What is the concept of kindergarten teachers now?

Misunderstanding of preschool education and the change of educational concept

Ying Wang

During the development of world civilization for thousands of years, human beings have made unremitting explorations and experiments on preschool education. From "mother education" and "pre-knee education" in the primitive natural state to modern kindergartens and nurseries, early childhood education has gradually established its own position from obscurity to science. At the turn of the 20th century, many world-class scholars reminded people that the 20th century is the century of children and education. Education from children can not only inject human dreams and aspirations for the new century, but also develop human potential more fully and deeply. Children represent the future and hope, but children's education can only be operated by adult society. Therefore, what kind of purpose, standard, method, mode and way to develop children's education is one of the most important choices related to the future and destiny of mankind. Although in today's world, due to the differences of countries, nationalities, religions, cultures, languages, social systems and development levels, the provisions of educational goals in different countries are also very different, but the understanding of early childhood education is tending to be consistent. 2 1 century, preschool education will still become the most concerned topic in the world.

Compared with the world preschool education, preschool education in China started late. In the long years when there were no kindergartens in China, the early childhood education in China was mainly undertaken by families, which led to the saying that a good wife and a good mother should "teach each other" and that it was the father's fault that children didn't teach. As the initial undertakers of early childhood education, these parents obviously have no special knowledge of early childhood education, but only experience passed down from generation to generation, so there are good and bad. Of course, on the one hand, it is an era when children are relatively free, but on the other hand, it also wastes a good opportunity for children to learn and develop themselves. In modern times, the important role of preschool education is increasingly recognized by people. Known as "China Playboy", Mr. Chen Heqin founded the first kindergarten in China in Nanjing and started a new exploration of preschool education. Up to now, the preschool education circle in China has not stopped this kind of exploration.

In the new century, China's preschool education has made great progress. With the implementation of the "Guidelines for Kindergarten Education" newly promulgated by the Ministry of Education in 20001and the in-depth development of the new curriculum reform in kindergartens, the educational concept and behavior of preschool teachers have undergone profound changes, and preschool education is increasingly developing in the direction of promoting children's independent, harmonious and all-round development. Early childhood education has received unprecedented attention, and children's ideological and moral education, cognitive ability, thinking ability, hands-on operation ability and the development of non-intellectual factors are all colorful and have a good situation. However, if we think deeply and calmly, we will find that in the wave of preschool education reform for many years, there are still educational concepts that restrict the development of preschool children and preschool teachers. The misunderstanding of these educational ideas will not only restrict the all-round development of children's body, intelligence, morality and beauty, but also make kindergarten education tend to be closed and conservative, lacking the vitality and vitality it deserves. The fundamental way to solve this kind of problems requires the majority of preschool teachers to further change their educational concepts, establish their ideas of preschool education, and explore a new starting point of preschool education in the new century with innovative consciousness, spirit, goals, methods, ways and related system guarantees, so as to promote the development of preschool education in China.

First, the misunderstanding of preschool education

(A) the "primary school" tendency of early childhood education

The tendency of "primary school" in preschool education is mainly manifested in the following two aspects: in terms of behavior norms, children are required to abide by rules and discipline like primary school students and play less. For example, absolutely obey the teacher, obey, don't talk back, don't make excuses, and don't be rude; Listen attentively in class, don't be distracted, don't play tricks, don't talk, sit upright, pay attention, and raise your hand when answering questions; Don't chase and fight, don't jump and run, don't make a hullabaloo about, rest quietly or play games and prepare for the next class. These requirements unfairly regulate the behavior of primary school students, and even more ridiculous is to regulate the behavior of young children. In learning knowledge, children are required to study as hard as primary school students. Many kindergartens violate the principle of quality education and require children to attend classes like primary school students, learn knowledge like primary school students and do homework like primary school students. The direction and goal of running a kindergarten are seriously divorced from the reality of children. Kindergarten focuses on learning knowledge, which has deviated from the correct direction of running the park; It is more harmful to ask young children to study like primary school students.

