Tatiana N. Le-van

Background. The foundation of any preschool educational practice is built upon implicitly embedded assumptions about a child’s psychological characteristics and developmental pathways. This may constitute not a systematic but rather an eclectic set of beliefs with poorly understood foundations; however, for effective practice, education must be grounded in a holistic system of psychological views based on a sound psychological conception. Furthermore, the conception itself, as it evolves, requires continuous reflection on its key tenets, including through the process of their interpretation in various practical implementations. The transfer of a scientific theory into a different cultural and linguistic space is of particular interest for its development. Yet, understanding the specifics of such a transfer necessitates dedicated research methodologies.

Objectives. This paper presents the authors’ original model for analyzing the representation of ideas from Lev Vygotsky’s Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) in scientific discourse and educational practice. The aim of developing this model is to enrich the understanding of CHAT ideas within national preschool education systems by examining how they exist within the context of both the target and the original scientific traditions and educational systems.

Sample. Hong Kong, representing a unique blend of cultural traditions, was selected as the testing ground for the model. Based on developed criteria, a sample of 50 open-access scientific, regulatory, and methodological texts in English by Hong Kong authors was selected.

Methods. The study was conducted through a textual analysis of these documents according to the authors’ model, which implies analyzing the presence of references to the founder of CHAT and his followers, the use of the theory’s key concepts, and the context of their application — whether for scientific discussion or practical development.

Results. The testing of the model demonstrated its applicability for analyzing the representation of CHAT ideas in the scientific discourse and educational practice of Hong Kong. The model allows for tracing the trajectory of Vygotsky’s influence on scientific discourse and educational practice, as well as the connection between scientific discourse and practical application.

Conclusions. The model can be applied to advance preschool education in various countries.

The article presents an analytical review of the systems of external independent evaluation of preschool education quality in the United States and Singapore. Special attention is given to the specifics of National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) as well as programs like STARS (Pennsylvania, USA) and SPARK (Singapore). The key characteristics of external quality assessment in these countries include voluntary participation, the presence of a PR component (so that parents understand how to navigate in a variety of kindergartens), support of leadership qualities and training managers within organizations, the use of standardized rating scales (e.g., ECERS-R), which have been recognized by the international community and focus more on evaluating environmental performance rather than children’s results. So the review of the foreign practices of organizing pre-school education quality assessment helps us to better understand how to form our national system of independent expert examination of pre-school education in the most productive way. This is all the more relevant now that Russia is engaged in laying down a new regulatory framework and elaborating a social mandate for high quality educational services.

The article provides an analytic review of the Swedish and German independent preschool education quality assessment systems. Special attention is paid to the role of the founder of a kindergarten in organizing expert examination of the work and training of managers and educators, as well as the use of standardized assessment scales (KESR and KRIPSR, which are modified ECERS scale versions). Despite their specific educational conditions such as decentralized control over nurseries, the Swedish and German systems of independent preschool education quality assessment may serve as an interesting example for local specialists. International experience shows that the external quality assessment by the founders can be combined with both independent evaluation carried out by a special expert community, and with the self-assessment of organizations involved. If the expert community has developed substantive priorities and quality perceptions, including those based on analyzing the standardized international assessment scales, the head of a kindergarten may apply a monitoring procedure which is the most convenient at the moment in order to obtain a wide range of opportunities to improve the educational environment in the daycare center.

This article presents the findings of research on the quality of early childhood education and care in Moscow. This research is based on insight into the quality of early childhood education and care built in to The Federal State Educational Standard for Preschool Education and the cultural-historical ideas of L. Vygotsky. The main aim of this field research is to investigate “the strong points” and drawbacks of early childhood education and care in the capital city. The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS-R) is used as an instrument of field research. The results are based on a random sample of 36 preschools and kindergartens in one of the districts of Moscow. The research gathers data about the most comfortable and least comfortable aspects of the learning environment in the preschools and kindergartens of Moscow. Taking into consideration the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standards, the findings of the research revealed that the most important line of learning environment development in preschool and kindergarten are individual early care and education program, support for the independence of children, the creation of a more available and mobile environment, and optimal conditions for the development of thinking, imagination and child creativity.

Introduction. The paper examines the necessity of public urban playgrounds for children. Psychological and pedagogical studies reveal that the quantity and quality of outdoor play areas do not cover the needs of children. The authors monitored playgrounds in different areas of Moscow, Russia in order to explore the actual situation in the urban space from the perspective of well balanced development and spontaneous outdoor learning of children of different ages. They looked into how existing public playgrounds covered the needs of children, and if the outdoor learning was possible.

Methods. The study had two stages. The data was collected by structured non-participant observation with interview elements in which 24 public playgrounds in Moscow were involved, 417 adults were interviewed. The authors carried out an analysis of the equipment of playgrounds, and children activities to determine whether and how far playgrounds were used for communication in mixed age groups.

