trail .
An ecological path allows you to more productively use regular walks with children for environmental activities and at the same time for children’s health in the fresh air. The same objects can be visited many times, especially in different seasons of the year. On the path we conduct observations, games, theatrical activities, and excursions. It is very important to remember the integrated approach: on the path, the children and I observe, examine, discuss, analyze, etc., then the children express their impressions of what they saw, their acquired knowledge about nature, in different types of activities: visual, musical, which helps to consolidate this knowledge in the child’s memory.
Preschool children, with their desire to understand the world around them, present great opportunities for developing a moral position in relation to their native land. the organization of the “I want to know everything!” circle to be innovative in this work. on experimental activities, where the child is given complete freedom to demonstrate cognitive, emotional, social and motor activity in the process of experimentation.
Pedagogical technology of environmental education
Inna Abakaeva
Pedagogical technology of environmental education
In modern conditions, when the scope of educational influence is significantly expanding, the importance of environmental education for preschool children becomes particularly acute and relevant. With the adoption of the laws of the Russian Federation “On the Protection of the Natural Environment” and “On Education ”, the prerequisites for the legal framework were created for the formation of a system of environmental education for the population . “Decree of the President of the Russian Federation on environmental protection and sustainable development” (taking into account the Declaration of the UN Conference on Environment and Development, signed by Russia). Relevant Government resolutions elevate environmental education to the category of priority state problems.
In the context of an impending environmental disaster, environmental education and upbringing of people of all ages and professions (1 slide)
.
Goals:
- Introducing children to environmental culture ;
-Formation of the foundations of an ecological worldview ;
-Promoting the formation, expansion and deepening of preschoolers’ ideas about nature;
-Development in children of cognitive skills corresponding to the content of knowledge (analyze what is observed in nature, draw conclusions about certain patterns and relationships, simply predict the consequences of impact on natural objects) (2nd slide)
Tasks:
The formation of environmentally educated personality in the pedagogical process of a preschool educational institution is possible by solving the following problems:
of environmental consciousness in children . A child’s mastery of elements of environmental awareness is determined by the content and nature (degree of complexity)
knowledge about nature.
This should be knowledge of environmental content , reflecting the leading relationships of natural phenomena.
2. Formation of practical skills and abilities in children in a variety of activities in nature; At the same time, children’s activities should have an environmental nature. In the course of real activities in nature (caring for animals and plants in a corner of nature and on a site, participation in environmental work), children master the ability to create conditions for plants and animals that are close to natural, taking into account the needs of living organisms. Important are the skills children master to foresee the consequences of negative actions, behave correctly in nature, and maintain the integrity of individual living organisms and systems. It is the development of practical skills and abilities by children that makes the attitude towards nature not contemplative, but consciously active.
3. Fostering a humane attitude towards nature. The attitude towards nature - humane, cognitive, aesthetic - is closely related to the content of the knowledge acquired by the child. Knowledge of environmental content regulates and guides the behavior and activities of children in nature. A special place in the formation of attitudes towards nature is occupied by knowledge about the laws of nature, accessible to children’s understanding.
(3 slide)
.
Ecological culture is an integral part of a person’s general culture and includes various types of activities, as well as the human ecological consciousness (interests, needs, attitudes, emotions, experiences, feelings, aesthetic assessments, tastes, etc.).
It is in the 4-5th year of life that elements of eco-consciousness appear more clearly:
interest in nature, in certain types of activities,
emotional reactions,
more conscious assessments of human behavior in nature.
All outstanding thinkers and teachers of the past attached great importance to nature as a means of raising children: Ya. A. Komensky saw in nature a source of knowledge, a means for the development of the mind, feelings and will. K. D. Ushinsky was in favor of “leading children into nature” in order to tell them everything that was accessible and useful for their mental and verbal development.
The ideas of introducing preschoolers to nature were further developed in the theory and practice of Soviet preschool education in articles and methodological works (O. Ioganson, A. A. Bystrov, R. M. Bass, A. M. Stepanova, E. I. Zalkind, E. I. Volkova, E. Gennings, etc.). For a long time, the methodological manuals of M. V. Luchich, M. M. Markovskaya, and the recommendations of Z. D. Sizenko were of great help to practitioners of preschool education; More than one generation of educators studied from the textbook of S. A. Veretennikova.