The tendency of "primary school" in preschool education completely violates the laws and purposes of preschool education, and its harm is obvious. First of all, the "primary school" mode of early childhood education fundamentally ignores the physical and psychological characteristics of young children, deprives them of childlike innocence and the right to play, and distorts or even stifles their nature. To put it more seriously, this educational model is a rude trampling on children's humanity, a kind of damage to children's physiology and psychology, and will seriously affect children's normal physical and psychological development and healthy growth. Secondly, 2 1 century is the era of knowledge economy, and the trend of global economic integration is increasingly prominent and the competition is fierce. The new situation of socialist market economy requires that architectural talents in the 2 1 century must be full of pioneering and innovative spirit. However, the children "cultivated" under the educational mode of "primary school" in early childhood education are either mature "little old men" and "little sheep" or "bookworms" who are obsessed with reading. They have no vigor, vitality, pioneering and creativity, and it is difficult for them to undertake the historical task of socialist modernization in the new century. Third, it is out of touch with primary education, which has a negative impact on primary education. The tendency of "primary school" in early childhood education requires children to learn knowledge like primary school students and what primary school students should master.

This practice will be counterproductive. Ruined children's appetite for learning, so that some

Children have different degrees of fear or even fear of learning, which leads to weariness of learning.

(B) Emphasis on intellectual education over moral education

Parents attach great importance to their children's early education, and when they see that their children can recite a few Tang poems and speak a few English, they mistakenly think that their children have extraordinary intelligence. These are all misunderstandings. It can be seen that "study hard" is the only expectation and requirement that parents generally have the most significance and value for minors. As long as the children study well, nothing else matters. Many parents value intellectual education more than moral education. Value knowledge over ability. It is considered that "intellectual education" is a hard indicator, "moral education" is a soft task, and "moral education" is placed in a dispensable position. Ignoring the cultivation of children's correct ideological and moral character and good civilized habits, expecting too much from children, and bent on making their children prosper, but failing to correct and prevent all kinds of bad habits shown by children. Whether intelligence is extraordinary or not depends not on how much knowledge you have, but mainly on the development level of children's thinking ability and other intellectual elements, such as observation, memory, imagination and operation ability. In fact, it is understandable that parents attach importance to their children's knowledge education and intellectual education. As parents, who doesn't want their children to have more knowledge and who doesn't want their children to be smart. However, many parents neglect moral education and personality education for their children.

The 265,438+0th century is the era of knowledge economy, which requires Qian Qian to train thousands of workers who are highly innovative, highly creative, rich in scientific knowledge, and have strong self-learning ability. At the same time, they need to be responsible for society and highly adapt to social development. Those who only have Nuo Nuo in personality, shrink from difficulties, have poor psychological endurance and have great mood swings, and it is difficult for them to adapt to the requirements of social development in 2 1 century.

Knowledge economy puts forward higher requirements for people's moral quality, and knowledge economy is definitely not a requirement to reduce people's moral quality. Knowledge-based economy requires workers' behavior to conform to the progress of human society, the moral norms and living standards of human society. High-tech has two sides, which can be used to benefit mankind and harm society. Computer virus is a typical example of using high technology to harm society. (2) Get out of the misunderstanding that family education pays more attention to intellectual education than moral education, and cultivate children into people with all-round development in morality, intelligence, physique and beauty.

(c) Kindergarten teachers are advocates of knowledge.

In the traditional concept, "teachers (imparting and inculcating knowledge) are the center, and writing and writing on the blackboard (teaching media) are the means to instill knowledge (the content stipulated in textbooks) into students (passive recipients of external stimuli); Students can only accept the knowledge instilled by teachers in a unified, one-way and passive way. " Preschool teachers are always the embodiment of authority, representing the requirements of society and holding the right to decide the purpose, content and method of education. The educational process is a process in which teachers impart knowledge to children. Teachers are the givers of knowledge and skills, and the protectors of children's lives. Teachers are always right, and teachers are in the supreme position. Not only the children think so, but also the teachers themselves think so. Children, on the other hand, are regarded as ignorant and totally dependent on the protection of adults. They can only imitate adults mechanically, passively accept their instructions and unilaterally obey their will. As the giver of traditional knowledge, teachers are the only givers of knowledge, and students are the receivers of knowledge. Teachers have the right to dominate the classroom and strictly control and supervise students' learning. Teaching aims at imparting knowledge, and students' emotion, will, interest and personality are not paid much attention by teachers. Therefore, in the eyes of teachers, children have no independent will and personality, and are in a passive and obedient position.