Analysis and Results. The authors analyzed characteristics of playgrounds, including: location, observation time, age and number of visitors, equipment and its arrangement, presented play areas and infrastructure, surface materials, individual and group activities of children and adults. The observation discovered that children of three different ages (early, preschool and school age) were using public playgrounds at the same time. The vast majority of the playgrounds near apartment blocks (76.9%) and almost a half of the playgrounds in parks (45.5%) had separated play areas for children of different ages, which largely meets the needs of parents. The qualitative analysis revealed that the equipment of the park playgrounds was more diverse, while almost a half of the playgrounds near apartment blocks (53.8%) showed one and the same type of equipment. The authors emphasize that, both playgrounds near apartment blocks and playgrounds in parks, were more focused on active exercises; most components of the equipment were of the same type and had closed character. The authors discovered lack of equipment for experimenting. The infrastructure of the playgrounds of both types showed that the playgrounds were considered as a space for children only, the interests and needs of adults coming with children were not taken into account.

Conclusion. The study indicates the need to create additional conditions for supporting and developing of children’s game, and increasing educational capacity of playgrounds. Among the measures proposed by the authors is increasing the educational capacity of playgrounds, and creating a citywide digital resource with a map and description of psychological and pedagogical characteristics of outdoor areas for children. An important role is given to educational work with families, that will increase the parental competence and responsibility in the field of educational structuring and outdoor learning.

Introduction. The article presents the results of empirical research of teacher’s interaction with children at preschool age within the resolution of ethically controversial situations. To identify typical problems in the resolving of such conflicts we made the investigation with specially elaborated questionnaire and observation in six educational organisations of Moscow (in the survey 30 respondents participated: educators and managers).

Methods of the survey. To conduct the survey we developed the questionnaire based on the Code of Ethics of Singapore and the Handbook for Early Childhood Professionals, translated and adapted by the authors. In the process of questioning participants were requested to analyze 14 problem situations, and were asked to give examples of ethical dilemmas from their own working practice in kindergartens. In total we obtained the description of 25 situations.

Methods of observation. The observation was conducted in 8 preschool groups of different educational organisations using Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS-R) taking into account the parameters for the interaction.

Key results and conclusion. General characteristics of problem ethical situations were identified and described. Namely: analyzing the proposed ethical dilemmas respondents rather defend the correctness of one of the conflicting parties than offer a solution that takes into account boath conflicting interests; offering solutions to problem situations, respondents do not appeal to professional values; the surveyed teachers are dominated by the desire to settle the conflict here and now in authoritarian way, but not to arrange dialogue of different points of view; negative attitude to conflicts dominates. The conflict is not perceived as a natural component of the educational process, but as an evidence of the error of a teacher, a parent or a child. Consequently, the predominant setting “to avoid conflict anyway” or to suppress existing ones rather increases conflict interaction than the productivity of communication.

One of the major challenges of the mainstream professional development programs is their focus on mastering individual knowledge and technologies instead of creating conditions for the development of teachers themselves. In particular, instead of their critical thinking and reflection, while it is reflexion that allows teachers to qualitatively change the educational process, while keeping in focus both children’s interests and abilities and cultural development objectives. This article addresses approaches to the understanding of self-reflexion and proposes a model of self-reflexive professional action. The authors, following the logic of the cultural-historical approach by Lev Vygotsky, Daniil Elkonin and Georgy Shchedrovitsky, consider the visual model of the results of children’s development, the visual model of professional action, the model of self-reflexive solution, the positions of the “defender”, the “critique” and the “voice of the child” as the means for the development of self-reflexion. The use of these tools became the basis for a specially developed program of professional development for early childhood teachers, in which teachers are offered the following tasks: immersion in children’s activities, analysis of video of both own and others’ practices, and the creation of “Navigators”. The article also presents such a tool for studying reflexive observation as a “Professional Eyewear”, which allows to evaluate such aspects of self-reflexive action as the ability to orientate oneself to the tasks of children’s development, the ability to observe children and the ability to see the causal connection between the actions of a teacher and the behavior and emotions of children. The annex to the article formulates the main stages and principles of building a program aimed at the development of self-reflection among teachers.

Relevance (context) of the article. Play is important not only for the full life of preschool childhood, but also for the formation of psychological readiness for school. Play support is one of the key aspects of high-quality practice. At the same time, the analysis of existing studies shows that the level of development of preschool children’s play remains low, and the conditions for it are at a minimum level. To change this situation, an objective analysis of the practice is necessary, highlighting the strengths and points of growth.

The aim of the study. Development and testing of the scale “Support for Children’s Play” (SCP) as a tool for assessing and developing the quality of the educational environment of the kindergarten.

Description of the research progress. A scale was developed and tested, consisting of 97 indicators, grouped into 7 indicators. The scale design corresponds to the instruments of the ECERS family. The course of instrument validation in 32 preschool groups is described: checking the internal consistency of the instrument (Alpha-Cronbach), reliability by the method of inter-expert consistency, checking the validity and determining the discriminative function by the method of contrast groups (the significance of differences in the Welch-modification t-tests and the Mann-Whitney shift criteria).