A major role was played by the work of leading teachers and methodologists , whose focus was the formation of observation as the main method of getting to know the environment, accumulating, clarifying and expanding reliable information about nature (Z. D. Sinenko, S. A. Veretennikova, A. M. Nizova , L. I. Pushnina, M. V. Lucich, A. F. Mazurina, etc.).
It is at the stage of preschool childhood that the child receives emotional impressions about nature, accumulates ideas about different forms of life, i.e., the fundamental principles of ecological thinking and consciousness are formed in him, the initial elements of ecological culture are laid. But this happens only under one condition: if the adults raising children themselves have an ecological culture : they understand the problems common to all people and worry about them, show the little person the beautiful world of nature, and help establish relationships with him.
The content of environmental education includes two aspects: the transfer of environmental knowledge and its transformation into attitude. Knowledge is an obligatory component of the process of forming the principles of ecological culture , and attitude is its final product. Truly ecological knowledge forms a conscious attitude and gives rise to environmental consciousness .
An attitude built without an understanding of the natural connections in nature, the socio-natural connections of a person with the environment cannot be the core of environmental education , cannot become the beginning of a developing environmental consciousness , because it ignores objectively existing processes and relies on the subjective factor.
A biocentric approach to environmental education , which places nature at the center of attention and considers humans as part of it, puts forward the need to study the patterns that exist in nature itself. Only their thorough knowledge allows a person to correctly interact with it and live according to its laws.
Methods and forms of implementation of environmental education
The concept of “ pedagogical method ” includes a broader context - not only teaching, but also the organization of other types of activities in which an adult has an educational influence on the child. Depending on the stage of development of children's knowledge and skills, there are methods of direct influence (showing, explanation, etc.), methods of indirect influence, when children show independence, and methods of problem-based education and training, when preschoolers are given the opportunity to independently find ways to solve cognitive, playful and other tasks.Introducing the concept of pedagogical method , researchers focus on new, specific and significant pedagogical aspects : 1) productive interaction between the teacher and children in any joint activity; 2) the combination of educational and educational components in each activity in their organic unity and mutual complementarity. It is obvious that the interpretation of the pedagogical method as a purposeful joint activity is based on L. S. Vygotsky’s position on the zone of proximal development.
The construction of methods of environmental education is based on the following fundamental points:
1) taking into account the specifics of the content of environmental education , based on bioecology with its central concept of the relationship between the organism and the environment;
2) approach to any joint activity as a pedagogical method , if this activity: is rich in environmental content , allows you to solve the problems of environmental education of children ; systematic, regularly repeated; planned and organized by the teacher; is aimed at achieving educational results ;
3) simultaneous solution of educational and educational tasks in the activities and understanding of their subordination in environmental education .
In the pedagogical process, both traditional and innovative methods are used.
Traditional methods that have stood the test of time and are widely used:
— visual (observations, excursions, looking at paintings and illustrations, watching filmstrips about nature);
- verbal (conversations, reading fiction about nature, using folklore materials);
— practical ( ecological games , experiments, work in nature)
.
In older preschool age, the level of children’s thinking changes—and models change: subject-schematic and schematic models appear.
Application of the concept of “ educational technology ”
in the field
of environmental education of preschool children has its own specifics, determined by its subject, content and methods. In this case, the definition of technology may be as follows.
Technology is a system of environmental education , which contains a number of interrelated and detailed activities planned for the entire academic year. Technology is the methodological support of the program that implements its main ideas and provisions. As a result of applying the technology at the output (at the end of the year)
of environmental education of children changes , which is established using a special diagnostic examination. technologies can be developed for the same program , which differ in the set and nature of specific pedagogical activities , their combination throughout the academic year, but which necessarily implement the leading ideas of the program. “Young
Ecologist ” is so far the only program that has not only methodological, but also
technological support , so the discussion of the issue is carried out using its example.