Second, the change of today's concept of preschool education.

(A) the transformation of the purpose of early childhood education

What is the purpose of preschool education? This is the first problem to be solved. For a long time, early childhood education is only an accessory to primary education, and its main purpose is to prepare children for primary school, while ignoring the important role of early childhood education in children's development. However, due to the vigorous promotion of early childhood education and the change of parents' own ideas, the purpose of early childhood education went to the other extreme. Parents think that children's potential should be developed through various means of early childhood education, hoping to cultivate a child prodigy. Therefore, from the beginning of prenatal education to the birth of the child, he can read and walk in advance, and then take English classes and art classes, which arranges endless learning content for the child and deprives the child of a happy childhood. In fact, the purpose of early childhood education is not to cultivate child prodigies, but to cultivate children with flexible mind, good health, excellent quality and sound personality.

Perhaps it is because of this understanding that the new "Guiding Outline of Kindergarten Education" promulgated by the Ministry of Education in 200 1 uses the word "lifelong education" for the first time when describing the nature and tasks of kindergarten education. ① In the old syllabus, the educational task of kindergartens was defined as: "Educate children to develop in an all-round way physically, intellectually, morally and aesthetically, so that they can grow up healthily and lively, and lay a good foundation for entering primary schools and bringing up a new generation." The regulations point out that kindergartens are "an organic part of basic education and the basic stage of the school education system". From these expressions, we can find that the old syllabus and regulations have established the nature and position of kindergarten education in the whole education system, but they all emphasize the basic position and role of kindergarten education in the school education system. The new "Outline" clearly points out: "Kindergarten education is an important part of basic education and the basic stage of school education and lifelong education in China. All kinds of kindergartens in urban and rural areas should proceed from reality and implement quality education according to local conditions to lay a good foundation for children's lifelong development. " The above statement not only emphasizes that kindergarten education is the basic stage of school education, but also emphasizes that kindergarten education is the basic stage of lifelong education; It not only pays attention to preparing for primary schools, but also lays a foundation for the healthy development of life, which highlights the basic position and role of kindergarten education and obviously embodies the modern educational thought of lifelong education. Early childhood education lays the foundation for the healthy development of life, which is very different from education that only prepares for entering primary school. In the expression of objectives, the old syllabus used more words such as "teaching", "development" and "training".

It shows that kindergarten education is more from the perspective of teachers, emphasizing teachers' initiative in children's learning.

Guide position. In contrast, the new syllabus is more about experience, feeling, liking and happiness.

Meaning "and other words. This not only highlights the importance attached to the development of children's emotions, attitudes and interests, but also embodies the concept of giving full play to children's three-dimensional role. The old syllabus emphasized the teaching of specific knowledge and skills. In contrast, the new Outline places great emphasis on children's active learning, pointing out that teachers should not overemphasize the teaching of specific knowledge or skills, but should create an environment suitable for children's development, so that children can acquire certain knowledge and skills in the process of independent exploration and activities, and form good emotions, attitudes and personality. The new "Outline" puts forward in many places that "let children ... form a sense of security and trust" and create an environment that makes them want to speak, dare to speak, like to speak, have the opportunity to speak and get a positive response "; Create a relaxed environment for children's inquiry activities "provide rich and operable materials, provide conditions for each child to explore in various senses and ways" provide opportunities for free expression, encourage children to boldly express their feelings, understanding and imagination, respect each child's ideas and creations, affirm and accept their unique aesthetic feelings and expressions, and share the happiness they create ". Only in this way can we fundamentally implement this core goal in the process of promoting the all-round and harmonious development of children's body and mind.

It is gratifying that this new concept of educational purpose has been generally recognized, and kindergarten education has begun to take children's own development as the ultimate goal. This change in educational purpose directly leads to changes in other aspects of early childhood education.

