Svetlana N. Nikolaeva

Problems of proper attitude towards nature and its resources have never been more urgent than today, which proves that so far people didn’t quite master productive and safe interrelations among themselves and with the surrounding world. One of the answers to this problem is systematic ecological education, which is intended to form ecological thinking and ecological culture in preschoolers and their caretakers.

The article discusses the results of an experiment that was conducted in two Moscow’s kindergartens in 2009–2011. Its purpose was to show that well-organized ecological education forms the basics of ecological culture and develops children intellectually. The current ecological situation urges not only children, but also grownups to have properly developed ecological culture. Proper intellectual development, on the other hand, is the prerequisite for successful preparation of preschoolers for school. During an academic year children witness cyclic nature of plants and observe animals in kindergarten’s “pet corner”, watch and discuss seasons and fill weather calendars, inevitably establishing and learning causative connections existing in nature. All these activities engage children’s perceptual, cognitive and emotional spheres, developing their thinking, analytic abilities and speech. Special emphasis is made on developing children’s ability to construct generalizations and separate different notions.

The article is devoted to the process of integration - a relatively new phenomenon in Russian pedagogy. It is noted that currently few steps towards uniting the various components of education – content of education, means and methods of training and education that would ensure the formation of a child’s coherent picture of the world – were made. Implementation of the Program of kindergarten and educational activities with children are made through special structural units - “educational areas”, which are according to a new Educational standard of Russia described as “certain lines of development and education of children”. The experience of the teachers of kindergarten № 1012 of Moscow in the sphere of ecological education of children in different age groups helped to integrate different activities for preschool children in the frame of the program “Young Ecologist”. An example of one class which presents the integration of various educational areas is described.

The article is devoted to the elaboration of a methodological guidance for environmental education of preschool children. It provides a theoretical analysis of issues in preschool institution guidance, in general, and environmental education, in particular. It explains the need for a new approach – “analytical and corrective interaction” (ACI) – in the methodological guidance of environmental education in a preschool center aiming at care-givers’ professional and personal self-development, enhancing their environmental culture and its formation of the latter in children. It discloses the essence, content and procedural algorithm of analytical and corrective interaction, the specificity and sequence of its implementation stages. The article discusses the results of testing the new approach to methodical guidance, specific features of ACI implementation in practice, the content of a methodologist’s activity, the nature of his management, which determines the efficiency of interaction, manifestations of teachers in the process of experimentation. It shows this unique methodology of environmental education as a relatively new trend in preschool pedagogy which forms the basis of a system of working with children and which should be communicated to kindergarten teachers in the process of analytical and corrective interaction. The results of the study make it possible to determine the effectiveness of ACI research and experimental testing. The article is addressed to environmentalists, methodologists of preschool educational institutions, students and teachers at teacher training institutions and researchers.

This article considers theoretical and experimental materials, revealing the role of ecological education technologies for the systematic implementation of this movement in kindergarten, which provides the establishment of ecological culture in children. It gives the foundation of the term “pedagogic technology” and its application in the pedagogic-ecological process in kindergarten. Pedagogical technology is examined as a part of the educational process, as a system of educational activities that is planned for the entire year and presented in detail so that other preschool teachers can implement it many times in different conditions of the educational process. The article shows the core role of ecological education technology in children 3–7 years old, and also its central importance for the innovative model of ecological education management.