Widespread implementation of the “Young Ecologist ”
into the practice of preschool institutions, it was possible to create a model
of the technological process , the purpose of which is to form the principles of ecological culture among preschoolers.
This model includes a number of modules that have general developmental significance and are used in working with children of any age. These include:
-cycles of observations of the stationary inhabitants of the living corner and area of the kindergarten;
- joint activities of the teacher with preschoolers, aimed at creating and maintaining the necessary, environmentally significant conditions for the inhabitants of the corner of nature;
- systematic modeling in special calendars of long-term changes in nature associated with seasonal phenomena, growth and development of plants and animals;
- accessible in content and socially significant environmental actions ;
-joint (teachers with children)
production of books on literary works;
different types of environmental activities .
Systematicity - forms a matrix of educational technology . Such a matrix is a ready-made planning of material for the teacher. It is this circumstance that is the condition for the widespread introduction of technologies and their reproduction by different teachers in different conditions of preschool institutions. Activities and environmentally oriented activities, evenly distributed throughout the school year and linked to the most important events and phenomena of a socio-natural nature, ensure the success of each age-related technology .
Reading special literature about nature (in each group)
(all academic year)
Excursions, hikes
Modules of technology for educational work - environmental education of preschool children (the same in technologies for all age groups)
Diagnostic module-1 (September)
Diagnostics of the level
of environmental awareness in preschoolers and modules of educational work with preschoolers (September - May)
.
Joint activity of the teacher and children in a corner of nature (alternately with all children throughout the school year)
Weekly observations of seasonal natural phenomena, modeling in the calendar (3rd week of each month)
Growing plants (onions)
— problem-experimental situation, modeling in the calendar
(February - March)
Winter feeding of birds, modeling in the calendar (November - March)
Promotion “Green Christmas tree - live needle” (December - January)
Cycles of observations of animals and plants - inhabitants of corners of nature and the preschool educational institution (1-2 times a quarter)
.
Technologies for environmental education of preschool children have a number of specific features stemming from their “natural”
content and psychology of children.
The core of each technology is natural events in nature and society: the change and development of seasonal phenomena, the onset of the New Year, etc. The technology for each age depends on the ecological development environment of the preschool educational institution (the presence of a living area, its composition)
.
Its optimal implementation occurs when children are constantly surrounded by objects of living nature. It is precisely this corner of nature that makes it possible to organize various environmentally oriented and age-appropriate activities (observation, creating the necessary conditions for living beings, etc.)
.
Technologies for preschoolers include the use of a large amount of visual and substantive material, which corresponds to the age characteristics of children - the predominance of imaginative and effective forms of thinking.
Of particular importance is the widespread inclusion in educational technologies of various games (didactic, role-playing, specially designed game-based learning situations that create a positive emotional background in children and ensure the required level of assimilation of environmental knowledge , development of a correct, interested attitude of preschoolers to nature.
Algorithm.
Adults teaching and raising children, creating the necessary conditions for them, is a decisive factor in environmental education . The overall result of their activities - the advancement of children along the path of ecological culture - is determined by the following personal qualities:
understanding of environmental problems and the causes that give rise to them, a sense of civic responsibility for the current situation, desire and effective readiness to change it;
professionalism and pedagogical skill : mastery of methods of environmental education of children ; understanding the goals and objectives of this area, systematic implementation of specific technologies in the practice of working with children, creative search and improvement of one’s activities;
general orientation and application of a new humanistic model of education: creating a favorable atmosphere for children to live in an educational institution , taking care of physical and mental health, using personality-oriented methods of education, individualization in working with children and families.
The main "ideologist"
throughout the entire work, the educator is a teacher who sets and implements organizational and substantive tasks in a timely manner, creates an atmosphere of general interest in the work, and really cares about creating conditions for
environmental education and environmental health work with children .