(B) changes in the content of early childhood education

The content of education is directly related to the goal and quality of education. For basic education, fundamentality and fundamentality have always been the principles of content selection. But the understanding of what is basic and basic learning content has changed a lot compared with the past. In the past, people often understood "basic knowledge" and "basic skills" as basic and basic learning contents. Today, with the increasing speed of knowledge updating, lifelong learning has become inevitable. Education, especially basic education, can no longer take imparting knowledge and skills as its basic goal and task. The function and value of basic education are being reinterpreted in the context of lifelong education, and the criteria for judging basic and basic learning content have also changed. 1996 "2 1 ~ century international education commission" clearly pointed out that in the face of future social development, education must be reorganized around four basic studies: "learn to recognize, learn to do things, learn to get along, and learn to survive". ② These four kinds of basic learning embody a concept of sustainable development when choosing educational content, and also reflect the changes of educational content from attaching importance to knowledge to forming attitudes and abilities, from static knowledge to dynamic activities, from superficial knowledge to action knowledge, and from "mastering" knowledge to "constructing" knowledge.

In the past, kindergartens have long paid attention to intelligence, only paying attention to children's intellectual development and ignoring the development of other abilities. With the deepening of early childhood education reform, comprehensive education began to enter kindergartens. As an important part of basic education, preschool education should be based on the sustainable development of children's lives and reflect the changes of educational content when choosing educational content. Although the Guiding Outline of Kindergarten Education expresses the educational contents in five relatively differentiated fields, such as health, language and society, the meaning of the content is not limited to some specific knowledge points or skill requirements, but points to the educational activities that children participate in and the "experience" or formation they hope to gain in the activities.

"Basic quality". For example, in the field of health, expressions such as "establishing a good relationship between teachers and students, making children feel warm and happy in collective activities, forming a sense of security and dependence" and "developing colorful outdoor games and sports activities, cultivating children's interest and habits in participating in sports activities, enhancing their physique and improving their adaptability to the environment" point to the study of healthy living attitudes and abilities; In the social field, the requirements such as "guiding children to participate in various collective activities ... cultivating close and cooperative attitudes towards others and society, and learning initial interpersonal skills" and "guiding children to know, experience and understand basic social behavior rules in various ways in life and activities, and learning to be self-disciplined and respect others" obviously belong to "learning to get along with others". These are "basic learning" and "basic learning" which are suitable for young children and have the most sustainable development value.

The ideal development of children, that is, the realization of the educational goal of cultivating high-quality children, depends on the beneficial learning experience they have gained in educational activities. And "any single learning can't have a very far-reaching impact on learners". Only through the accumulation of experience can children have profound changes. In order to make the learning experience produce cumulative effect, we must organize various educational factors so that they can reinforce each other. Effective education must be a reasonably organized whole or system. As the organizing principle of educational content, "integration" refers to strengthening the organic connection between content and students' learning experience, so as to help children integrate and connect all kinds of experiences gained from various aspects, fields and successively, so as to enhance their understanding of what they have learned and improve their learning effectiveness and knowledge application ability.

The choice of educational content is related to the organization of educational content, but it is not the same concept. Choosing educational content and expressing it clearly from a certain angle solves the problem of "what to teach" or "what to guide children to learn", that is, the scope and basic composition of educational content; The problems to be solved in organizing education mainly involve "how to teach" or "how to learn". On the issue of how to organize educational content, we should pay attention to strengthening the organic connection between contents, such as "mutual infiltration", "paying attention to comprehensiveness", "integrating education into life and games", "connecting with children's real life" and "infiltrating into all aspects of activities and daily life". These new ideas are to overcome our previous education that did not pay attention to "integration" or only paid attention to "combination" in form. ③

At present, the way of organizing educational content with "problems" or "projects" as the center shows advantages in realizing educational integration and is favored by preschool education circles. At the same time, we should also see that the ways of integrating educational content can also be diversified. Either way, as long as it can help children integrate and connect all kinds of experiences gained from various aspects, fields and successively, and improve the initiative and effectiveness of learning, it can be adopted. From the initial emphasis on intellectual education to the present integration of five educations, this change reflects the great progress of early childhood education in China.

