2017, 8
2017, 8
p. 4–11
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1014
This article deals with the nature of partnerships with parents as a condition for the quality of preschool education. According to the legal framework, parents are customers of preschool services and interaction with them should determine the efficiency of educational organizations. Preschool organizations in the Association of Educators and Psychologists of the Education Division in Leninskiy District in Yekaterinburg regularly examined the understanding of educators about transformations in the modern parent-child relationship. The results of this monitoring show that in the last few years the main problem of interaction within families is parents’ delegation of their own responsibility for the child and the development of “parental helplessness”. Therefore, most preschools focus on the improvement of psychological and pedagogical culture for the young parents. The main goal of the work in kindergarten №26 Yekaterinburg’s Leninskiy District was to train educators for interaction with a child’s family in accordance with the ECERS-R. The conditions of a partnership between the kindergarten and the families of the children were defined on the basis of observation, questionnaires, monitoring and the sub-scale “Parents and Staff” of the ECERS-R. The research consisted of many stages and included an introduction to the concept of quality in the field of education, the design of a common criteria for work with families and modern mechanisms for interaction with the parents. As a result, the system of partnerships with parents was designed. It creates the conditions for various types of family involvement in the child’s life in kindergarten and a regular informative exchange between parents and educators for the improvement of the parent-child relationship. The article presents the specific practical experience of a partnership between educators and parents and the issues of implementation in the kindergarten curriculum.
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2017, 8
p. 12–23
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731
This article presents findings from theoretical research on the issues of studies with children conducted by educators in terms of applying psychological and pedagogical characterization as a strategy. The aim of this study is to uncover the specifics of applying this strategy and compare it with the strategy of observation. The methodological basis is activity and competency-based approaches, whereas the main method of study is a theoretical analysis of the psychological and pedagogical body of literature on this issue. As a result of the research, an understanding of the above mentioned strategy in the entirety of its aims, principles, milestones, and outcomes was achieved. The study shows that psychological and pedagogical characterization as a strategy for the study of children follows the general logic of scientific research in terms of the sequence of its stages (planning, content-organization, analytic-outcome, and prognostic) and that it is implemented through special diagnostic terms of reference. A diagram of the characterization, the structure of which reflects the complex of aims and stages in the study of a child, functions as guidance for the strategy. Part of the diagram describes the most significant markers and directions of psychological development (the level of achievement for different kinds of activity; cognitive, speech, social, and motor development; the particularities of a child’s personality and their individuality) as the basis for a psychological portrait of the child. The resulting part of the diagram includes conclusions drawn from the comparison and synthesis of the obtained facts according to the principles of scientific research and a tentative prediction of a child’s further development. The improvement of the algorithm for evaluating the text of the characterization according to the aims and principles of its composition is an important direction for the perfection of the strategy. The criteria of the characterization are the integrity of the child’s psychological portrait, the quality of conclusions and established pedagogical recommendations, and the position of the educator in their interaction with the child at the information gathering stage.
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2017, 8
p. 24–31
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388
This article presents the findings of research aimed at exploring the particularities of preschoolers’ drawing using both traditional (paper, pencils, markers etc.) and electronic (tablets) means. Children of preschool age participated in this project. Both participant observation and expert assessment were used for evaluating the drawing process and the products of the preschoolers’ artistic activity through electronic and traditional means. Melik-Pashaev’s “Skyline” method was used for participant observation. For expert assessment a 5-point scale was used to evaluate the children’s works from the perspective of their aesthetic appeal. The children’s behavior during drawing both on paper and on tablets were evaluated along with their pictures. A quality and quantity analysis of 26 electronically and traditionally drawn pictures by preschoolers was conducted. The data allows us to draw the following conclusion: that while children were equally interested in drawing on paper and on the tablets, the duration of drawing, emotional involvement, and engagement in the drawing process was higher when children drew on paper. Children get more pleasure and satisfaction from drawing on paper than from drawing on tablets. Children’s actions during drawing with tablets look more like experimentation than visual art. The experts’ quantitative assessment of factors like the existence of a subject, level of detail, and compositional perfection show better outcomes for pictures on paper than on tablets.
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2017, 8
p. 32–41
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1130
This article deals with the issues of developing pedagogical culture in the rural preschool educator in terms of the standardization of preschool education system, highlighting the basic contradictions caused by the standardization of preschool education in rural kindergartens. It explores the particularities of the sociocultural village environment, which is more conservative, traditional and consistent and is distinguished by the integrity of national identity, as well as inner spiritual wealth. The study identifies specific particularities and issues of rural preschools in the Oryol region in the context of the standardization of the preschool education system. These include: not being comprehensive, not having enough educators equipped for children with special needs, lack of technical and financial support, and that the early childhood environment is insufficiently developed. A low level of pedagogical culture in rural preschool educators has also been revealed. Different approaches by modern scientists to the definition of “pedagogical culture” were analyzed, which enabled researchers to identify its structural components. The following structural components of the pedagogical culture of the rural preschool educator were identified: value-based, cognitive, innovative, technological, and personal-creative. The following diagnostic methods are used to examine the level of development of pedagogical culture of rural preschool educators according to the given criteria: A test-questionnaire for evaluating the need for achievements (Orlov Y., 2001); techniques for measuring the empathy of teachers (Yusupov I., 2002); evaluation of the capability for self-development and self-education (Nemova N., 2011); the test “Creativity” (Vishnyakova N.F., 2012). The structural components of pedagogical culture are interpreted in the article as integrative properties of the personality of the rural educator. The author presents the methodology and results of the study on the level of indicators for the components of pedagogical culture in rural preschool educators. The discussion is presented, findings are analyzed, and further prospects of work are outlined.
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2017, 8
p. 50–57
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317
The phenomenon of imaginary companions (ICs) has received little attention in developmental psychology, even though it can be observed in approximately 25% of preschool-aged children. Only a few studies have investigated the effect of ICs on children’s theory of mind and emotion understanding, and the results are partial or inconsistent. This study used comprehensive measures to assess emotional understanding and theory of mind in children aged four to six with ICs (N = 24) and compared their performance to that of children without ICs (N = 24). Results showed that children with ICs, regardless of age and gender, have a better theory of mind and emotion understanding than children without ICs. The greatest impact of ICs was on girls’ emotion understanding. The results are discussed in relation to gender differences.
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