Determining the level of environmental education of children creates the completeness of pedagogical technology - a true teacher always wants to see the result of the educational process, proof of the significance of his systematic efforts. Meanwhile, diagnostics is a labor-intensive and responsible task that must be performed by professionals with a full understanding of what results can be expected and how they will help adjust further pedagogical work . The current desire of management structures in education to have annual diagnostic results for all children, according to all parameters and from all preschool educational institutions, is completely unjustified. Diagnostics is a delicate matter; it determines the level of development of the child, his real progress in the formation of physical, mental and personal developments . Development in relation to a person is a psychological concept, it means a leap (by analogy with development in living nature, and psychologists should deal with this process of determining it. Incorrectly or ineptly carried out diagnosis does more harm than good: it takes up a lot of time from educators, creates a false impression about successes (or, conversely, failures), creates a precedent for “labeling”
on children (
“stupid”
,
“professor”
, etc., which subsequently hinders their development, as they
develop inferiority complexes, high or low self-esteem. By the age of 7, older preschoolers should show a pronounced independent interest in objects and phenomena nature, strive to study them, attract the attention of children and adults to them, ask questions about the unfamiliar and incomprehensible - these are their indicators of development. This means that if you bring a new living object (for example, a turtle) to the group at the end of the school year, leave it without explanation and observe looking at the reactions of children, their various manifestations - this will be the diagnosis of the above-mentioned indicators of child development. Focusing on developmental tasks, you can also develop different diagnostic tasks, and you should choose positions that correspond to the age capabilities of children - do not underestimate or overestimate them. For example , the task of “introducing children to different states of matter”,
if we mean the aggregate states of water, is easy for an older preschooler, it is not worth diagnosing. And if you test this knowledge using the example of wax or paraffin, you can find out children’s understanding of the dependence of changes in the state of a substance on the ambient temperature.
Motivation
The teacher himself comes up with new situations with literary characters, introduces them into various forms of pedagogical work and routine moments. The game creates an optimal background for personal development: children are in a positive emotional state, willingly learn, organize interesting independent games, build relationships with each other more gently, interact humanely with plants and animals. Children become more organized, play independently in an interesting and varied way .
Manageability: A properly planned alternation of educational, physical education, and environmental activities not only strengthens the health of children, but also develops their intelligence, endurance, and moral qualities. Of particular importance are hikes - complex events that can include a wide variety of activities. Hikes can be carried out at any time of the year; they can be on foot, skiing, or cycling. Within this direction, special importance is devoted to a healthy lifestyle environmentally in the kindergarten premises . The work of the group in this area may include a nurse, a psychologist, and a physical education teacher. In the ecological and aesthetic of visual activities are widely used . The teacher develops children's sensory skills, observes various natural phenomena with preschoolers a lot and carefully, focusing their attention on shades of color, proportions, shapes, sizes of individual parts of plants and animals. Creates conditions for free creative activity: drawing, sculpting, appliqué, constructing crafts from natural material. It is important that the teacher himself can set an example of such work, preferably in the presence of children. In-depth work in this direction requires organizing exhibitions with well-designed children's works and accumulating works of art in the institution. This contributes to the development of artistic abilities, observation and personality in general. In addition to the indicated areas, educators can realize their other interests and abilities: delve into the development of geographical ideas of preschoolers, working with a globe and maps; focus on the development of children’s speech, recording their stories and their observations on a tape recorder; love “samizdat”
activities and make your own books and albums on different topics with children;
get carried away the “water”
or
“wooden”
theme, creating a museum, etc.
Knowledge about nature influences the formation of a conscious attitude: under the influence of training, children begin to understand causal relationships and dependencies in nature, begin to take them into account in their activities and behavior. This is convincingly shown in the study of I. A. Komarova. The authors of various works note that the good attitude that children develop towards the natural environment is the result of a special organization of the pedagogical process .
All components of such an integrated approach to environmental education in a preschool institution do not exist separately, but are interconnected. Thus, a humane attitude towards nature arises in the process of realizing that the world around us is unique, in need of our care, and is consolidated in the process of practical activities to care for indoor plants, inhabitants of a living area, etc.
Revealing the beauty of nature to children and teaching them to see it is a difficult task. To do this, I myself must be able to live in harmony with nature, and the children must be ready to imitate his every move. They are very observant and attentive to the words of the teacher, and they are good at distinguishing between positive and negative in the actions of adults. Ecological education , sincere love for nature means not only a certain state of mind, the perception of its beauty, but also its understanding and knowledge.