(C) the transformation of educational methods

Traditionally, we are used to consistency because it is easy to manage. For a long time, the education mode of kindergarten is mainly explained by teachers, which is not essentially different from the education mode of primary school and middle school. Traditional teaching believes that the more you remember the knowledge, the better. Memorize more children's songs and know more words, and there will be more titles. Therefore, in kindergartens, teachers always ask children to "put their hands behind their backs and sit still"; "Children read after me …" and then repeat it over and over again; Also, in art class, the teacher will draw a demonstration picture on the blackboard and grade it.

Take children's paintings as the standard. This kind of education restricts and fetters children's physical and mental development.

With the deepening of early childhood education reform, kindergartens have gradually abandoned this rigid educational method that is not suitable for children's physical and mental development. Modern teaching requires teachers to carry out reflective teaching and change the traditional knowledge-imparting teaching into an open teaching mode of heuristic and discussion. Educator Suhomlinski once said: "In my opinion, teaching students to acquire new knowledge with the help of existing knowledge is one of the highest teaching skills." Therefore, kindergartens began to adopt flexible and diverse teaching methods, allowing children to freely choose the content and methods of activities, partners, opinions, appreciation education, efforts to discover children's bright spots, and encouragement to guide children to explore and innovate. In teaching activities, guide children to explore in the attempt and learn in the exploration. Actively encourage children to master knowledge, develop cognitive ability and mobilize their initiative and enthusiasm in learning through their own operations and attempts, so that they can change from passively accepting the knowledge taught by teachers to actively discovering and solving problems themselves, thus acquiring knowledge. The last step of the original teaching procedure "presenting the correct answer" is removed, and the children are only responsible for asking questions, and then they are allowed to feel and understand with the help of "seeing", "listening", "touching" and "tasting". For example, the teaching method in the revised kindergarten comprehensive textbook requires teachers to do so.

In teaching practice, we should actively seek the integration of learning methods, reflect on our own teaching methods, and cultivate children to learn to explore and solve problems creatively in cooperation, which is conducive to the overall improvement of children's quality and personality, so that knowledge, skills and problem-solving ability can be fully realized in diversified learning methods and students can experience the fun of learning. Generally speaking, the educational methods in kindergartens are various and should serve the educational purpose of kindergartens. Of course, there are still many problems in the actual operation, but it has changed a lot compared with before.

(d) Changes in the relationship between teachers and children

Since the emergence of education, the relationship between teachers and children has been concerned. The discussion on the role of teachers is one of the trends of preschool education research in the world today. In early childhood education, the relationship between teachers and children is the closest and deepest. Not only in educational activities and game activities, but also in washing, eating, going to the toilet and sleeping. There is always a connection between teachers and children. In this close connection, children not only have respect, trust and worship for teachers, but also have attachment to maternal love. On the other hand, teachers have the dignity of being a teacher, the tenderness of motherhood, and the indispensable childlike innocence and childlike interest.

In the traditional early childhood education, the teacher's role either only tends to be the caretaker of life, the provider of environment and the observer of activities, or plays the role of teacher, manager and controller too much. Now the ideal role of preschool teachers has begun to walk out of these two extremes. They are neither "nannies" and playmates in the general sense, nor "educators", "preachers, lecturers and confusers" in the strict sense. Teachers are not authoritative, not the owners and teachers of knowledge and skills in the traditional sense, and children are not passively accepting teachers' language and cultural transmission. To borrow a sentence from Huggins, a teacher is a person who "gives learners and learning value with a professional eye". (2) The so-called "professional vision" refers to the pre-school education's understanding of professional knowledge, facing things, events, behaviors, materials and situations. In the surrounding living environment, it is necessary to analyze with reliable professional knowledge and opinions.

Ability to judge and discover the significance and value of education; And "give learners and learning a price"

On the one hand, "value" means that children feel that their learning activities are "important" and meaningful through the teacher's behavior; On the other hand, it means that teachers should help and promote children's development and improve the level of children's learning activities through appropriate ways. Therefore, only by paying attention to children's individual differences, understanding children's needs, interests and potential development possibilities, and creating a good environment for children's "self-development" can teachers flexibly play the most appropriate role of active interaction with children in education. Teachers should establish equal and friendly teacher-student relationship with children and observe their daily life with love, patience and care. Guide all the problems found by children; Cooperate with children to solve all problems; To support children's bold innovation and free exploration.

