Relevance (context) of the subject of the article. The article presents the results of a study of the problem of social development of a preschooler as a subject of activity and behavior in a preschool educational organization. Ensuring effective social development of the child is an important aspect of modern preschool education. It involves teaching children social interaction, the formation of the initial foundations of social competence. For this, in the organizations of preschool education, it is necessary to create a developing space for the formation of the child’s social experience. However, the organization of the process of social development has not yet acquired a complete conceptual, methodological and technological basis. The possibility of preschool children manifesting subjectivity in the process of social development is largely limited, and the educational environment of preschool educational institutions does not sufficiently provide a developmental component.
The purpose of the study is to determine conceptual approaches to the social development of preschoolers and the readiness of preschool educators to implement it. The understanding of the characteristics of social development and the psychological and pedagogical conditions necessary for its implementation was analyzed by teachers.
Description of the research. The study involved 48 educators from 5 preschool educational organizations in Birsk, Republic of Bashkortostan. Educators were asked to answer questions that reflect their understanding of the characteristics of the child’s social development, its organization. In the course of the research, a specially developed questionnaire was used.
Research results. Issues in the understanding by teachers of preschool educational organizations of the peculiarities of organizing the process of social development of preschoolers were revealed. The formation of subjectivity presupposes the construction of internal culture, internal freedom and true sociality. The basis and driving force of the social development of the individual is joint activity, in which the individual assimilates social roles. The article reveals the initial provisions about the child as a subject of children’s activities and behavior in preschool age, methods of social development of preschoolers.
Conclusions. The study allows us to see the need for changes in the implementation of social development in preschool education. Important aspects of the transformations, based on the concept of the child’s development as a subject during preschool childhood, are updating the content of social development in preschool education, types of children’s activities, the development of new forms and methods of interaction between the teacher and children. Among the methods and technologies of social development, the leading should be active and interactive, in which the child acts as a subject. For this purpose, a heuristic, productive educational environment should be created in preschool educational organizations.