Research results. Statistical analysis showed that the scale has good internal consistency (Alpha-Cronbach coefficient = 0.89), validity (differences between contrast groups are significant at the level of 0.01, p-value = 7.294e-06 according to Welch-t-test, p-value = 0.0002733 according to Wilcoxon test) and sufficient reliability (the average model of deviations of paired inter-expert assessments was 0.47 points, which is significantly lower than the standard deviation for the total score of the entire sample (sd = 1.1695).

Conclusion. The SCP scale can be applied not only for external expert assessment and self-assessment, but also as a tool for the professional development of a teacher in order to reflect on his own strategy for supporting the play and finding growth points. The article proposes measures to improve the tool in order to increase reliability, including the development of a training program for experts.

The relevance of the topic of the article. For the wide educational practice of kindergartens, the question of the psychological mechanisms of creative thinking is fundamental, since their formation begins precisely at the age of three to five years. If during this period of a person’s life the educational process is structured in such a way that the child’s creative thinking is not supported or even suppressed, then it will be very difficult, and sometimes impossible, to compensate for gaps in cognitive development at later life stages. It should be emphasized that, as a rule, teachers do not support creative thinking or even act to the detriment of it precisely because of a lack of understanding of the key principles of its development, which, in particular, are related to ensuring a balance of activities that actualize formal-logical, dialectical and symbolic structures of thinking.

The aim of the study. The work is aimed at identifying the features of the structure of cognitive abilities that make up the complex mechanism of creative thinking, which is one of the basic problems of psychology of cognitive development today. The question is posed of how dialectical thinking, formal logic and the ability to symbolize are related in preschool age. The assumption is verified that the use of Piaget’s tools, focused on fixing reversibility relations and the formation of the phenomenon of preservation, will reveal new aspects of the relationship between formal-logical and dialectical thought structures.

Description of the research progress. 272 preschoolers from Moscow and other regions of the Russian Federation were individually diagnosed. For data processing, methods of correlation analysis and verification of the independence of parameters according to the Pearson’s chi-squared criterion were applied.

Research results. The results of the study showed that the connection between the three lines of cognitive development of preschoolers is traced more consistently in relation to formal and dialectical thinking. With regard to symbolization, the connections are less consistent. The article concludes that normative, transformative and symbolic abilities are relatively independent lines in the cognitive development of preschoolers.

Conclusion. The data obtained indicate the complexity and heterogeneity of the mechanism of creative thinking and the heterogeneous structure of relationships between formal-logical and dialectical structures, as well as the ability to symbolize. Therefore, the program for the development of creative thinking for preschoolers should have a balanced character: by influencing one type of structures, we cannot expect that the rest will also develop as a result of this influence. To actualize the complex mechanism of a child’s creative thinking in the pedagogical terms, it is necessary to design problem situations together with the children, the resolution of which requires both the use of formal and dialectical logic and the ability to invent symbols, images, metaphors.

Relevance. In the modern world more researchers and practitioners from different fields are preoccupied with the changing the shape of a child in society: a child is not an object of pedagogical influence, but a subject whose opinion is valuable and should be taken into account when making decisions that directly concern him. The possibility for children to be heard at preschool age is an important basis for the development of civic competencies that do not appear by themselves at an older age. At the same time, the researchers also note that there is a gap between the recognition of the value of child and real practice. The possibility not only to hear the voices of young children, but also to make them visible and significant in society, to offer children the means of expressing their opinions is a methodological challenge for researchers and practitioners of preschool education, which requires special competencies.

The aim of the study is to analyze modern studies and projects devoted to the professional competencies of a teacher and the conditions accompanying their development necessary for the implementation of the principle of participation in educational practice.

Description of the research progress. 19 studies and projects were analyzed from the point of view of the possibilities and limitations of the implementation of the principle of participation in educational practice. Two key aspects were identified: the possibilities and limitations of the implementation of the principle of participation in educational practice, which include teachers’ ideas about participation and the influence of the broader context of the community and organizational culture, and professional competencies of teachers necessary for support their participation in kindergarten and primary school, and approaches to their development.

The results of the study. In the article the problem of implementing the principle of participation is considered not only in the context of the structure of a separate preschool group, but also in the organizational culture of the kindergarten as a whole. The authors conclude that it is necessary to reflect on the ideas of participation in order to create conditions for its support in kindergarten, as well as the need for a comprehensive study of factors related to the organizational culture of the kindergarten, which can influence the development of participatory practices. Based on the analysis, two groups of pedagogical competencies were identified: general competencies necessary to create basic conditions for participation, and more specific competencies necessary to empower children’s opportunities to influence decision-making.

Conclusion. The article formulates recommendations for training preschool teachers and kindergarten teams.