The relationship between teachers and children is complementary. They ask questions, listen and answer each other. Teachers and children are completely equal. There is a metaphor: "catch the ball thrown by the child." It means that teachers should listen to and pay attention to children, and teachers should talk with children sincerely. The relationship between teachers and children is just like that between teachers and children in a table tennis match. One side hits the ball, the other side receives the ball, and then gives it to the other side ... The two sides are equal and cooperative, both are subjects, and there is no distinction between high and low status. (2) This kind of interaction includes the inspiration and collision of wisdom, the exchange of experience and the enjoyment of emotion, and everyone can feel the support from the other side. This may be the best embodiment of the role orientation of teachers as equals. As the "chief among equals", the role of teachers in the traditional sense has not been completely denied, but has been reconstructed. They have changed from children's external situation to children's life, integration and existence.

Teachers are children's partners, listeners, supporters, guides, learners and researchers. Teachers are a group of professional people, giving children and learning value with professional eyes. Although teachers and children have different social roles and status, their personalities are equal in the process of education. Create a new atmosphere with wholehearted love and establish a new relationship between teachers and students, so that children can explore freely and grow up healthily and happily in this equal environment and friendly relationship between teachers and students.

Preschool period is a period with great development potential, fragility and easy to be misled. This is a time when adults need careful care and protection, but also need to cultivate their own curiosity and desire to explore. As a pre-school education institution, kindergartens are bound to shoulder arduous and important responsibilities-providing education for children's development. Of course, in the specific process of educational practice, as a front-line preschool educator, there are often many problems. And problems are always emerging, solve this and solve that. It is in this case that teachers should learn to reflect.

Reflection is a process in which teachers take their own teaching activities as the object of thinking, and analyze and examine their own behaviors, decisions and the resulting results. Teachers' educational ideas are often unknown to teachers because of their implicit characteristics. Reflection allows teachers to carefully observe and analyze their own behaviors and children's reactions in the process of education, so as to reflect and think about their own ideas. Therefore, teachers' self-reflection helps teachers to clarify their own inherent educational concepts, enhance their understanding of the interactive relationship between their own educational concepts and educational practice, and thus more effectively promote the transformation of their educational concepts.

Many teachers' ideas about preschool education are implicit, and it is not easy for teachers to realize themselves.

Here you are. Therefore, teachers should pay attention to improving the sensitivity of self-awareness when reflecting on their own educational ideas.

In addition, teachers' emotion is the result of teachers' ideas responding to objective stimuli, and it is also a reflection of whether external stimuli overlap or conflict with teachers' ideas. Teachers' implicit educational ideas can often be reflected through their emotional state. Preschool teachers should be good at paying attention to their emotional reactions in the process of education, so as to realize their awareness and reflection on their own ideas. ①

In the process of exploring the reform and development of preschool education today, we should consider how to innovate, how to change the traditional concept of preschool education, and how to change the traditional and outdated models and methods. Fundamentally change the previous early childhood education that pays more attention to care than training; Pay attention to the training of knowledge and skills, but ignore the cultivation of moral feelings and good habits; Pay more attention to intellectual education than other education; Pay attention to the staged education in the park, ignoring the lifelong nature of early childhood education and the utilization of family and social education resources; Emphasis on single-subject experiments, ignoring the status quo of comprehensive and holistic reform. Clarify and promote the goals and principles of early childhood education, establish innovative ideas, innovative mechanisms, innovative methods and innovative spirit of early childhood education in the new period, and strive to create an environment and conditions suitable for the development of innovative education.

To change the concept of education is to combine the concept with practice, never say one thing, but do more. In this way, our preschool education will take off even more. When we carefully read and deeply understand the new Guiding Outline of Kindergarten Education, we deeply feel that the Outline contains the idea of "children's development", thus showing us a new milestone in the renewal of the concept of preschool education. Children's world is a unique cultural world, in which every child is unique. Children's education should also be a wonderful flower in the whole education world. In this world, every child should be respected and get the status and rights he deserves. As a teacher who really cares about children's lives, he should also greet those immature and pure life bodies with a tender love, full of confidence and expectation. Raise children to grow sturdily with the sunshine of "scientific maternal love".